Schoenbrun began her onstage speech by saying: “There’s this song by Drake called, ‘Started from the Bottom.’ It goes, ‘Started from the bottom, now we’re here!” She added: “It’s unbelievable, I can’t believe we’re standing up here in a room full of people who are here to watch our movie. So many people worked so hard and with so much love on it.”

Anderson, the star of The X-Files, The Crown, and Sex Education, joked: “This is my first time in Cannes with a film, after a few 100 years in the industry, and I’m so honored to be here with this particular film. I’m proud of what Schoenbrun has created with all of the extraordinary team. It’s an incredibly special moment, so thank you for inviting me to the party.”

The transgender filmmaker was inspired by earlier horror entries but she reframed it through her lens. “This image of the trans monster kept coming up, whether that be Norman Bates or Buffalo Bill or Frankenstein as a constructed body, and there was this lineage of trans people having really complicated feelings about those movies,” Schoenbrun said.

“Those are the places where they saw representations that felt familiar or comforting in some way to their own experiences — but those movies are super fucking transphobic and problematic.”

The showing marked Schoenbrun’s Cannes debut, which came after visiting the festival a decade ago in a different capacity.

“I was working a day job that I hated and in a body that I hated, and that’s literally where I decided to quit my job and figure out how to live a life that felt better.  I said to myself, ‘I need a better reason to be at Cannes.’”

Major industry players came to celebrate with the cast on the Palais carpet, including Jordan Firstman, who will present Club Kid later in the week, and Oscar-winning producer Alex Coco.

Also in attendance was UTA partner Billy Lazarus and Camp Miasma producer Jeremy Kleiner, best known for the Oscar winners 12 Years a Slave and Moonlight.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma will be released by Mubi on August 7.