Legendary Actress Receives Standing Ovation After Stealing the Show at Film Festival

Cannes is known for its glitz and glam, but this week, it was a 95-year-old Hollywood legend who stole the show.

June Squibb, the beloved character actress whose career has spanned more than six decades, made a heartwarming and headline-grabbing appearance at the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of Eleanor the Great—the directorial debut of Scarlett Johansson.

The intergenerational drama, also starring Chiwetel Ejiofor and Solo‘s Erin Kellyman, earned a roaring five-minute standing ovation, and for good reason. The touching story follows Eleanor, a widowed woman who relocates from Florida to New York City in her nineties and forms an unlikely friendship with a 19-year-old student.

“If I’m called ‘icon’ one more time, I’m going to scream,” Squibb joked in a past interview with The Hollywood Reporter. “A 70-year-old will say, ‘I want to be you when I grow up!’”

Well, who wouldn’t? Squibb literally ditched her wheelchair to walk the Cannes red carpet alongside Johansson and Kellyman, using a cane for support and stunning in a vibrant floral kimono. A day earlier, she turned heads again in a sleek black floral gown at the film’s official screening.

Scarlett Johansson told Variety that debuting the film at Cannes was “a dream come true,” describing it as “a film about friendship, about grief, about forgiveness—things we could all use more of right now.”

Squibb’s turn as Eleanor marks yet another milestone in a career that’s only gaining momentum. After her Broadway debut in Gypsy back in 1959, the actress received an Oscar nomination in 2013 for Nebraska and recently landed her first leading role in an action comedy with last year’s Thelma.

If anyone is proving that age is just a number—and that Hollywood’s heart can beat strongest in its oldest stars—it’s June Squibb.