Robert De Niro will receive an honorary Palme d'Or in Cannes. Here's his history with the festival

Robert De Niro will receive an honorary Palme d’Or in Cannes. Here’s his history with the festival

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The 78th Cannes Film Festival kicks off on Tuesday May 13th, and on the opening night, Robert De Niro will receive an honorary Palme d’Or for lifetime achievement. (May 9)

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Actor Edgar Ramirez, right, kisses fellow actor Robert De Niro during a photo call for “Hands of Stone” at the 69th international film festival, Cannes, southern France on May 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

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American actor Robert De Niro, left, appears with French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, after receiving the French Medal of Art and Letters during the 44th Cannes Film Festival in Southern France on May 17, 1991. (AP Photo/Jose Goitia, File)

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Jury member Uma Thurman, right, and jury president Robert De Niro attend the opening ceremony for the 64th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, on May 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, FIle)

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Director Martin Scorsese, and actor Robert De Niro appear after the premiere of the film “Killers of the Flower Moon” at the 76th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, on May 20, 2023. (Photo by Scott Garfitt/Invision/AP, File)

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Robert De Niro poses for photographers at the photo call for the film “Killers of the Flower Moon’” at the 76th international film festival, Cannes, southern France on May 21, 2023. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File)

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Actor Robert De Niro appears for the screening of “Once Upon a Time in America” at the 65th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France on May 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

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Actor Robert De Niro appears at the photo call for the film “What Just Happened?” during the 61st International film festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 25, 2008. (AP Photo/Carlo Allegri, File)

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Actor Robert De Niro, center, appears with fellow actor Sam Wanamaker, left, and director Irwin Winkler, during the 44th Cannes Film Festival in Southern France, where they will present their motion picture “Guilty by Suspicion,” on May 17, 1991. (AP Photo/Gilbert Tourte, Film)

CANNES, France (AP) — Robert De Niro will receive an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, a culmination for the 81-year-old actor whose history with the French film festival stretches back half a century.

In 1976, De Niro starred in two films — Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” and Bernardo Bertolucci’s “1900" — that premiered in competition at Cannes. “Taxi Driver” was an immediate sensation, and went home with the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or.

Since then, De Niro has been a regular on the Croisette, returning with “The King of Comedy” in 1983, Sergio Leone’s “Once Upon a Time in America” in 1984 and Roland Joffé's “The Mission” in 1986. Joffé's film also won the Palme, making De Niro the rare actor to star in two Palme d’Or winners.

Though De Niro helps run his own film festival back in New York, the Tribeca Festival, he has remained a mainstay in Cannes. He presided over the jury in 2011 that selected Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” for the Palme. Most recently, he and Scorsese returned to premiere “Killers of the Flower Moon” in 2023.

“I have such close feelings for Festival de Cannes,” De Niro said when his honorary Palme d’Or was announced last month. “Especially now when there’s so much in the world pulling us apart, Cannes brings us together — storytellers, filmmakers, fans, and friends. It’s like coming home.”

De Niro is to receive the award in the festival’s opening ceremony on May 13.

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