Director Julia Ducournau returned to the Cannes Film Festival on Monday night with Alpha, her highly anticipated follow-up to the Palme d’Or-winning Titane. The film received a thunderous 11.5-minute standing ovation, making it one of the most warmly received premieres at this year’s festival.
Ducournau was visibly emotional during the extended applause, wiping away tears and forming a heart with her hands in appreciation of the audience’s response.
The premiere, however, was briefly disrupted by a medical emergency. About an hour into the screening, audience members in the balcony began waving phone flashlights and calling for medical help. Paramedics quickly arrived, and one individual was carried out on a stretcher. Despite the incident, the screening continued without interruption. The cause of the emergency remains unknown, but there was no indication it was related to the film’s content at that point in the story. Festival representatives have not yet commented.
Alpha stars Golshifteh Farahani, Tahar Rahim, Emma Mackey, and Finnegan Oldfield. The story follows a troubled 13-year-old girl living with her single mother. According to the official Cannes synopsis, “Their world collapses the day she returns from school with a tattoo on her arm.”
The film appears to serve as a metaphor for the AIDS crisis, depicting a mysterious virus transmitted through needle use and bodily fluids. Though it includes elements of body horror—such as infected skin turning to marble—Alpha leans more toward surreal drama than shock. As the mother suspects her daughter may be infected, memories of her late brother, who died from the virus, resurface, fueling her paranoia.
Ducournau first made waves at Cannes in 2016 with her debut feature Raw, a cannibal coming-of-age film that premiered in Critics’ Week. She cemented her place in Cannes history in 2021 with Titane, becoming only the second woman to win the Palme d’Or.
In her 2021 acceptance speech, Ducournau reflected on her childhood love of the festival, saying: “I was sure all the films awarded must be perfect. And tonight, I’m on that same stage, but I know my film is not perfect — you could even say mine is monstrous.”
Alpha marks Ducournau’s second film to compete for the Palme d’Or. The film is once again backed by Neon, the distributor of Titane and several other recent Palme d’Or winners.
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