Cannes 2024: 10 of the festival’s best films, from Palme d’Or winner Anora to Nicolas Cage’s The Surfer to Emilia Pérez with Selena Gomez

Our critic’s pick of the 10 best films unveiled at this year’s Cannes festival includes The Surfer, starring one-man meme machine Nicolas Cage

Also here are the Palme d’Or-winning film Anora, the Demi Moore-led movie The Substance, Emilia Pérez with Selena Gomez, and Jia Zhangke’s Caught by the Tides

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James Mottram

Published: 4:15am, 28 May 2024Updated: 10:15am, 28 May 2024

Cannes always has moments like no other festival.

This year I was interviewing Daniel Auteuil when Catherine Deneuve walked past, and the French actor had to get up and give the legendary star a warm embrace – years after they starred together in 1996’s Les Voleurs. Nowhere else but Cannes, you might say.

The 77th edition of the world’s biggest movie marathon perhaps did not serve up enough memorable moments on screen, but there was still enough variety to excite and entertain.

Here, then, is a guide to the 10 best films that were unveiled at this year’s festival.

1. Anora

Sean Baker’s breezy Brooklyn-set romp slightly upset the odds, taking the Palme d’Or ahead of more fancied candidates. Still, after his earlier Cannes entries The Florida Project and Red Rocket, this felt like a step up.