Robert De Niro Slams Trump In Cannes Honorary Palme d'Or Speech: 'We Are Fighting Like Hell For The Democracy We Once Took For Granted'

Yahoo

13-05-2025

The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival got off to both a politically charged and Hollywood start on Tuesday evening as Robert De Niro was presented with an honorary Palme d'Or by Leonardo DiCaprio.
An impassioned De Niro used his acceptance speech to address issues he said are facing the artistic community and threatening democracy under the presidency of Donald Trump.
More from Deadline
Cannes Film Festival 2025 In Photos: Opening Ceremony, 'Leave One Day' Premiere & Palme d'Or Honoree Robert De Niro
Standing Ovations At Cannes: How We Clock Those Claps, Which Movie Holds The Record & Why The Industry Loves To Hate The Ritual
Samuel L. Jackson, Eva Green & Maria Pedraza To Star In Thriller 'Just Play Dead' - Cannes Market
'In my country, we are fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted. That affects all of us here because the arts are democratic. Art is inclusive, it brings people together. Art embraces diversity and that's why art is a threat, that's why we are a threat to autocrats and fascists,' he said.
'America's philistine president has had himself appointed head of one of our premier cultural institutions. He has cut funding and support to the arts, humanities and education. And now he has announced a 100% tariff on films produced outside of the U.S.,' he continued. 'Let that sink in … You can't put a price on creativity, but apparently you can put a tariff on it.
De Niro said Trump's actions were not a uniquely U.S. issue.
'This is not just an American problem, it's a global one. We can't all just sit back and watch. We have to act and we have to act now, not with violence but with great passion and determination. It's time for everyone who cares about liberty to organize, to protest — and when there are elections, of course, to vote. Tonight and for the next 11 days we show our strength and commitment by celebrating art in this glorious festival. Libérté, égalité, fraternité.'
DiCaprio, who arrived on stage to rousing applause, highlighted the role played De Niro in his early career.
'Growing up in Los Angeles, every young actor I knew watched De Niro's work. We studied him, trying to understand how he immersed himself so completely in his characters. He created the blueprint. He wasn't just another great actor, he was the actor,' said DiCaprio.
DiCaprio recalled how he had gotten his first big movie break playing opposite De Niro in This Boy's Life.
'The audition process was a tough one. Lots of competition. None of us knew who would get the part… at 15 or 16 years old, I did the only thing I couldn't think to stand. I screamed at him at the top of my lungs,' recounted DiCaprio.
The room burst into laughing. Later that day, as the story goes, Bob was getting on his plane with a producer. Art Linson asked who do you want to play the part? And in classic De Niro fashion, he replied, second kid from the last. Luckily, that second kid was me, and that moment changed my life forever, started my entire career in the world of cinema.
A montage of De Niro's films was played kicking off with the explosion in Casino and including the famous 'you talkin' to me' scene in Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver.
The honor came closes to 50 years after De Niro first attended Cannes with Bernardo Bertolucci's 1900 and Taxi Driver, which won the Palme d'Or.
In between times, he has been a regular guest at the festival with movies including Scorsese's The King of Comedy, which opened the festival in 1983; Sergio Leone's last film Once Upon a Time in America, Roland Joffé's The Mission, which also won the Palme d'Or.
Most recently, he was at the festival with Scorsese's Killer s of the Flower Moon which played Out of Competition in 2023.
The ceremony preceded the world premiere of feel-good musical French film Leave One Day by Amélie Bonnin, which made Cannes history as the first debut feature to open the festival.
Mixing drama with pop songs and classics of the La Chanson Francaise, the tale of a talented top chef who returns to her small provincial film to help out in the family roadside diner after her father suffers a heart attack, was expected to down well with the predominantly French opening night crowd.
On a more somber note, the ceremony was dedicated to the late Émilie Dequenne, the Belgian actress who first achieved fame with her 1999 Cannes d'Or-winning, big screen debut in Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne's drama Rosetta. Dequenne died in March this year at the age 43 after battling a rare adrenal gland cancer.
The opening ceremony also featured an impassioned speech from Jury President Juliette Binoche, who paid tribute to Gaza artist and photojournalist Fatima Hassouna.
The young woman who had been invited to attend this year's edition as the subject of a documentary playing in the parallel ACID section but was killed in an Israeli airstrike just 24 hours of the film's selection was announced.
Binoche was joined on stage by her jury members Halle Berry, Payal Kapadia, Alba Rohrwacher, Leïla Slimani, Dieudo Hamadi, Hong Sangsoo, Carlos Reygadas and Jeremy Strong.
They will watch and vote on 22 films in the running for the Palme d'Or including Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme, Ari Aster's Eddington, Julia Ducournau's Alpha, Hafsia Herzi's La Petite Dernière and Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague.
The honor of declaring the festival open went to Quentin Tarantino who is at the festival this year as guest of honor of Cannes Classics this year with a special tribute devoted to late low-budget westerns director George Sherman.
Best of Deadline
TV Show Book Adaptations Arriving In 2025 So Far
Book-To-Movie Adaptations Coming Out In 2025
2025-26 Awards Season Calendar: Dates For Tonys, Emmys, Oscars & More