When a film debuts at the Cannes Film Festival and receives a standing ovation, it isn’t your typical award show one-minute ovation, they tend to last for quite some time. Both Matt Damon‘s Stillwater and Adam Driver‘s Annette received standing ovations during the film festival, but the stars had two very different reactions to the extended applause.
Matt Damon reacts to the Stillwater standing ovation
Damon was reportedly moved to tears during the world premiere of his out-of-competition Cannes Film Festival entry Stillwater.
According to Deadline, the drama, directed by Spotlight Oscar-winner Tom McCarthy, brought the assembled crowd to its feet for a five-minute standing ovation in the Grand Theatre Lumiere as the lights came upon the film’s team, and brought tears to Damon’s eyes.

The story of Stillwater focuses on Damon’s Bill Baker, an Oklahoma oil-rig roughneck with a shoddy past, who heads to Marseille hell-bent on freeing his daughter (Abigail Breslin), an exchange student imprisoned for murdering her girlfriend, a crime she says she didn’t commit.
While filmmakers don’t typically give speeches following their Cannes premieres, McCarthy broke with tradition and was handed a mic after Stillwater ended.
“I’m overwhelmed to be here, I’ve been so greatly influenced by the cinema of this country and of Europe,” McCarthy said. “It’s so inspiring to present a film to this amazing audience in this iconic theater … that’s all I can come up with in this instant-tradition moment,” he added.
Adam Driver reacts to the Annette standing ovation
As the end credits rolled for Annette during the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival, and the crowd launched into a five-minute standing ovation.
Driver apparently didn’t know what to do with himself during the ovation, so halfway through it, he decided to light up a cigarette and start smoking.
As the end credits for Annette – this year’s opening film – began to roll, the Cannes crowd stood up and began a long-standing ovation.

While that type of reaction is not rare at the renowned film festival, Adam Driver’s reaction to it made headlines.
Director Leos Carax began smoking a cigarette from his seat and handed one to Driver, who lit it and began smoking, as the crowd continued the five-minute-long standing ovation.
At one point, Driver blows smoke at the camera zooming in on him.
Adam apparently gets bored quite easily.