It might have been a bad night for streamers, blockbusters and horror movies, but last night’s Oscars was another excellent year for the Cannes film festival.
The major winner, Anora, which picked up five awards including best picture, best director and best actress, was a Palme d’Or winner at last May’s edition and became only the fourth recipient to go on to a best picture Oscar.
History has shown that the Academy tends to favour films that launch at Venice later in the year, seen as the unofficial kick-off to the fall festival circuit where Oscar narratives gain momentum (previous premieres such as Birdman, 12 Years a Slave, Nomadland, Spotlight and The Shape of Water all went on to win best picture). But Cannes has felt its presence known more and more in recent years.
Last season, The Zone of Interest, Killers of the Flower Moon, Anatomy of a Fall, Perfect Days, Four Daughters and Robot Dreams all turned a Croisette bow into either an Oscar nomination or a win while this year it wasn’t just Anora that followed the same route. Other big Cannes winners last night included Flow, The Substance and Emilia Pérez, while nominees included The Apprentice, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, The Girl with the Needle and short The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent.
With nine wins out of 31 nominations, it’s believed to be a record year at the Oscars for Cannes movies.
It makes for a stark comparison with last year’s Venice film festival. The Brutalist and I’m Still Here might have followed through, winning four between them last night, but big bets such as Babygirl, Queer, The Room Next Door and Joker: Folie à Deux failed to impress the Academy while 5 September picked up only a solo screenplay nom and the Angelina Jolie vehicle Maria scored just one below-the-line nod. There were even fewer wins from Telluride, which takes place just after, with Conclave and Nickel Boys gaining Oscar recognition and only The Wild Robot could find nominations from Toronto.
The swerve toward Cannes grew apparent back in 2020 when Parasite became the first Palme d’Or winner to take best picture since 1955’s Marty. As the first foreign language film to win that Oscar, it also became an emblem of a new, more global Academy. With changes made to the voter base in recent years, more than 75 countries are now represented with 20% living outside of the US. Since Parasite, foreign language Oscar contenders have been on the rise, many of them coming straight from Cannes.
There’s an inherent risk in a Cannes premiere with audiences as likely to give you a standing ovation as they are to boo you out of the Palais and, for a film hoping to score with the Academy, a May launch can leave you with nine months of momentum to maintain. But recent years have shown that a longer runway can be a good thing, rubbishing the idea that Oscar films must premiere in the last quarter. Coda was at Sundance in January, Everything Everywhere All at Once was at SXSW in March and Oppenheimer was released in July, all showing the strength of getting into the conversation that bit earlier.
For a film like Anora, its place as a frontrunner took a while to establish, given what an odd and for many, underwhelming, season it’s been. It had always been received well but was an unlikely choice for a number of reasons – sex, nudity, 479 uses of the word “fuck” – and felt like a safer bet for Critics Circle and Independent Spirit awards. But its early launch meant that it was allowed the time to slowly make its way around, from Toronto to San Sebastian to New York to London festivals, and as few competitors arrived to challenge, it emerged as one of the most universally acclaimed films of the year and its sharper edges started to soften. It didn’t seem like an Oscar movie on first glance but that very definition has shifted thanks again to a voter base more willing to take a risk. It also made for a notable return to the lower-budgeted new normal of the Oscars after Oppenheimer made for a more traditional blockbuster winner last year.
Last night also saw the Oscars, and host Conan O’Brien, poke fun at the streamers, rewarding films that were theatrically released and giving four awards to Sean Baker, the most vocal proponent of the cinema experience outside of maybe Tom Cruise and Christopher Nolan. Cannes has similarly found itself at odds with streamers like Netflix, demanding all films have a theatrical release in order to feature, barring certain titles from a splashy premiere. It’s an alignment that pushes other festivals, without such restrictions, even further away.
The big swings being taken by auteurs working on independently financed projects have become what the Academy now seems to reward and while these are still seen at other festivals (Sundance has seen A Real Pain, Past Lives and 20 Days in Mariupol impress the Academy recently), Cannes matches these films with a more glamorous and attention-securing kick-off (not a beanie hat or snow boots in sight). Venice has increasingly opted for bigger Hollywood stars and while Cannes is never immune to the charms of an A-lister in sunglasses, it remains a bit more director-led and it means that this year, all eyes will be on what or who the festival might have to offer.
It’s too early to tell, but a recently announced May release for Wes Anderson’s espionage thriller The Phoenician Scheme would suggest a spot on the lineup (the director has previously presented films such as Moonrise Kingdom, Asteroid City and The French Dispatch there) and a summer bow for Spike Lee’s thriller remake Highest 2 Lowest could also see another reunion of director and place. New films from Jim Jarmusch, Lynne Ramsay, Richard Linklater, Terrence Malick and David Lowery may also be in the running but the unexpected nature of what broke out last year means we may not be quite as aware of what’s to follow. After a season when anything seemed possible, who knows what might come next.
