Meryl Streep will be pick up an honorary Palme d’Or at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, the festival announced on Thursday. Streep will receive her honors during the May 14 opening ceremony at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, which French actress Camille Cottin (“Call My Agent”) will host. As announced in April, George Lucas will receive an honorary Palme d’Or at the May 25 closing ceremony, also hosted by Cottin.
Streep winner returns to the Croisette for the first time since she won best actress there in 1989 for “Evil Angels” (“A Cry in the Dark”), directed by Fred Schepisi.
“I am immeasurably honored to receive the news of this prestigious award. To win a prize at Cannes, for the international community of artists, has always represented the highest achievement in the art of filmmaking,” Streep said in a statement. “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!”
“We all have something in us of Meryl Streep!” Iris Knobloch and Thierry Frémaux said, also via statement. “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!’ 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.”
As previously announced, Quentin Dupieux’s “The Second Act” starring Léa Seydoux will open this year’s festival. Among the big-ticket premieres out of competition are George Miller’s “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” and Kevin Costner’s “Horizon, an American Saga.”
The main competition lineup includes David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds,” a film about loss starring Vincent Cassell and Diane Kruger; Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” his third film with Emma Stone after “The Favourite” and “Poor Things”; Paul Schrader’s “Oh Canada,” with Richard Gere and Uma Thurman; Francis Ford Coppola’s long-awaited, self-financed “Megalopolis” and Ali Abbasi’s “The Apprentice,” in which the uncompromising director of “Border” and “Holy Spider” tackles the story of a young Donald Trump.
Greta Gerwig leads this year’s jury, which also includes actors Lily Gladstone and Eva Green, directors Nadine Labaki, Juan Antonio Bayona and Kore-eda Hirokazu, and Turkish screenwriter and photographer Ebru Ceylan, Italian actor Pierfrancesco Favino and French actor/producer Omar Sy.