George Lucas receives honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival

George Lucas has received an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The 80-year-old filmmaker — who is best known for creating the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises — has been handed the prestigious accolade at the annual awards ceremony in Cannes, France, with George admitting that it’s “always great to be recognised”.

Speaking to French reporter Didier Allouch, George shared: “Obviously we have a lot of fans, but, in terms of Star Wars and stuff, I don’t make the kind of movies that win awards.”

George feels proud that he decided to follow his own instincts as a filmmaker.

The acclaimed director — who served as the chairman of Lucasfilm before selling it to The Walt Disney Company in 2012 — said: “I was just a student observer and I was bored to death. I said, ‘I don’t want to make Hollywood movies. I know how to do this.'”

Meanwhile, Sean Baker has won the Palme d’Or for Anora, the comedy-drama film that centres on an exotic dancer.

The 53-year-old director is actually the first American filmmaker to win the top prize at Cannes since Terrence Malick in 2011.

Sean accepted the award from Francis Ford Coppola, a two-time Palme d’Or winner.

He said in his acceptance speech: “Watching a film with others in a movie theatre is one of the great communal experiences. We share laughter, sorrow, anger, fear and hopefully have a catharsis with our friends and strangers. So I say the future of cinema is where it started: in a movie theatre.”

Elsewhere, Payal Kapadia has won the Grand Prix, the festival’s second-highest award, for All We Imagine as Light.

The drama movie — which focuses on the lives of three women in Mumbai — was actually the first Indian film to be selected for the competition in 30 years.

Select list of award winners:

Palme d’Or:

• Anora, Sean Baker

Grand Prix:

• All We Imagine as Light, Payal Kapadia

Director:

• Miguel Gomes, Grand Tour

Actor:

• Jesse Plemons, Kinds of Kindness

Actresses:

• Emilia Perez ensemble

Jury Prize:

• Emilia Perez

Special Award:

• Mohammad Rasoulof, The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Screenplay:

• Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

Camera d’Or:

• Armand, Halfdan Ullman Tondel

Camera d’Or Special Mention:

• Mongrel, Chiang Wei Liang, You Qiao Yin

Short Film Palme d’Or:

• The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent, Nebojsa Slijepcevic

Short Film Special Mention:

• Bad for a Moment, Daniel Soares