Director, screenwriter and producer George Lucas will receive the Honorary Palme d’or on Saturday, May 25th at the Closing Ceremony of the 77th Festival de Cannes.
The ceremony will broadcast live on French TV channel France 2 and Brut.
It was Star Wars that set Lucas’ legendary status in stone. He went on to executive produce two sequels based on his stories, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, and returned more than a decade later to write and direct three Star Wars prequels, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith. In the meantime, George brought to the screen another legendary film hero, Indiana Jones, who debuted in Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Based on a story by George Lucas and Philip Kaufman and directed by friend Steven Spielberg, the Indiana Jones franchise has included three sequel films as well as a television series, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
Among other projects George executive produced are Labyrinth, directed by Muppets legend Jim Henson, and Willow, directed by Ron Howard and based on a story by Lucas. His tireless efforts to push the boundaries of film technology have resulted in groundbreaking companies such as Industrial Light & Magic, Skywalker Sound, THX, and LucasArts. He even founded the small Lucasfilm computer graphics division that would eventually become Pixar.
The Honorary Palme d’or will be presented to him on stage at the Grand Théâtre Lumière. The Festival de Cannes wrote in a statement that they are “delighted to pay tribute to one of the greatest figures of contemporary cinema, a man with an extraordinary career, who brings together great entertainment and innovation, mythology and modernity and cinephilia and technology.”
Camille Cottin will serve as Master of Ceremonies.
