Matt Damon has said that he was “overwhelmed” by the standing ovation that he received at Cannes.

The actor was speaking at a press conference following the world premiere of his new film Stillwater.

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As reported by The Hollywood Reporter, Damon attributed his emotional response to being with his peers for the first time after the coronavirus outbreak.

“I think we’ll all look back and remember this moment of launching out of COVID. And what a way to do it,” he said.

“To be in the same room with 1,000 other people who are strangers, but are also part of the same community because we all love the same thing… it was such a great reminder of why we do this.”

Damon continued: “I never would have appreciated it in that way had we not just gone through what we went through.”

Finally, he concluded that the premiere was “unlike any other experience I’ve had here.”

Damon stars as a blue-collar oil rig worker in Stillwater. When he discovers that his estranged daughter has been falsely arrested for murder, he makes it his mission to exonerate her.

The film has garnered strong reviews from the festival, with Variety calling Damon’s performance “remarkable”.

Elsewhere at Cannes, Spike Lee has used his platform at the festival to hit out at world leaders.

Lee, who is the president of the jury that will pick the winner of this year’s Cannes Palme d’Or, criticised former US President Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro when asked about anti-LGBT laws in Georgia at a press conference (via The Guardian).

“This world is run by gangsters: Agent Orange [Donald Trump], there’s a guy in Brazil and Putin,” he said.

“That’s it: they’re gangsters. They have no morals, no scruples. That’s the world we live in. We have to speak out against gangsters like that.”