Jodie Foster to Receive Honorary Palme d’Or at In-Person Cannes Film Festival
Jodie Foster will be honored two-fold at the Cannes Film Festival this year, as the actress-director is set to be the guest of honor at the opening ceremony and will receive the Honorary Palme d’Or.
In receiving the award, Foster will have a bit of a full-circle moment. When she first attended Cannes as a teenager in 1976, Foster presented Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” which won the Palme d’Or that year. The honorary prize has also gone to Jeanne Moreau, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jane Fonda, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Manoel de Oliveira, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Agnès Varda and Alain Delon.
“Jodie Foster has provided us with an amazing gift by coming to celebrate the return of the Festival on the Croisette,” President Pierre Lescure said in a statement. “Her aura is unparalleled: she embodies modernity, the radiant intelligence of independence and the need for freedom.”
The festival praised Foster, a two-time Oscar winning actor, director and producer, as “a sharp cinephile, knowledgeable and passionate.”
“I am flattered that Cannes thought of me,” Foster said in a statement. “And I am very honored to be able to share a few words of wisdom or tell an adventure or two with a new generation of filmmakers.”
With Foster as the guest of honor, Spike Lee will preside over the competition jury. The 74th Cannes Film Festival will take place from July 6-17.