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Sean Baker’s “Anora” wins Palme d’Or, the Cannes Film Festival’s top honor
Sean Baker’s “Anora,” a comic but devastating Brooklyn odyssey about a sex worker who marries the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, has won the Cannes Film Festival’s top award, the Palme d’Or.
Baker accepted the prize with his movie’s star, Mikey Madison, watching in the audience at the Cannes closing ceremony Saturday. The win for “Anora” marks a new high point for Baker, the director of “The Florida Project.” It’s also, remarkably, the fifth straight Palme d’Or won by indie distributor Neon, following “Parasite,” “Titane,” “Triangle of Sadness” and last year’s winner, “Anatomy of a Fall.”
“This, literally, has been my singular goal as a filmmaker for the past 30 years, so I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with the rest of my life,” said Baker, laughing.
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But Baker, the first American filmmaker to win the Palme since Terrence Mallick in 2012 with “The Tree of Life,” quickly answered that his ambition would remain to “fight to keep cinema alive.” The 53-year-old director said the world needed reminding that “watching a film at home while scrolling through your phone, answering emails and half paying attention is just not the way, although some tech companies would like us to think so.”
“So I say the future of cinema is where it started: in a movie theater,” said Baker.
While “Anora” was arguably the most acclaimed film of the festival, its win was a slight surprise. Many expected either the gentle Indian drama “All We Imagine As Light” or the Iranian film “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” to win. Both of those films also took home prizes.
It wasn’t the only jolt of the closing ceremony, though. Before George Lucas was given an honorary Palme d’Or, his old friend and sometimes collaborator Francis Ford Coppola appeared to present it to him, reuniting two of the most pivotal figures of the last half-century of American moviemaking.
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“All We Imagine As Light,” about sisterhood in modern Mumbai, won the Grand Prix, Cannes’ second-highest honor. Payal Kapadia’s second feature was the first Indian in competition at Cannes in 30 years.
The jury awarded a special prize to Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” a drama made secretly in Iran. Days ahead of the film’s premiere, Rasoulof, facing an eight-year prison sentence, fled Iran on foot. His film, which includes real footage from the 2022-2023 demonstrations in Iran, channels Iranian oppression into a family drama. The Cannes crowd met an emotional Rasoulof with a lengthy standing ovation.
Coralie Fargeat’s body horror film “The Substance,” starring Demi Moore as a Hollywood actress who goes to gory extremes to remain youthful, won for best screenplay.
“I really believe that movies can change the world, so I hope this movie will be a little stone to build new foundations,” said Fargeat. “I really think we need a revolution and I don’t think it has really started yet.”
Some thought Moore might take best actress but that award instead went to an ensemble of actors: Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz for Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Perez,” a Spanish-language musical about a Mexican drug lord who transitions to a woman. Gascón, who accepted the award, is the first trans actor to win a major prize at Cannes.
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“Emilia Perez” also won Cannes’ jury prize, giving a rare two awards at a festival where prizes are usually spread around.
Best actor went to Jesse Plemons for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness.” In the film, three stories are told with largely the same company of actors. Plemons, a standout in several chapters, didn’t attend the closing ceremony.
Portuguese director Miguel Gomes won best director for his “Grand Tour,” an Asian odyssey in which a man flees his fiancée from Rangoon in 1917.
“Sometimes I get lucky,” shrugged Gomes.
The Camera d’Or, the prize for best first feature across all of Cannes official selections, went to Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel for “Armand,” starring “The Worst Person in the World” star Renate Reinsve. Tøndel is the grandson of Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman and Norwegian actor Liv Ullman.
During the brief awards ceremony, Lucas was to be given an honorary Palme d’Or. During the festival, Cannes gave the same tribute to Meryl Streep and the Japanese anime factory Studio Ghibli.
Former President Donald Trump meandered Saturday through a list of grievances against Vice President Kamala Harris and other issues during an event intended to link his Democratic opponent to illegal border crossings.
A day after Harris discussed immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump spoke to a crowd in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, about immigration. He blamed Harris for migrants committing crimes after entering the U.S. illegally, alleging she was responsible for “erasing our border.”
“I will liberate Wisconsin from the mass migrant invasion,” he said. “We’re going to liberate the country.”
The Republican nominee also intensified his personal attacks against Harris, insulting her as “mentally impaired” and a “disaster.”
“Joe Biden became mentally impaired,” Trump said. “Kamala was born that way. She was born that way. And if you think about it, only a mentally disabled person could have allowed this to happen to our country. Anybody would know this.”
The personal attacks have been something of a trend for Trump since Harris entered the race. In July, Trump falsely questioned Harris’ racial identity during a panel with the National Association of Black Journalists.
“I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn Black and now she wants to be known as Black,” Trump said at the time. “So I don’t know, is she Indian, or is she Black?”
When asked in an interview with CBS News last month if he believes the personal attacks will hurt him with voters, he responded, “No, I don’t think so.”
Trump, meanwhile, hopes frustration over illegal immigration will translate to votes in Wisconsin and other crucial swing states. The Republican nominee has denounced people who cross the U.S.-Mexico border as “poisoning the blood of the country” and vowed to stage the largest deportation operation in American history if elected. And polls show Americans believe Trump would do a better job than Harris on handling immigration.
Trump shifted from topic to topic so quickly that it was hard to keep track of what he meant at times. He talked about the two assassination attempts against him and blamed the U.S. Secret Service for not being able to hold a large outdoor rally instead of an event in a smaller indoor space. But he also offered asides about climate change, Harris’ father, how his beach body was better than President Biden’s, and a fly that was buzzing near him.
“I wonder where the fly came from,” he said. “Two years ago, I wouldn’t have had a fly up here. You’re changing rapidly. But we can’t take it any longer. We can’t take it any longer.”
Trump repeatedly brought up Harris’ Friday event in Douglas, Arizona, where she announced a push to further restrict asylum claims beyond Biden’s executive order announced earlier this year. Harris denounced Trump’s handling of the border while president and his opposing a bipartisan border package earlier this year, saying Trump “prefers to run on a problem instead of fixing a problem.”
“I had to sit there and listen” to Harris last night Trump said, eliciting cheers. “And who puts it on? Fox News. They should not be allowed to put it on. It’s all lies. Everything she says is lies.”
Trump professed not to understand what Harris meant when she said he was responsible for taking children from their parents. Under his administration, border agents separated children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border in a policy that was condemned globally as inhumane and one that Trump himself ended under pressure from his own party.
Harris, at a rally in San Francisco, told supporters there were “two very different visions for our nation” and voters see it “every day on the campaign trail.”
“Donald Trump is the same old tired show,” she said. “The same tired playbook we have heard for years.”
She said Trump was “a very unserious man.”
“However the consequences of putting him back in the White House are extremely serious,” she said.
The Harris campaign Saturday again challenged Trump to a second debate, this time in the form of a football-themed television ad. Following his Wisconsin rally, Trump traveled to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to attend the Alabama-Georgia football game Saturday evening, and the Harris campaign premiered the ad during the game.
“Champions know its anytime, anyplace, but losers, they whine and waffle,” the ad’s narrator said.
Kendy Howard was found dead in her bathtub. While dispatched as a suicide, clues at the scene made Kootenai County authorities suspicious. Here’s a look at the case:
A 26-year marriage
Brian Wilkins
Dan and Kendy Howard had been married since 1994. By 2021, Dan Howard had gone from working as an Idaho State Trooper to working in the Alaskan oil fields for three weeks at a time.
Kendy seeks divorce
Brian Wilkins
On Jan. 28, 2021, just five days before she died, Kendy Howard picked Dan Howard up from the airport and told him she wanted a divorce. She described Dan’s reaction to a friend as having been “not good.”
Dan Howard’s call to 911
Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney
On the night of Feb. 2, 2021, at 10:43 p.m., Dan Howard called 911, screaming Kendy had shot herself. “She’s in the bathtub dead …”
The call was dispatched as a suicide.
Dan Howard at the scene
Kootenai County District Court
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Deputy Miranda Thomas was one of the first officers to arrive. Thomas said she witnessed Dan Howard screaming, crying and gagging.
Kendy Howard found in the bathtub
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office
Caption: Kendy Howard was found dead, naked in the bathtub of her home, with a gunshot wound to her head. Kendy’s gun was submerged in the bathwater.
A packed duffle bag
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office
Thomas noticed a duffle bag with what she said seemed to be women’s clothing packed inside.
A clue on the dryer
Kootenai County District Court
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Detective Jerry Northrup said that in the dryer he observed “bathmats and towels … and they were still somewhat warm,” which he said led him to question when the cycle had been started.
How did Kendy Howard really die?
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office
Kendy Howard’s gun was found in the bathtub. Investigators said they would have expected to see a lot more blood in the bathtub if she had been alive when she was shot.
Kendy’s daughter accuses Dan Howard
CBS News
When Dan Howard called his stepdaughter Brooke Wilkins with the news of Kendy’s death, investigators said they could overhear Wi accuse Dan of killing her mother. Despite their suspicions, detectives said there was not enough evidence at the scene to arrest Dan.
Dan Howard arrested
Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office
It took two years for prosecutors to build their case. In July, 2023, Dan Howard was arrested and charged with Kendy Howard’s murder.
Dan Howard on trial
Pool
On March 4, 2024, the trial of Dan Howard began. The prosecution claimed Dan had killed Kendy by putting her in a carotid restraint hold – a maneuver he had learned in his law enforcement training. The defense maintained that Kendy’s death was a suicide. After 10 days of testimony, 62 witnesses, and just over eight hours of deliberations, a verdict was reached.
Dan Howard found guilty
On March 19, 2024, the jury found Dan Howard guilty of second-degree murder and domestic battery.
Life in prison
Pool
At Dan Howard’s sentencing hearing in May 2024, Judge Lamont Berecz told him, “You killed a mother. You killed a grandmother. You killed a sister … You snuffed that out because of your own pride, greed, and anger.” Dan Howard was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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