Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie was overcome with emotion during a lengthy standing ovation for her latest film Maria.
The Oscar-winner was filmed wiping away tears from her face during the rapturous response to Pablo Larrain’s biographical drama about the Greek opera singer Maria Callas.
The emotional standing ovation was reminiscent of the applause after the premiere of The Whale, which launched the Oscar-winning campaign and a career comeback for actor Brendan Fraser, in 2022.
Jolie plays the title role in Maria, which reimagines the singer’s final days in 1970s Paris, exploring the tragic events in the life of one of the world’s best-known sopranos.
She wore a custom Tamara Ralph draped chiffon dress and a faux fur stole, paired with Aquazzura shoes and a red lip to the premiere.
At an earlier press conference, Jolie said that she has “relearned” the word diva through Maria Callas, who was known as “La Divina”.
“I think it’s often come with a lot of negative connotations,” she said.
“I think I’ve relearned that word through Maria and I have a new relationship to it.
“And I think it is often other people’s perception of a woman that defines sometimes too much who she is, and who she was, or what she intended.
“And I actually think she was one of the hardest working people, who didn’t hurt anybody.”
“I suppose it’s everybody in this room that makes that definition,” she added.
Jolie also said she has “needed to be home more” with her family in recent years.
The Lara Croft star, 49, has six children with Hollywood actor Brad Pitt, from whom she filed for divorce in September 2016.
In May their daughter Shiloh Nouvel Jolie-Pitt became the first of their children to request a legal name change.
Jolie spoke about her acting career, and how it seems to have taken a back seat over the past few years.
Asked how she is feeling, she said: “I’ve needed to be home more with my family these last years.
“And in that time, I’ve become maybe more grateful to have the opportunity to just be an artist and play and be among all of you, to just be in this creative world that we are all fortunate to be in some way a part of.
“So I’m happy to be here, and I’m grateful.”
In a Vogue interview last year, Jolie, known for starring in Maleficent and Girl, Interrupted, said she started doing less film work “seven years ago, only taking jobs that didn’t require long shoots”.
Jolie and Pitt met on the set of action comedy Mr & Mrs Smith and were married in 2014. The details of their divorce have yet to be finalised.
Pitt is expected to attend the film festival for a movie he stars in called Wolfs.
