Paper Tiger Earns Standing Ovation at Cannes Premiere

James Gray has always had a thing with Cannes. Saturday night, Cannes had a thing right back.

Gray’s Paper Tiger — his first film since 2022’s Armageddon Time — debuted to a thunderous standing ovation at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, with audiences on their feet for somewhere between six and ten minutes depending on who you ask. (Festival ovation timing is an inexact science, and everyone’s stopwatch tells a slightly different story.) What’s not up for debate: the room was electric, and Gray, standing at the front of it, looked genuinely overwhelmed.

“I have to say, as you probably can tell, looking at my face, I’m more comfortable behind the camera than in front of it,” he told the crowd. Then, visibly moved, he got to the heart of it: “Without you there is no cinema. Cinema needs you, and cinema needs you guys more than ever. Really, this is a very important time, and Cannes is so important for that reason, and you are so important for that reason. So it always moves me greatly to see you here in this theater where I have very many memories.”

He wasn’t wrong about the memories. Paper Tiger is his sixth film to premiere on the Croisette, following Armageddon Time, The Immigrant, Two Lovers, We Own the Night, and The Yards — a run that stretches back to 2000. He also served on the competition jury in 2019. The man is practically a fixture of the festival at this point, even if a Palme d’Or has continued to elude him.

Brothers, the Mob, and 1980s Queens

Paper Tiger is a gritty crime drama set in 1980s Queens, following Hester and Irwin — played by Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller — a couple raising a family when Irwin’s flashy brother (Adam Driver) pulls him into a moneymaking scheme that goes catastrophically wrong. What starts as opportunity quickly becomes something darker: the family finds themselves terrorized by the Russian mob, their bond fraying under the pressure, betrayal creeping in where it once seemed impossible.

Gray, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the premiere, was clear-eyed about what he was going for. “To be very pretentious about it, the intention was to try to make a very classical drama,” he said. “People sometimes shit on that idea, ‘classical’ — they equate it with ‘old-fashioned,’ but the two are not the same thing. Internal conflict, struggle, love, emotion — that is never old-fashioned.”

Johansson, for her part, was drawn to the scope of it. “It had so many elements that I loved,” she told THR. “It’s a big story inside of a small story.” Of her character Hester — a stay-at-home mom with quiet ferocity beneath the surface — she said, “I liked the idea of Hester being feminine and soft and graceful because she has a lot of chutzpah inside her.”

The FaceTime That Went Unanswered

Johansson wasn’t in Cannes on Saturday night. She’s currently in production on Universal’s Exorcist prequel, which kept her from making the trip to the South of France. Driver and Teller were there, walking the red carpet alongside Gray and soaking up the crowd’s enthusiasm — big waves of cheers rolled in for both of them.

But Gray wasn’t ready to let Johansson miss the moment entirely. Mid-standing ovation, he pulled out his phone and tried to FaceTime her so she could hear the room. She didn’t pick up.

It’s the kind of detail that writes itself. A director at the peak of a career-defining night, the Grand Théâtre Lumière roaring around him, staring at a ringing phone. Gray, ever the showman, also jokingly pointed to his watch during the applause — a playful nudge for the audience to keep going a little longer. They obliged.

Cate Blanchett, Julianne Moore, and director Pawel Pawlikowski were among those on their feet in the audience after the screening.

NEON’s Winning Streak Continues

Paper Tiger was actually a late addition to the official competition lineup. When Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux announced the initial slate in early April, he was openly still pursuing the film. “It’s the James Gray who has never stopped being himself,” Frémaux told Variety at the time, acknowledging the project was “complicated to put together” with “still some contractual issues to resolve.” By the end of April, it was in.

NEON moved quickly on North American distribution rights — not surprising, given the company has won the Palme d’Or for six consecutive years. The film was literally announced at last year’s Cannes market, and its trajectory from there to competition slot to distribution deal has been remarkably fast.

Gray’s last Cannes premiere, Armageddon Time in 2022, drew a five-minute standing ovation and a tearful speech from the director. This one felt bigger — louder, longer, more charged. Whether the jury agrees when it comes time to hand out prizes is another question entirely. But on Saturday night in that theater, with the crowd still on its feet and his star unreachable on FaceTime, James Gray looked like a man who knew he’d made something worth the noise.