The renowned Cannes Film Festival has a long history of receiving excessively enthusiastic acclaim because it is a distinguished and revered event. It’s strange but endearing to watch the renowned actors and directors stand clumsily throughout the whole thing, not knowing what to do with their hands.
A standing ovation, of course, is always preferable than jeering, for which the festival is equally infamous, even among its affluent attendees. Men and women dressed in tuxedos and gowns jeered at unexpected movies such Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette” (2006), “Taxi Driver” (1976), and “L’Avventura” (1960).
In Cannes history, a number of unexpected films have received the biggest standing ovations—the largest of which lasted an incredible 22 minutes! See which movies have the most physically taxing fanfare by clicking through.
‘Horizon: An American Saga’
‘Horizon: An American Saga,’ Kevin Costner’s lifetime passion project, made its Cannes Film Festival debut in 2024. The 69-year-old, who also co-wrote and appears in the Western, finds great meaning in directing his first film in 11 years. Warner Bros. Pictures’ description describes it as “a multifaceted chronicle covering the Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West.” Costner was moved to tears by the audience’s 10-minute standing ovation after the premiere.
‘Parthenope’
t the Cannes picture Festival, the most recent Paolo Sorrentino picture, “Parthenope,” which starred Gary Oldman, Celeste Della Porta, and Stefania Sandrelli, was given a standing ovation that lasted nine and a half minutes. From her adolescent years into maturity, the movie follows an Italian woman as she struggles with the effects of her beauty on other people, the grief of losing a friend, and finding her calling in life.
‘All We Imagine As Light’
In 2024, the first Indian film to be included in the Cannes Film Festival after 30 years, “All We Imagine As Light,” had an eight-minute standing ovation. It is a phenomenon that won over audiences from all over the world. It tells the lives of three nurses in Mumbai as they face the daily struggles of metropolitan life. Both critics and audience members valued the image for its representation of togetherness, love, and hopefulness, and for its humanness.
‘Killers of the Flower Moon’
For the first time since ‘After Hours’ in 1985, Martin Scorsese returned to Cannes in 2023, and with awe-inspiring consequences. Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, and Lily Gladstone starred in “Killers of the Flower Moon,” which premiered on May 20. Following its three hours and twenty-six minutes, the crowd stood up and cheered for a further nine minutes, which was the longest of the festival.
‘Jeanne Du Barry’
In spite of the severe criticism regarding Johnny Depp’s appearance, the audience gave Johnny Depp’s French biopic “Jeanne Du Barry,” which opened the festival on May 16, 2023, a long seven-minute standing ovation.
‘Triangle of Sadness’
Triangle of Sadness” received an eight-minute standing ovation in 2022. The black comedy was directed by Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund. The movie is about an influencer boyfriend (Harris Dickinson) and his model girlfriend (the late Charlbi Dean), who set sail on a luxury cruise for the ultra-rich, captained by a Marxist captain played by Woody Harrelson.
