Actor in Basic Instinct, The Game or Wall Street, Michael Douglas will receive the Palme d'or d'honneur of the Cannes Film Festival, "which will salute his brilliant career and his commitment to cinema", during the opening ceremony of the 16 May, the festival announced on Wednesday, May 3. "After more than fifty years of career, it is an honor to return to the Croisette to open the Festival and speak our common language, that of cinema," responded the 78-year-old actor in a press release.
Michael Douglas has been named best male performer at Cannes four times: for The Chinese Syndrome, by James Bridges, in 1979; for Basic Instinct, by Paul Verhoeven, in 1992; for Chute libre, by Joel Schumacher, in 1993, and for My life with Liberace, by Steven Soderbergh, in 2013.
Acting and producing career
His father, the actor Kirk Douglas, known in particular for his role in Stanley Kubrick's peplum Spartacus (1960) presided over the Festival jury in 1980. During his career, the interpreter of Jack Colton in Chasing the Diamond Green (1984) won the Oscar for Best Actor in 1988 for the role of New York stockbroker Gordon Gekko in Oliver Stone's Wall Street. He was also rewarded as a producer with Flight over a cuckoo's nest, by Milos Forman, Oscar for best film in 1976. He had also received, twice, the Cesar of honor for all of his career, in 1998 and in 2016. In 2004, he also received the Cecil B. DeMille award, still for his entire career, at the Golden Globes ceremony.
The 76th edition of the Festival, which will take place from May 16 to 27, has yet to announce the composition of its jury, chaired by Swedish director Ruben Östlund, who won his second Palme d'or last year for his film Without filter. .
