Although it only received the third place prize at Cannes, Xavier Dolan’s Mommy arguably received a louder, longer standing ovation than any film at this year’s festival.

In fact, it received one of the biggest ovations in Cannes history. As Dolan explained to ET Canada’s Natasha Gargiulo shortly after returning to Montreal from the festival, there is good reason to believe that the 13-minute-long ovation was one for the record books.

“You know what, Thierry Frémaux [director of the festival] did tell me something very sweet after the premiere,”; Dolan began. “He told me that was one of the most beautiful ovations in Cannes. And I was like, “Well, thank you,’ because there was a lot of great films this year. And then he said, “No, no, no that was one of the greatest ovations in Cannes, period.’ And I was like, “Whoa.'”;

Dolan attended the premiere with his mother (the inspiration for his debut feature I Killed My Mother), who he says was overcome with emotion: “I had my mom and my dad right behind me and I could hold my mother’s hand and I told her all of this is for you and then she was crying… like an ugly cry, sort of like the Six Feet Under ending ugly cry.”;

According to Dolan, the experience was so overwhelming that he momentarily felt like he had left his body: “I mean, it’s sort of a trance. You’re there, but then there’s a part of you that’s hovering above and you’re watching all of this like sort of angel. Elevating on the crowd and trying to have a view and perspective of what’s going on and then you’re surrounded by the people that you love the most, your oldest friends.”;

But getting a 13-minute-long standing ovation at Cannes comes with a slight drawback. In light of the film’s success, Dolan will now have to travel the world promoting it, which means that he’ll have to put his follow-up film (his English language debut) on hold.

“It changes things,”; Dolan said. “I will have to be present for the promotion of the movie, so there’s the movie then there’s talking about the movie and sharing the movie with people and bringing the movie to places and traveling. It’s sort of unfathomable to think that you can completely be absent for a movie that’s been received like that. Nothing foreshadowed what would happen in Cannes and we’re most grateful, but of course, it does change plans.”;

Although the filmmaker kept details regarding his English language debut close to the chest, he did share two possible casting choices with us. “I would love to work with Kate Winslet and Meryl Streep,”; he said.

For our full interview, tune-in to ET Canada tonight.