Discover what happened during the sparkling evening of celebration at the Festival de Cannes
To Cannes and the Carlton Beach Club, which was transformed into a sparkling evening of celebration on Friday for the Trophée Chopard. A firm fixture on the Festival de Cannes calendar, the prize is awarded to up-and-coming talent, and has become something of a crystal ball of future stars. A-list names like Marion Cotillard, Diane Kruger, Léa Seydoux, Florence Pugh as well as Niels Schneider and Jeremy Irvine may sound like household names today, but these talents were but a blip – yet unquestionably on the ascent – when they picked up their Trophée Chopard (Kruger and Cotillard won over two decades ago – just to highlight how fledging these actors can be).
The Trophée Chopard is an official prize of the festival, and Friday saw cinema’s great and good make their way to the gala event following the screening of Yorgos Lanthimos’s Kinds of Kindness. Among the guests at the gala was French director of the moment Xavier Dolan, jury member Omar Sy and Kevin Costner, who’s here showing his film Horizon. James Franco was also spotted, alongside Carla Bruni, Eva Longoria and Rachida Dati, France’s culture minister.
They all came to see the Chopard Trophee 2024 winners: Australian actor Sophie Wilde and American actor Mike Faist. They were joined on stage by Caroline Scheufele, co-president and artistic director of Chopard, Iris Knobloch and Thierry Frémaux, the Cannes Film Festival’s president and general delegate respectively.
Presenting their awards was the trophy’s Godmother, a role that always brings serious stardust to this key industry accolade. Past Godmothers include Julia Roberts, Helen Mirren, Jude Law and Sean Pean – with this year’s Godmother Demi Moore.
Moore certainly lent some frisson to the night, having not been in Cannes for 27 years, when she came for the premiere of the seminal film, The Fifth Element, starring her then-husband Bruce Willis. It’s also the first time she has a movie, The Substance, in competition at the festival. Looking positively radiant in a bejewelled aquamarine dress, her glorious, glossy locks waist-long, Moore caveated her speech by saying she forgot her glasses and couldn’t read her address. This of course only lent an air of the causal, spontaneous but ever glamorous and elegant informality that’s made Moore at once relatable yet iconic.
“Being in Cannes is like a miracle – it represents not just the top of cinematic art but a place where dreams come through frames and stories,” she said. “And the location isn’t too shabby either.”
Even Sophie Wilde, on accepting her award couldn’t help but be somewhat star struck by Moore. “And thank you Demi,” she said, before addressing the crowd in adorable Gen Z fashion: “What an icon – it’s just so sick!”
Moore’s selection as godmother of the Trophée Chopard was also a poignant moment for Scheufele, whose first year as the festival’s partner coincided with the last time Moore was here nearly 30 years ago. Just starting in her career herself, Scheufele said that she founded the trophy in 2001 “as a kick start for talents”, she says. “I’ve seen that once you’re on the A-list – like George Clooney or Julia Roberts – it’s easy,” she explains. “But to get up there is not easy at all, like panier de crabs.”
That sense of breaking out was not lost on winner Mike Faist, who said he was “humbled and grateful” to receive his award, before adding: “I feel as if I’m standing on the shoulders of giants – and standing on the shoulders of giants in this room. And it’s not something to be taken lightly.”
