Film director Godard scoops special award in Cannes

Cate Blanchett and Cinematographer Fabrice Aragno present the Palme d'Or to the absent Jean-Luc Godard. Keystone

Swiss-French movie director Jean-Luc Godard was awarded a special Palme d’Or to honour both his film Image Book and his decades-long contribution to cinema at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.

Jury president Cate Blanchett said the 87-year-old had “constantly redefined cinema” during his career and that Image Book “almost sat apart from the other films, almost outside time and space”. The media-shy director did not attend the ceremony and remotely conducted a press conference last week via social media.

The special Palme d’Or adds to Godard’s list of awards, which also include an honorary Oscar in 2010 and a Swiss Film Honorary Award two years later. 

Godard, a Swiss national since 1953, was born in Paris to a Swiss father and a French mother. He first won international renown in 1960 for his first full-length feature Breathless, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg.

He has made well over 40 films and video experiments, including other well-received films such as Sympathy for the Devil, and Goodbye to Language.

At the 71st Cannes Film FestivalExternal link, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda took home the main Palme d’Or prize for his movie Shoplifters and director Spike Lee won the Grand Prix for BlacKkKlansman.