Cannes is to award legendary US actor Michael Douglas with an honorary Palme d’Or at this year’s festival.
The festival will pay tribute to him during the opening ceremony on May 16.
As part of the tribute, an upcoming Arte documentary - Michael Douglas, The Prodigal Son - by Amine Mesta, produced by Folamour, will be shown at the festival, for two days, from Sunday May 14 at 6pm to Tuesday May 16 at 6pm.
The festival has previously awarded its Palme d’Or d’Honneur to stars and filmmakers such as Forest Whitaker, Agnès Varda, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jodie Foster and Manoel de Oliveira.
Cannes said it was honouring Douglas “in recognition of his brilliant career as well as his engagement for cinema.”
Douglas first came to the Croisette with James Bridges’ 1979 feature The China Syndrome, which he produced and starred in alongside Jane Fonda and Jack Lemmon. In 1992, he starred in Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct, which played in Competition. The following year, he came with Joel Schumacher’s Falling Down, which was also in Competition. He returned to Cannes 20 years later with Behind the Candelabra by Steven Soderbergh, playing the singer and pianist Liberace.
Douglas said: “It is always a breath of fresh air to be at Cannes, which has long provided a wonderful platform for bold creators, artistic audacities and excellence in storytelling. From my first time here in 1979 for The China Syndrome to my most recent premiere for Behind The Candelabra in 2013, the Festival has always reminded me that magic of cinema is not just in what we see onscreen but in its ability to impact people all around the world. After more than 50 years in the business, it’s an honour to return to the Croisette to open the Festival and embrace our shared global language of film.”
Michael Douglas, The Prodigal Son documents how Michael, an actor and producer like his father Kirk, had to embrace their resemblance throughout his career in order to assert his difference.
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