Jodie Foster will be a special guest at the opening ceremony of the 74th Cannes Film Festival as the award-winning actress is set to receive the Honorary Palme d’Or. The coveted lifetime achievement is the highest award at the festival, given to the best film each year. The likes of Jeanne Moreau, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jane Fonda, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Manoel de Oliveira, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Agnès Varda, and Alain Delon had each earned the honor. The two-time Oscar-winning actress, perhaps best known for her stellar performances in the 1997 psychological thriller The Silence of the Lambs and the 1988 drama The Accused, claims a total of seven films (where she starred either on-screen or in the director’s chair) that have screened at the Cannes.
“Cannes is a festival to which I owe so much, it has completely changed my life. Although I had already directed before, my first time on the Croisette was a defining moment for me. Showcasing one of my films here has always been a dream of mine,” said the film multi-hyphenate. Foster first attended Cannes at the age of 13 in 1976 for the grand premiere of Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver. The film, in which Foster controversially starred opposite Robert DeNiro as a child prostitute, was nominated for four Academy Awards and won the Palme d’Or. “I am flattered that Cannes thought of me 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.”
“Jodie Foster has provided us with an amazing gift by coming to celebrate the return of the festival on the Croisette. Her aura is unparalleled: she embodies modernity, the radiant intelligence of independence and the need for freedom,” Cannes president Pierre Lescure said. “Jodie never ceases to reinvent herself. She questions with her piercing gaze, learns from others, and is willing to step back from her beliefs in order to forge new morals. Do what is fair. An idea that she strives to convey in the decisions she makes as an actress and director, and which makes her so precious during these confusing times. We will honor her with warmth and admiration,” said the festival’s General Delegate, Thierry Frémaux.
