The 78th Cannes Film Festival opened Tuesday at the famed French seaside resort with elite performers lining up to fawn over each other – and Robert De Niro. Ukraine will also be flattered with a salute of its own.
Over the next 12 days, AP reports Cannes will play host to glittering premieres including those of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest and Ari Aster’s Eddington, but not before DeNiro is applauded.
At the festival’s opening ceremony on Tuesday night, De Niro will receive an honorary Palme d’Or, 49 years after Taxi Driver claimed Cannes’ top prize.
Robert De Niro as Travis Bickle on a poster for the Columbia Pictures film ‘Taxi Driver’, directed by Martin Scorsese, 1976. (Photo by Silver Screen Collection/Getty Images)
Cannes launched the same day Gérard Depardieu, one of France’s most famous actors, was found guilty of having sexually assaulted two women on a 2021 film set, as Breitbart News reported.
In one of France’s most prominent #MeToo cases, Depardieu was given an 18-month suspended prison sentence but has already said he will appeal
The 76-year-old has long been a regular presence at Cannes.
Geopolitics will also be in the spotlight at Cannes, AP reports, with the elite gathering beginning by screening three 2025 Ukraine documentaries: Zelensky, Bernard-Henri Lévy’s Notre Guerre and The Associated Press-Frontline coproduction 2000 Meters to Andriivka, by 20 Days in Mariupol Oscar-winner Mstyslav Chernov.
“This ‘Ukraine Day’ is a reminder of the commitment of artists, authors and journalists to tell the story of this conflict in the heart of Europe,” the festival said in a statement as seen by AP.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
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