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.
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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.
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.
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However, Godard – known for films like Breathless and Sympathy for the Devil – has told the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that he will not attend the ceremony. “He reiterated his thanks for the award,” Academy president Tom Sherak said in a statement, “and also sent his good wishes to the other…
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