Cannes Film Festival: Oscar-winning director Francis Ford Coppola receives 7-minute standing ovation at world premiere of Megalopolis

Five-time Oscar winning director Francis Ford Coppola has debuted his latest masterpiece.

At the 76th Cannes Film Festival, Coppola’s long-awaited Megalopolis had its world premiere.

Among an audience of the biggest names in film, Coppola and his dystopian drama received a seven-minute standing ovation, per Deadline.

Watch the video above.

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Francis Ford Coppola and Adam Driver at Cannes Film Festival 2024 (Getty)

After watching the 138-minute film, that had been decades in the making, Coppola bowed as the crowd were upstanding in applause.

The Godfather director was congratulated by his colleagues Richard Gere and Thierry Fremaux and the ovation continued.

Coppola walked through the crowd, hat and cane in hand, as the applause went on. Then, taking a microphone, he gave a speech.

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Francis Ford Coppola speaks after world premiere of Megalopolis
Francis Ford Coppola speaks after world premiere of Megalopolis (Twitter)

“Thank you all so much everybody – it’s impossible to find words to tell you how I feel,” he said.

He continued to walk through the crowd pointing out his family members who were present including his granddaughter, his son and collaborator Roman Coppola and sister Talia Shire.

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He proceeded to express that his cast and crew were like family before citing the lead of his new film.

“In fact as Cesar says, ‘we’re all one family, you’re all my cousins’,” he said.

“We are one, we are the human family.”

He concluded his speech with a message of “hope”.

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CANNES, FRANCE - MAY 16: (L-R) Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, D. B. Sweeney, Grace VanderWaal, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Francis Ford Coppola, Romy Croquet Mars, Adam Driver, Kathryn Hunter, Laurence Fishburne, Chloe Fineman, Nathalie Emmanuel and Talia Shire attend the "Megalopolis" Red Carpet at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival at Palais des Festivals on May 16, 2024 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Kristy Sparow/Getty Images)
Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, D. B. Sweeney, Grace VanderWaal, Giancarlo Esposito, Aubrey Plaza, Francis Ford Coppola, Romy Croquet Mars, Adam Driver, Kathryn Hunter, Laurence Fishburne, Chloe Fineman, Nathalie Emmanuel and Talia Shire attend the “Megalopolis” Red Carpet at the 77th annual Cannes Film Festival 2024 (Getty)

The 85-year-old director expressed that “we should pledge our allegiance” to our families and our “beautiful home, earth” so that the world’s children “inherit a beautiful world from us.”

The applause continued as he wrapped up his speech.

The film is a personal passion project of Coppola’s that has been in the pipeline for four decades. Within that time, he produced film greats including The Godfather trilogy, The Conversation and Dracula.

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After decades and almost 300 rewrites, Coppola’s film is finally in the hands of fans and critics alike.

The film, starring Adam Driver as its lead, has already received mixed reviews. With some calling the film “a work of absolute madness” and others calling it “megaboring”.

Of his work, Coppola has himself said it is his “best work”.

Posting a teaser trailer of the film to his official YouTube account, Coppola wrote: “Our new film Megalopolis is the best work I’ve ever had the privilege to preside over.”

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