The legendary English filmmaker gushed about Sean Baker's Palme d'Or winner during a recording of THR's 'Awards Chatter' ...

"By the time an actor gets to the point of improvisation in a Mike Leigh process, they've got a whole person that they're working with," Marianne Jean-Baptiste tells Newsweek.

In partnership with his actors, Leigh excavates and displays the most vulnerable emotions and experiences a person can have, his films slowly building to cathartic crescendos, with glimmers of hope ...