Bernardo Bertolucci to Receive Honorary Palme D’Or

Director of “Last Tango in Paris” and “The Last Emperor” to receive honor at Cannes opening ceremony

We won't know which of this year's Cannes Film Festival entries will win the Palme d'Or until the festival's closing ceremony, but fest organizeers have now announced the winner of the honorary  Palme d'Or: director Bernardo Bertolucci.

Bernardo BertolucciThe Italian director, whose films include "The Conformist," "Last Tango in Paris" and the Oscar Best Picture winner "The Last Emperor," will receive his honor at the festival's opening night ceremony on May 11.

“The quality of his work, which appears today in all its uniqueness and the extent of which we receive every day intact, the strength of his commitment to cinema and the ties that bind make this for Cannes the first legitimate recipient," said the festival's Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux in a press release announcing the honor.

Bertolucci's last film was "The Dreamers," in 2003. He is reported to be working on a 3D adaptation of the Niccolo Ammaniti young-adult novel "lo e te" ("You and Me").

(Photo by Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images)

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