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Anora, a darkly funny and touching drama about a young exotic dancer who becomes involved with a Russian oligarch's son, has won the Cannes Film Festival's top prize, the Palme d'Or.
The film by US director Sean Baker beat 21 other finalists in the competition line-up, including entries by revered directors Francis Ford Coppola and David Cronenberg.
The winner was announced on Saturday local time, at the 77th Festival de Cannes in France.
Anora continues a streak of sex worker-focused films by Baker, including the 2021 Cannes entry Red Rocket and 2017's The Florida Project starring Willem Dafoe.
He dedicated the award "to all sex workers past, present and future," while also thanking the film's star, Mikey Madison, and Samantha Quan, his wife and producer.
"This has been my life's goal, so to reach this place is … I'm going to have to do some thinking tonight about what's next," Baker told Reuters after the ceremony.
Jury president Greta Gerwig, the director behind the smash hit Barbie, called Anora an "incredibly human and humane film that captured our hearts" when announcing the award that was handed out by George Lucas, of Star Wars fame.
Lucas was on stage to receive an honorary award during the festival's closing ceremony from his longtime friend Coppola, whose passion project Megalopolis was also in competition.
"I'm just a kid who grew up in the middle of California, surrounded by vineyards, and made films in San Francisco with my friend Francis Coppola," said Lucas at the ceremony.
The Grand Prix, which is the second-highest prize after the Palme d'Or, was awarded to All We Imagine as Light, marking the first time an Indian director had won the prize.
Director Payal Kapadia's debut feature about the friendship between three women was the first Indian film in competition in 30 years.
"The fact that we could be here is a testament that if you stick to one thing and don't give up hope, then the film could possibly be made, and we are here," she said.
Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, who was in Cannes about two weeks after announcing he had gone into exile, was given a special award for The Seed of the Sacred Fig, about an Iranian court official who grows increasingly controlling and paranoid as protests begin to swell in 2022.
Emilia Pérez, a musical about a Mexican cartel boss who transitions from male to female, was doubly honoured.
Director Jacques Audiard received the jury prize on stage, while the best actress prize was expanded to include all the film's female stars, with jury member Lily Gladstone saying Emilia Pérez celebrated the "harmony of sisterhood."
Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Karla Sofia Gascón and Adriana Paz all star in the film that Vanity Fair magazine called "a movie unlike any other."
"I want to dedicate this to all the women, trans and non-trans, in the world, this is for you, for all the minorities who are not left in peace when we simply want to go on living," said Gascón, who is the first transgender actress to win the prize.
Jesse Plemons was named best actor for playing three different parts — a struggling police officer, a cult member and a man whose every action is controlled by his boss — in director Yorgos Lanthimos' film Kinds of Kindness.
Best screenplay went to The Substance, starring Demi Moore, examining the perils of youth and beauty, while Miguel Gomes took best director for Grand Tour, an eclectic trip through Asia by a British civil servant and his pursuing fiancee.
All the winners:
Palme d'Or
- Anora, directed by Sean Baker
Grand Prix
- All We Imagine as Light, directed by Payal Kapadia
Jury prize
- Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard
Best director
- Miguel Gomes for Grand Tour
Special award
- Mohammad Rasoulof for The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Best actor
- Jesse Plemons in Kinds of Kindness, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos
Best actress
- Adriana Paz
- Zoe Saldaña
- Karla Sofia Gascón
- Selena Gomez
All four women star in the film Emilia Pérez, directed by Jacques Audiard.
Best screenplay
- Coralie Fargeat for The Substance
Short Films
Palme d'Or
- The man who could not remain silent, directed by Nebojša Slijepčević
Special Mention
- Bad for a moment, directed by Daniel Soares
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard Prize
- Black Dog, directed by Guan Hu
Jury Prize
- L'historie de Souleymane, directed by Boris Lojkine
Best Director ex-aequo
- Roberto Minvervini for The Damned
- Rungano Nyoni for On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
Best actress
- Anasuya Sangaré for L'historie de Souleymane
Youth award
- Holy Cow, directed by Louise Courvoisier
Special mention
- Norah, directed by Tawfik Alzaidi
Caméra d’Or
Caméra d'Or prize
- Armand, directed by Halfdan Ullmann Tønde;
Special mention
- Mongrel, directed by Wei Liang Chiang and You Qia Yin
La Cinef
First prize
- Sunflowers Were the First ones to Know, directed by Chidanada S Naik
Joint second prize
- Out the Window Through the Wall, directed by Asya Segalovich
- The Chaos She Left Behind, directed by Nikos Kolioukos
Third prize
- BunnyHood, directed by Mansi Maheshwari
Superior Technical Commission
CST award for best artist technician
- Daria D'antonio, director of photography for Parthenope, directed by Paolo Sorrentino
CST award for best young film technician
- Evgenia Alexandrova, director of photography for The Balconettes, directed by Noémie Merlant
The 77th edition of the festival ran from May 14 to 25.
Reuters/ABC