Standing Ovation Trivia Quiz

As of the time this quiz is being written, 'Pan's Labyrinth' (originally 'El laberinto del fauno') holds the record for the longest standing ovation recorded at the Cannes Festival. A fantasy film set in 1944 Spain (during World War II and early in the rule of Franco following the Spanish Civil War), the story combines events in the real world with a young girl's exploits in the mystical land revealed to her by a fairy. Can she rescue herself and her baby brother from the Maquis who seek revenge on her stepfather while restoring the Princess Moanna to her rightful place as an underworld prnicess?

The film was dubbed into English by the Mexican director, Guillermo del Toro, who had been unhappy with previous translations of his movies. The original title is more generic about the nature of the faun Ofelia encounters in the labyrinth, who tells her she is the reincarnation of Moanna, and must complete three tasks in order to return to her kingdom. Del Torro has said his original vision was of the Roman faun, miniature versions of the god Faunus, half man and half goat, who were found haunting woodlands. Historically, when Faunus became conflated with the Greek god Pan, the fauns started to be shown as more like the satyrs who followed Pan. The change of title introduced a more sinister element to the faun, which was consistent with its evolution during film development from a classic faun to a goat-faced creature composed of vegetative material from the forest.

'Pan's Labyrinth' received almost universal acclaim, being listed in dozens of lists of the top ten movies of 2006. Awards included winning three Oscars from six nominations and Best Film not in the English Language at the BAFTAs. The Spanish Goya Awards saw 13 nominations and 7 wins; the Mexican Ariel Awards saw 7 victories from 11 nominations.

Michael Moore's documentary won the Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, a prize awarded by the judging panel to the director of the Best Feature Film submitted to the festival's official competition. With a title that references the attack on the World Trade Centre in 2001, along Ray Bradbury's dystopian 'Fahnreheit 451', and a tagline of 'The Temperature at Which Freedom Burns', this was always going to be a controversial film.

Moore's perspective on the path taken by American politics, focusing on the 2000 US elections and subsequent events including the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, led to it being given an R rating, meaning that anyone under the age of 17 could only see it if accompanied by a parent or guardian. Despite this potential audience restriction, the first weekend of the documentary's release in the United States saw it earn nearly $24 million, more than any earlier documentary film had made in its entire theatrical run. It was banned in Kuwait, where the government saw it as being critical of the government of a friendly nation, and could not be screened in Saudi Arabia (whose royal family had been shown in a negative light) because movie theatres there were not in operation.

The award of the Palme d'Or has been a matter of contention, with some critics contending that it was based on the politics of the time rather than on the merits of the film. Jury members, including Quentin Tarantino, have continued to assert that the judgment was about the film - its message delivery and its resonance with the public being a significant factor, but not the sole one. Other awards it received included the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture, the first documentary to do so. In a gesture of irony, the 25th Raspberry Awards saw a number of the people included in the film nominated for their performances; George W. Bush (Worst Actor), Donald Rumsfeld (Worst Supporting Actor) and Britney Spears (Worst supporting Actress) were all winners.

Moore's 2018 sequel, 'Fahrenheit 11/9', about the first Trump administration, was far less successful, but it did earn some awards, including four nominations at the 39th Golden Raspberry Awards, of which it won three, including Worst Actor for Donald Trump.

Jeff Nichols, who wrote and directed 'Mud', says he was inspired by Mark Twain's writings of life on the Mississippi, and always had Matthew McConaughey in mind to play the title role, a man on the run for killing the man who was abusive to Juniper (Reese Witherspoon), with whom he is in love. His life becomes entangled with that of teenager Ellis (Tye Sheridan), whose painful interest in girls at the time when his parents are getting a divorce allows plenty of discussion about the nature and meaning of love.

The film received numerous awards and mentions in lists of best films, but never gained widespread currency in popular cinema, with limited release despite its positive reception on debut in Cannes. Over time it was given wider distribution, and accrued around 30 million dollars, a significant profit for a film whose production costs were closer to $10 million.

This psychological horror film, an international co-production between France, Denmark, and the United States, had an interesting debut at the 2016 Cannes Festival. It received a standing ovation that lasted for 17 minutes, but which was mixed with loud boos at the same time. Subsequent response from critics was similarly divided. Commercial viewing response was fairly negative, and it only recovered about half of its production cost, despite being released in all three countries.

The film follows Jesse, a newly-orphaned 16-year-old who arrives in Los Angeles to pursue a career as a model, and the older models with whom she becomes involved. The director describes it as a contemplation of the significance of beauty, how being beautiful sets one apart from the run of humanity. The contrast between Jesse's beauty and the blood-soaked cannibalistic and necrophiliac events it provokes is stark, but all beautifully photographed, like a fashion magazine. Not to everyone's taste, to put it mildly.

This epic crime film, directed by Sergio Leone and starring Robert de Niro and James Woods, follows two young men who rise to leadership in New York City's Jewish gangs. The last film made by Sergio Leone, it was released in both Italian and English. The American cut was over 90 minutes shorter, and had the scenes rearranged into chronological order. Both critics and audiences found it quite inferior, but the European cut is regarded as a cinema classic. It was the nearly-four-hour version which premiered to acclaim at Cannes. Many critics rated the European version as one of the best films of the year, and the American version as one of the worst.

The process of developing this film took 20 years, in the course of which he turned down the chance to direct 'The Godfather' in order to pursue his vision of a book based on 'The Hoods'. This memoir from a gangster-turned-informer turned out to be a complex task, and along the way he developed two other films to create what he considered a trilogy about American lifestyles: 'Once Upon a Time in the West' (1968) and 'Duck, You Sucker!' (1971).

Noodles Aronson (de Niro's character) starts as a teenager in 1918, learning to survive in the gang world, achieving success during Prohibition, after serving time in jail. Following the death of several members of his gang he goes into hiding, to reemerge in the 1960s and discover that Max (James Woods) was not killed after all. In the European cut, the film begins and ends in an opium den in the 1930s, suggesting that the while thing is a drug-induced dream, in which Noodles recalls his past and projects a wished-for future.

In 2019, the similarly-titled 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' received a 7-minute ovation at Cannes. Other films to receive 15-minute ovations included: 'The Paperboy' (2012), 'Two Days, One Night' (2014), 'Capernaum' (2018) and 'Happy as Lazzaro' (2018).

The original title of this 2021 Japanese animated film based on the French fairy tale 'Beauty and the Beast', which was also the inspiration for a 1991 animation from Disney, translates into English as 'The Dragon and the Freckled Princess'. Following its premiere at Cannes it was dubbed into a range of languages that included English, Chinese, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, Greek, German and Polish for theatrical release. As well as becoming one of the highest-earning Japanese films of the year, it received widespread critical acclaim, especially for the way it brought a 19th century story into the 21st century.

The magical element of the original is replaced by a virtual reality world, in which the heroine has an avatar with freckles to which she allocates the name Bell, the English translation of her Japanese name. As Bell, she regains the ability to sing, and becomes intrigued by another character known as the Dragon. As reality and virtual reality become entwined, she discovers that the Dragon is actually another student at her school who is being abused by his father. When Belle is able to rescue him and his younger brother, she comes to understand why her mother had sacrificed her life to save another child. This leads her to regaining her ability to sing the music she had always loved in reality, and to establish an adult relationship with the slightly older character on whom she had had a childhood crush, and who had always acted as her protector.

In 2024, Mohammad Rasoulof's 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig' also received a 14-minute ovation at Cannes.

This Canadian film about a mother trying to cope with a teenage son who has been diagnosed as having ADHD and an attachment disorder shared the Jury Prize at Cannes with Jean-Luc Godard's 'Goodbye to Language', before going on to be both a critical and a financial success. The film was written, produced and directed by Xavier Dolan, who also supervised costumes and editing, along with the English and French subtitles. His fifth feature film to debut at Cannes did so shortly after his 25th birthday.

At the centre of the film are Dianne (known as Die) and her son Steve, who had previously been institutionalised for treatment. Despite her efforts to keep him stable and help him lead the kind of life she had envisioned for him when he was a child, she eventually acknowledges that she cannot manage the relationship, and uses the provisions of a recently-enacted law to have him placed in a hospital, despite knowing that he cannot handle institutions.

The records show that Michael Moore's 'Bowling for Columbine' also received a 13-minute ovation, in 2002. Since he already had a film included, I selected the rather less familiar 'Mommy' for the question.

Baz Luhrmann's film starred Austin Butler as Elvis, and Tom Hanks as his manager, Colonel Tom Parker. The director does not consider it a biopic, stating in an interview, "As it turns out, I've just made a film called Elvis which isn't even really about Elvis. It's really about America in the fifties, sixties, and seventies." The story of his life, much of it played out in the public eye, is familiar, so the film can take it for granted that the audience will be interested in seeing how this cultural icon can be reinterpreted on film.

The music (and there is plenty of it) includes not only performances by Austin Butler that intend to recreate the original Elvis, but also a lot of covers and adaptations of Elvis classics into new genres. Elvis's family found the film an accurate portrayal of the times as they recalled them, but the Colonel was not felt to have received a sympathetic treatment that acknowledged all the complexities of their relationship.

The film was nominated for eight Academy Awards, but failed to win any. In Australia it fared better, winning AACTA awards in 12 out of the 16 categories in which it was nominated. Audiences, of course, flocked to see the latest Tom Hanks film.

The 2011 French film 'The Artist' also received a 12-minute ovation, as well as numerous major awards.

Quentin Tarantino started writing his alternate history war film, but diverted to 'Kill Bill' and other films before returning to complete 'Inglourious Basterds'. It follows two separate plots to assassinate Nazi leaders; one is being planned by a commando black ops unit called the Basterds, a team of Jewish American soldiers recruited and led by Lt Aldo Raine (played by Brad Pitt), while the other involves the Jewish owner of a Parisian cinema who plans to burn down her theatre during the premier of a propaganda film. Between them they manage to kill off Hitler, Goebbels and most of the rest of the Nazi hierarchy - with plenty of Tarantino's typical violent action, including the death of nearly everyone.

As well as following the main plot, viewers have the chance to play Spotto with a number of interesting cameos. Enzo Castellari, who had directed 'The Inglorious Bastards' (no relationship aside from the title) and made a brief appearance as a German soldier did so again. Bo Svenson, one of the stars of Castellari's film, appeared as a US colonel in the propaganda film whose premier was central to the climactic action, 'Nation's Pride'. Tarantino himself as an American soldier in 'Nation's Pride' as well as a scalped German.

In a manner typical for him, the director has littered the film with references to other films, whether in a name or an action, even something as visual as the chapter titles (the first of which reads 'Once Upon a Time in Nazi-occupied France'). Tarantino gives audiences plenty to discuss, and they came in droves - this was his highest-earning film at that time, although it has since been surpassed. Critical reviews were mixed, but the film was nominated for a number of awards, with Christopher Waltz (who portrayed the Nazi who was the chief antagonist on a personal level for the two plot leaders) was judged Best Actor at Cannes and Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars, the BAFTAs and the Golden Globes.

In 2024, two more films received 11-minute ovations: 'The Substance' and 'The Count of Monte Cristo'.

Spike Lee (loosely) based his biography / crime / comedy / drama on a 2014 memoir by Ron Stallworth, with the more straightforward title 'Black Klansman'. Stallworth, the first African-American detective in the police department of Colorado Springs, who successfully infiltrated the local chapter of the Ku Klux Klan (using a fellow officer to impersonate him when face-to-face meetings were required, after remotely establishing a persona that appealed to the Klan) during the 1970s.

The film stars John David Washington as Stallworth and Adam Driver as the associate (modified here to be Jewish, allowing an extra level of tension as he meets the Klan members). Topher Grace played David Duke (at that time head of the Ku Klux Klan), Corey Hawkins portrayed Kwame Ture (a black activist also known as Stokely Carmichael), and Harry Belafonte made his final screen appearance in the small role of Jerome Turner. It was released in theatres one day before the first anniversary of the Unite the Right rally that is featured in the closing scenes of the film.

'BlacKkKlansman' won the Grand Prix (second in prestige only to the Palme d'Or) at Cannes, and went on to nearly universal critical acclaim. It received six nominations at the Academy Awards, including Lee's first nomination as a director, and won Best Adapted Screenplay - Lee's first competitive Oscar.

The shorter the time of the standing ovation received at Cannes, the longer the list of films in the group. Ten-minute ovations were also received by 'The Beaver' (2011), 'Rust and Bone' (2012), 'Carol' (2015), 'Macbeth' (2015), 'Captain Fantastic' (2016), 'Arctic' (2018) and 'Close' (2022).