Robert De Niro To Be Given Cannes Lifetime Achievement Award

Legendary actor Robert De Niro has a lengthy history with the Cannes Film Festival. This year, the 78 Festival De Cannes will honor De Niro’s many decades in the film industry with an Honorary Palme d’Or.

De Niro’s career and contributions to film stretch over six decades and are too numerous to count. He has received countless awards, from Oscars to honoraries to lifetime achievement awards. But it stands to reason that this Honorary Palme d’Or is the accumulation of all those things.

The Palme d’Or, or the “Golden Palm,” is Cannes’s most prestigious annual award. In 2024, director Sean Baker won the competing version of this award for the film Anora.

The Honorary Palme d’Or was introduced at the 1997 festival to celebrate Cannes’ 50 anniversary. It acknowledges the work of actors, directors, and other creatives in the film industry and celebrates their exceptional careers in the industry.

Previous winners of the Honorary Palme d’Or include Jane Fonda, Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Tom Cruise, Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Meryl Streep, George Lucas, and even Studio Ghibli.

In 1976, De Niro starred in two films competing against each other at Cannes. First as Alfredo Berlinghieri in Bernardo Bertolucci’s hisotirical drama 1900. The second was none other than his role as Vietnam veteran Travis Bickle in Martin Scorsese’s neo-noir classic Taxi Driver.

Taxi Driver went on to win the Palme d’Or, for Scorsese’s directing. Much of De Niro’s performance contributed to its success, and Taxi Driver was the second of many films De Niro and Scorsese collaborated on over the years.

But Taxi Driver was not the only Golden Palm winner De Niro got to act in. In 1986, he worked in another historical drama, Roland Joffé’s The Mission. Within ten years, he was in two films critically acclaimed by Cannes.

ROBERT DE NIRO A CANNES LES FILLES WE ARE SO BACK #Cannes2025 pic.twitter.com/XbiRWaqJc7

— mymy en 12 chapitres (@httpmymy_) April 7, 2025

In the official announcement on the Festival De Cannes’ website, De Niro shared his love for Cannes.

“I have such close feelings for Festival de Cannes…” he writes “Especially now when there’s so much in the world pulling us apart, Cannes brings us together – storytellers, filmmakers, fans, and friends. It’s like coming home.”

The following day, De Niro will also hold a master class for festivalgoers in the Debussy Theater.

De Niro will receive the Honorary Palme d’Or during the Festival de Cannes opening ceremony on May 13. The festival will run from Tuesday, May 13, to Saturday, May 24, in Cannes, France.