Meryl Streep to Receive Honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival on Opening Night (EXCLUSIVE)
Meryl Streep will receive the honorary Palme d’Or on the opening night of the 77th edition of Cannes Film Festival, Variety has learned.
Luring the Oscar winner is yet another feat for this Cannes edition, which will bring together a flurry Hollywood legends. Notably, George Lucas will receive the honorary Palme d’Or during the closing ceremony; Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis” and Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada” are playing in competition; and George Miller‘s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and Kevin Costner’s Western epic “Horizon, an American Saga” are playing out of competition. Streep will be also in good company at the festival with “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig serving as jury president. The pair worked together on “Little Women.”
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The honorary tribute will mark Streep’s long-awaited return to Cannes after decades. It appears that her last trip to the festival dates back to Fred Schepisi’s “Evil Angels a Cry in the Dark” for which she won best actress in 1989.
“I am immeasurably honored to receive the news of this prestigious award,” Streep said in a statement. “To win a prize at Cannes, for the international community of artists, has always represented the highest achievement in the art of filmmaking. To stand in the shadow of those who have previously been honored is humbling and thrilling in equal part. I so look forward to coming to France to thank everyone in person this May,” Streep continued.
Cannes Film Festival president Iris Knobloch and general delegate Thierry Frémaux said, “We all have something in us of Meryl Streep!” “We all have something in us of ‘Kramer vs. Kramer,’ ‘Sophie’s Choice,’ ‘Out of Africa,’ ‘The Bridges of Madison County,’ ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ and ‘Mamma Mia!” the duo said in a joint statement. “Because she has spanned almost 50 years of cinema and embodied countless masterpieces, Meryl Streep is part of our collective imagination, our shared love of cinema,” Knobloch and Frémaux continued.
A notoriously private and discreet actor, Streep seldom appears in film festivals, and Fremaux has been courting her for several years to get her back on the Croisette in an honorary role. Along with the gala ceremony which will pay tribute to her sprawling – and still vibrant — career, Streep might take part in a conversation while in Cannes. She will succeed Michael Douglas who received the award on opening night last year. Previous Cannes honorees include Jeanne Moreau, Marco Bellocchio, Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jane Fonda, Agnès Varda, Forest Whitaker and Jodie Foster.
Known for playing strong and complex women, Streep has earned 21 Oscar nominations and won three of them, for “Kramer vs. Kramer” (on which he reportedly rewrote a crucial monologue), “Sophie’s Choice” and “The Iron Lady.” She broke through in 1978 with Michael Cimino’s “The Deer Hunter,” starring Robert De Niro. She also delivered an iconic performances opposite Robert Redford in Sidney Pollack’s romantic epic “Out of Africa” and in “The Bridges of Madison County,” where she starred alongside Clint Eastwood. She has also excelled in lighter fare, including “The Devil Wears Prada,” as well as the musical “Mamma Mia!”
As previously announced, the festival will kick off with Quentin Dupieux’s “The Second Act,” starring Lea Seydoux, Vincent Lindon, Louis Garrel and Raphaël Quenard. The opening and closing ceremonies will be emceed by Camille Cottin, who broke through in “Call My Agent!” and starred in “Stillwater” and “House of Gucci,” among others. The high-profile roster of movies slated for this year’s festival include Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” a stylized three-part story set in the present that reunites the “Poor Things” helmer with Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe; Jacques Audiard’s musical melodrama “Emilia Perez” starring Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez; Paolo Sorrentino’s “Parthenope” with Gary Oldman; and David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds” starring Vincent Cassel and Diane Kruger; Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice,” which sees Sebastian Stan take on the role of a Donald Trump; and Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance,” a female-powered horror film starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley from Universal Pictures and Working Title Films.
The 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will take place May 14-25.
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