Seven-minute standing ovation for film director at sci-fi movie premiere

Film director Francis Ford Coppola received a lengthy standing ovation after the world premiere of his sci-fi epic Megalopolis.

Coppola hugged the production’s leading stars, Adam Driver, Nathalie Emmanuel, Aubrey Plaza and Giancarlo Esposito, and threw his straw hat into the crowd following the movie’s first official screening at the 77th Cannes Film Festival.

It marks a decadeslong passion project for The Godfather director, who is said to have had the idea more than four decades ago.

Coppola reportedly received a sevenminute standing ovation, telling the audience

“it is impossible to find words to tell you how I feel”.

Coppola, whose wife Eleanor died last month, introduced members of his family to the crowd, before describing the film’s stars and crew as “all my family”.

“That is who we should pledge our allegiance to, our entire family and the beautiful home earth that we have,” he said. “That is my wish, that the children should inherit a beautiful world from us.

“The most beautiful word I think in any language is speranza – hope (in Italian).”

US actor Richard Gere was among the stars celebrating Coppola at the end of the film.

Gere, 74, who starred in Coppola’s The Cotton Club in 1984, said: “The movie is crazy and only a crazy man could make that movie.”

In the film, Driver plays an architect who is in competition with the mayor of New York, as he wants to build the city into a utopia following a disaster.

Coppola, who reportedly funded the big-budget film himself, is competing for a third Palme d’Or award at the French festival, having received his first for The Conversation and his second for Apocalypse Now.

British actress and Game Of Thrones star Emmanuel posed on the red carpet wearing a custom white Chanel Haute Couture gown, while co-star and Saturday Night Live comedian Chloe Fineman debuted a strapless red sparkly Celine number.

The White Lotus star Plaza arrived wearing a custom long-sleeved cream Loewe gown with Casadei shoes, while Driver opted for a white dinner jacket and black bow tie.

The film features a large ensemble cast including Transformers star Shia LaBeouf, two-time Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman and Breaking Bad actor Giancarlo Esposito.

Coppola, 85, has won six Academy Awards.

He won his first Oscar in 1971 for writing epic biographical war film Patton, before picking up awards in the same category in 1973 and 1975 for The Godfather and its sequel.

He also won the gong for best director for The Godfather II, which was named best picture in the same year.

Francis Ford Coppola at the premiere in Cannes.