Barbra Streisand will be awarded an honorary Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
The occasion will mark the EGOT recipient’s first time at attending Cannes. She will be presented with the Palme d’Or on May 23 during the festival’s awards ceremony.
Streisand joins a prestigious list of previous Cannes honorary Palme recipients, including Peter Jackson, Agnès Varda, Marco Bellocchio, Jodie Foster, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro and Tom Cruise.
In awarding the honorary Palme d’Or, the festival said: “Barbra Streisand has reached the pinnacle of the entertainment industry like no one before her. But this staggering record pales in comparison to her influence on pop culture in the second half of the 20th century.”
The press release also noted Streisand’s philanthropic efforts, including the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and the Streisand Foundation’s support of gender and minority equality, environmental issues, medical research and arts education for disadvantaged children.
“A global star, Barbra Streisand is above all an artist, initiating projects that reflect who she is, that are her own and that she shares with the whole world,” festival director Thierry Frémaux said. “She is the legendary synthesis between Broadway and Hollywood, between the music hall stage and the big screen. Hearing her sing and seeing her perform are part of our best years.”
“It is with a sense of pride and deep humility, that I’m honored to join the company of past Honorary Palme d’Or recipients whose work has long inspired me,” Streisand said in a statement on Wednesday. “In these challenging times, movies have the ability to open our hearts and minds to stories that reflect our shared humanity, and to perspectives that remind us of both our fragility and our resilience. Cinema transcends borders and politics, and affirms the power of imagination to shape a more compassionate world.”
The 79th Festival de Cannes will take place May 12-23.
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