“The Cannes Film Festival is pleased to salute one of the greatest personalities of contemporary cinema, a man with an extraordinary career who combines great spectacle with innovation, mythology with modernity and cinephilia with technology.” It is in these terms that the press release from the Cannes event announced the winner of the palm of honor for the 77th edition, George Lucas. A prestigious distinction which will be presented to him on the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière during the Closing Ceremony on Saturday May 25, 2024.
“The Cannes Film Festival has always held a special place in my heart. I was surprised and delighted when my first film, THX-1138, was selected to be screened on the Croisette in 1971. Since then, I have returned to the Festival numerous times as a screenwriter, director and producer. I am truly honored by this special recognition which means a lot to me,” reacted the 79-year-old filmmaker.
Inseparable from the Star Wars and Indiana Jones sagas, George Lucas began in the film industry with the adaptation of one of his experimental short films made at university, THX 1138, in the 1970s. His beginnings in the profession are marked by his complicity with Francis Ford Coppola who helped him produce this first feature film immediately revealing the themes that are dear to him: “Science fiction to denounce the recording and surveillance society, the love to fight against destiny and uniformity, the reversibility of moral values to debate the place of good and evil,” recalls the festival.
His second film, American Graffiti, painting the portrait of American youth in the 1960s, will be his first big success and will honor Harrison Ford. In 1977, the release of Star Wars, the first part of the intergalactic saga later named Star Wars, became a global success. “In 40 years and through the 9 episodes of the saga – including 4 directed by himself – George Lucas built a Hollywood empire. George Lucas is an outstanding producer: beyond the 3 Star Wars trilogies, he is associated with the development of legendary films by several directors ranging from Akira Kurosawa’s Kagemusha to the Indiana Jones saga, which he imagined”, salute the festival organizers.
The official Cannes selection will be revealed on Thursday. The presence of big names in Hollywood cinema has already been noted. Kevin Costner returns to the western with Horizon, An American Saga, presented out of competition. Still out of competition, Furiosa, the new installment of George Miller’s Mad Max franchise, will have the honor of the red carpet with its stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth. The Closing Ceremony will be broadcast on Saturday May 25 live on France Télévisions and Brut with Camille Cottin as mistress of ceremonies.