Francis Ford Coppola’s long-gestating and much-discussed sci-fi epic Megalopolis had its world premiere on Thursday night at the Cannes Film Festival, and was greeted with a 10-minute standing ovation inside the Grand Lumiere Theatre, as he gave a hug to each of his cast — among them Nathalie Emmanuel, Adam Driver, Aubrey Plaza and Giancarlo Esposito — and threw his hat into the cheering crowd.

After ten minutes of applause, Coppola interrupted the applause to take a microphone and introduce his family, including son, Roman Coppola, and sister, Talia Shire, both of whom worked on the film. He noted they were his family, but, added of his other collaborators on the film: “They were all my family. And in fact,…