Andy Garcia‘s passion project Diamond sparked a nine-minute ovation in Cannes on Tuesday evening as the star set down at the festival in the company of co-stars Vicky Krieps and Rosemarie DeWitt.

Billed as a love letter to L.A. and a homage to the film noir of the past, the quirky whodunnit is written and directed by Garcia who also stars as the mysterious figure of Joe Diamond, an out-of-time private detective with an uncanny gift for solving cases that have stumped the LAPD.

Diamond is the fruit of a 20-year journey for Garcia who first hit on the idea for the film while helping his daughter Daniella on a homework assignment which involved writing a short story in the vein of The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler.

“As you might know this has been a 20-year journey and I couldn’t think of a more sacred place than to be here, a place where film noir was coined, and to share this very personal journey here with the Festival de Cannes,” Garcia told the enthusiastic audience in the Grand Salle Lumière.

“We all grew up with a dream and I can tell you and share with young people out there who have dreams that there is no great obstacle that can’t be overcome. Follow your dream. Keep falling forward. As my father would say never take a step backward, not even to gain momentum. I am blessed to be here with you all this evening. Thank you.”

The cast also features Brendan Fraser, Bill Murray, Dustin Hoffman, Demián Bichir, Danny Huston Richardson Jackson, Yul Vazquez, Robert Patrick and Rachel Ticotin.

They did not travel to Cannes for the premiere but Garcia thanked them in their absence as well as the cast members in the room.

“That is one’s greatest award when people you admire, you look up to, you’re inspired by, trust you and want to play in your world for a little bit. Without their support, without their inspiration this would not be the film that it is,” he said.

Diamond is the third feature directorial project for Garcia after the 1993 documentary Cachao… Como Su Ritmo No Hay Dos, and 2005’s The Lost City.

He was last in Cannes with Ocean’s Thirteen in 2007 and before that Things to Do In Denver When You’re Dead which played in Un Certain Regard in 1995.

Diamond is among a dozen films playing in the Out of Competition strand this year alongside pictures such as Quentin Dupieux’s Full Phil, with Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart and Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell.