Clint Eastwood receives Lifetime Palm d’Or

Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux presented the Palm d’Or lifetime achievement award to veteran actor-director Clint Eastwood in Paris on Wednesday. This makes Eastwood only the second person to have ever received this award. The first recipient of this prestigious honorary award went to Ingmar Bergman in 1997 during the 50th anniversary of the festival.

“It would be impossible to choose just one of your works for this supreme honor,” Jacob said of the “symbolic gesture,” which paid homage to Eastwood’s career in front of and behind the camera.

Eastwood’s first showing at the Cannes Film Festival was in 1985 with ‘Pale Rider’, followed by four more appearances including ‘Bird’, ‘White Hunter Black Heart’, ‘Mystic River’ and finally ‘Changeling’. The Festival de Cannes 2009 will be May 13-24, but Eastwood not attend as he will be shooting in South Africa.

“I’m very, very flattered that you’ve chosen me for this,” Eastwood said. “French cineastes have always been very supportive of me along the way. When I directed my first movie, French cineastes and critics encouraged me, while in my own country, everyone was much more reticent. France is the first country to approach and appreciate cinema as an art form.” — HR

[source: Hollywood Reporter]