Entertainment
Longest standing ovations at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival
The overly indulgent – but undoubtedly important – tradition of the standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival has led to polarizing sentiments among filmmakers, critics and industry executives.
“I hate it because it reduces a film to a single data point, but it’s a very sticky data point,” said an executive at a major US indie distributor. The Hollywood Reporter in May. “People remember: ‘That film got a ten-minute standing ovation at Cannes.’ ”
Despite the fact that the procedure is often mocked, this is indisputable has become a barometer of how films are perceived. There is no exact science as to how the standing ovation is recorded, but premieres are largely attended by industry professionals who time the applause with a stopwatch. Different critics have different rules and regulations for how they clock each respective audience.
For THRare the guidelines to “start the clock at the moment people jump to their feet – usually after the house lights come on – and stop when most people sit down or when the film’s director gets the microphone, as the audience stops clapping to listen .”
The stars are visible and shining bright like diamonds at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival in France. The big event, which has been called the most prestigious film meeting, started on Tuesday, May 14 and runs until Saturday, May 25. The festival gives previews of new films in all genres […]
Filmmakers and actors can also determine how long their applause lasts. At this year’s festival, Nicolas Cage reportedly encouraged the crowd to shout “The surfer!‘ in unison to make the moment last. (The ovation eventually clocked in at six minutes.)
While long standing ovations were previously reserved for the most anticipated films of the year – Guillermo del Toro Pan’s Labyrinth holds the longest record at 22 minutes in 2006 – the tradition seems to be becoming more and more common. This year the running winner remains the Coralie Fargeat-directed body horror film The substancewhich stars Demi Moore and received a 13-minute round of applause from the audience.
Not everyone is strongly against the practice. Many people on the creative side can find value in what a sustained ovation means. Selena Gomez reportedly cried after her movie Emilia Perez was celebrated this year for 11 minutes, while David Kajganichwriter and producer of Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and all – a film that received ten minutes at the 2022 Venice Film Festival – thinks standing ovations help gauge an emotional response to a film.
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“When people stand for an ovation at the end, they are partly standing for the feeling the movie gave them, but they are also standing for their excitement for the people involved,” Kajganich said. THR in 2022. “For me it’s more about the people than the film.”
Keep scrolling for the longest standing ovations at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival so far:
‘The substance’
Starring: Demi Moore, Margaret Qualley, Dennis Quaid, Ray Liotta
Synopsis: A fading celebrity (Moore) decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of himself.
Standing ovation: 13 minutes
‘Emilia Perez’
Starring: Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña, Edgar Ramírez, Adriana Paz, Mark Ivanir, Karla Sofía Gascón
Synopsis: In this musical comedy, lawyer Rita (Saldaña) receives an unexpected offer to help a feared cartel boss retire and disappear forever by becoming the woman he always dreamed of.
Standing ovation: 11 minutes
‘Horizon: an American saga’
Starring: Kevin Costner, Sienna Miller, Jamie Campbell Bower, Sam Worthington, Jenna Malone, Ella Hunt
Synopsis: The Western epic, which Costner co-authors, directs and stars in, follows families, friends and enemies as they discover the allure of the Old West through the overlapping stories of American colonists and indigenous peoples in the Civil War era.
Standing ovation: 10 minutes
‘The intern’
Starring: Sebastian Stan, Jeremy Strong
Synopsis: The biographical drama follows the rise of a young Donald Trump (Stan) to power as a New York businessman in the 1980s under the influence of his lawyer Roy Cohn (Strong).
Standing ovation: 8 minutes
‘Megalopolis’
Starring: Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza, Nathalie Emmanuel, Giancarlo Esposito
Synopsis: The science fiction drama – which he also wrote and produced – is considered director Francis Ford Coppola’s swan song and follows an architect who wants to rebuild New York City into a utopia after a devastating disaster.
Standing ovation: 7 minutes
‘Bird’
Starring: Barry Keoghan, Nykiya Adams, Jason Buda
Synopsis: Bailey (Adams) lives with her brother Hunter (Buda) and her father Bug (Keoghan), whom she raises alone in a squat in north Kent. When Bug can’t devote much time to it, Bailey looks for attention and adventure elsewhere.
Standing ovation: 7 minutes
‘Furiosa: a Mad Max saga’
Starring: Anya Taylor Joy and Chris Hemsworth
Synopsis: The fifth installment of Mad Max expands George Miller’s franchise and follows a young Furiosa (Joy) who falls into the hands of a large horde of bikers led by Dr. Dementus (Hemsworth). As they trek through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel, presided over by the Immortan Joe (Hulme). As the two tyrants fight for power, Furiosa soon finds herself in a non-stop battle to find her way home.
Standing ovation: 6 minutes
‘Kind of kindness’
Starring: Jesse Plemons, Joe Alwyn, Emma Stone, Margaret Qualley, Hunter Schafer, Willem Dafoe
Synopsis: The film follows three simultaneous and overlapping stories; a man without choice trying to take control of his own life; a police officer alarmed because his wife, missing at sea, has returned and appears to be a different person; and a woman determined to find a specific someone with a special skill, who is destined to become a miraculous spiritual leader.
Standing ovation: 6 minutes
‘The Surfer’
Starring: Nicholas Cage, Charlotte Maggi, Julian McMahon, Finn Little
Synopsis: Cage plays a man who leaves the United States to return to his Australian hometown and ends up humiliated in front of his teenage son by a gang of surfers during his local home vacation. As revenge, he decides to stay on the beach and wage war against the gang.
Standing ovation: 6 minutes
