logo
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Denzel Washington awarded honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: Denzel Washington awarded honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes

News.com.au20-05-2025
The unannounced award came ahead of Monday night's world premiere of Spike Lee's Highest 2 Lowest, the actor and filmmaker's fifth collaboration. The announcement was made by festival chief Thierry Frémaux as he addressed the crowd. "It's a very special day. Denzel, because you are here, we want to make something special for you. It's a kind of way for us to tell you our adoration, what you have done in cinema. Nobody knows about that except Spike Lee, who wrote me to do that.".
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Denzel Washington gives his brutally honest take on Oscars after Gladiator II snub
Denzel Washington gives his brutally honest take on Oscars after Gladiator II snub

News.com.au

time2 hours ago

  • News.com.au

Denzel Washington gives his brutally honest take on Oscars after Gladiator II snub

Denzel Washington doesn't care about those shiny gold trophies. The Fences actor, 70, recently explained why winning an Oscar isn't important to him in his career. 'I don't do it for Oscars. I don't care about that kind of stuff,' he said on Jake's Takes while promoting his new film, Highest 2 Lowest. 'I've been at this a long time, and there's time when I won and shouldn't have won and then didn't win and should've won,' Washington added, per the New York Post. 'Man gives the award. God gives the reward.' Despite being nominated nine times and taking home two wins at the award ceremony, Washington noted: 'I'm not that interested in Oscars.' 'People ask me, 'Where do I keep it?' Well, next to the other one. I'm not bragging! Just telling you how I feel about it,' he said. 'On my last day, [Oscars] aren't going to do me a bit of good.' Washington won Oscars in 1990 for Glory and in 2002 for Training Day. He was also nominated for his performances in Cry Freedom, Malcolm X, The Hurricane, Flight, Fences, Roman J. Israel, Esq. and The Tragedy of Macbeth. Earlier this year, Washington was snubbed by the Academy for his performance in Gladiator II. He was expected to get into the Best Supporting Actor race, especially after scoring nominations at the 2025 Golden Globes and 2025 Critics Choice Awards. When asked how he felt about the snub in February, Washington sarcastically told the New York Times: 'Are you kidding me? Awww. Oh, I'm so upset.' 'Listen, I've been around too long. I've got — I don't wanna say other fish to fry, but there's a reality at this age,' he added. 'The beginning of wisdom is understanding. I'm getting wiser, working on talking less and learning to understand more — and that's exciting.' Three months after the Oscars snub, Washington failed to get nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in Othello, which generated controversy for its high ticket costs. Last year, Washington made headlines for saying he plans to retire after his slew of upcoming acting projects, including Black Panther 3. 'I don't know how many more films I'm going to make. Probably not that many,' he said during an interview with Australia's Today show. 'I want to do things I haven't done,' Washington added.

‘Crying': Jake Paul steals thunder at brother's glamorous wedding
‘Crying': Jake Paul steals thunder at brother's glamorous wedding

News.com.au

time3 hours ago

  • News.com.au

‘Crying': Jake Paul steals thunder at brother's glamorous wedding

WWE star Logan Paul and model Nina Agdal got married during a ceremony in Lake Como, Italy on Saturday, according to a video shared by his younger brother Jake on Instagram. It marked a return to the area where Paul proposed in July 2023, which was just over a year after the couple was spotted at a restaurant in London with friends, The New York Post reports. And the ceremony that, according to TMZ, was officiated by Mike Majlak — the 'Impaulsive' podcast co-host — caused Jake to become emotional, as he captioned the video with, 'I've seriously been crying.' Paul and Agdal welcomed their first child, Esme, in September 2024, and she was in attendance at the ceremony, too, along with Jake and his fiancee, Jutta Leerdam. During the ceremony, Paul donned a white jacket, a black bow tie and black pants, and the pair of couples posted for a photo afterward. Paul and Agdal were spotted in Cernobbio on Wednesday paddling separate canoes and swimming, and Paul also shared a series of photos and videos — including one of the couple practising their dance for the ceremony — to reveal that it was his 'wedding week.' When Paul proposed to Agdal at Hotel Passalacqua last year, Agdal was 'completely blindsided by the proposal and was visibly surprised' — and the ring was the wrong size, a witness told the Daily Mail at the time. Then, Paul reportedly called Jake and said, 'Bro, you have a sister,' the outlet added. 'Today is the day I ask the love of my life to marry me,' Paul said in a 2023 YouTube video that provided a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the proposal. 'Fourteen months ago, I fell in love with the most beautiful human being I've ever seen in my life, and I have been waiting for this day ever since.' Paul's fame has skyrocketed after making his in-ring WWE debut in 2022, and he spent time on the field pregame at Yankee Stadium two weeks ago ahead of WWE SummerSlam — posing with Aaron Judge and getting the superstar to sign a baseball. But before Paul faces John Cena in a singles bout at WWE Clash in Paris on Aug. 31, he took a break for the extravagant ceremony.

Michel Gondry's new film was created to keep his daughter close
Michel Gondry's new film was created to keep his daughter close

ABC News

time7 hours ago

  • ABC News

Michel Gondry's new film was created to keep his daughter close

After French pop group Oui Oui disbanded in 1992, things took off for then-drummer Michel Gondry. What: a cute, cut-and-paste animation made by a beloved French filmmaker for his daughter. Directed by: Michel Gondry. Starring: his daughter, Maya Gondry. When: Playing at the Melbourne International Film Festival. Likely to make you feel: like whipping out the glue gun. The kooky music videos he directed for the band were spotted by Icelandic singer-songwriter Björk, just as she was launching her solo career, post-The Sugarcubes. Their bright minds sparked together, with his trippy, dark fairy tale clip for her debut single Human Behaviour the start of a rewarding partnership. In high demand, Gondry went on to direct clips for the likes of Lenny Kravitz, Sinéad O'Connor, The White Stripes, Daft Punk, Massive Attack and Radiohead. He also realised the many Kylie Minogues of her 2001, Parisian-set music video, Come into my World. That same year marked the arrival of Gondry's big-screen directorial debut feature, Human Nature, a surreal love triangle spun from a screenplay by Being John Malkovich writer Charlie Kaufman. They'd collaborate again on their Oscar-winning break-up movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, starring Kate Winslet and Jim Carrey. But of all these starry team-ups, perhaps his greatest pairing is with his daughter, Maya. Maya, Give Me a Title (Maya, Donne-moi un Titre), Gondry's adorable, paper cut-out stop-animated movie, is the result of his long-distance relationship with his daughter. To keep their connection strong across the ocean, he'd task his young daughter with dreaming up a film title. Then he'd use his lo-fi collage techniques to conjure it up, casting Maya in the starring role each time. It was created across five years, beginning when Maya was just three-years-old. Screening at the Melbourne International Film Festival this August, the family-friendly, hour-long film that collates a few of their faves, is a visual feast for the soul, harnessing a sweetly creative brand of chaos. Throughout the film, Maya saves the world from a tomato sauce disaster, becomes a mermaid, survives an earthquake, and is rescued from a snowball by an adorable cat. "Little by little, as Maya grew up, the film became more complicated," Gondry says of the prompts he received from her. "It was a fun challenge to accomplish, because her titles were sometimes crazy. So it was very stimulating, creating stories from these elements." We meet at Club UniFrance, the French film industry's hub in Berlin, during that city's celebrated film festival, commonly known as Berlinale. I ask him how his childhood compares to his relationship with Maya. "We were three brothers, very close in age, and while Maya does have an older brother, Paul, he's 32, so they aren't as close as we were," Gondry says. "Our parents were a bit hippy, and we were very encouraged to be creative, and to have quirks which were sometimes bizarre." Maya, on the other hand, has a much more structured upbringing. "Children now have a million activities, like she plays an instrument, does karate and choir," he says. "We never had that much going on, which I think was maybe better." It certainly encouraged the imagination of a young Gondry and his brothers — Oliver also grew up to be a music video director — who made their own fun, drawing all the time. While they loved watching cartoons together, Gondry never shared his brother's love of superhero comics. "I always hated them," he says. "I really saw them as a description of fascism. One guy that's going to save the world, and so on." Instead, he was intrigued by the more unusual animated movies coming out of Eastern European countries. He also adores Albert Lamorisse's celebrated short, The Red Balloon (Le Ballon Rouge). "It's just magic, because you fly across France from north to south, and I watch it maybe once a year, which makes me happy," Gondry says. Gondry's disdain for superheroes has only grown in the intervening years, as their rapidly proliferating franchises took over cinemas. Cheekily, I note he directed The Green Hornet, co-written with and starring Seth Rogen. "It's not the same," he sighs, and we quickly move on. There's a sense that Gondry has never lost the playfulness many of us are fooled into leaving behind as we grow up, finding joy in the simplest things. "I don't make much difference between children and adults, and I see them as a complete person," he says. "It's not a Bergman movie. It's a fun little adventure," Gondry says of his make-do-and-mend approach to crafting Maya, Give Me a Title. "It's also a lot of work to create all the backgrounds, but very enjoyable, like painting with a good friend. It's very satisfying to find the right blue to make the sky, using tracing paper to make clouds." Maya, Give Me a Title's fantastic sound design pops alongside composer Jean-Michel Bernard's peppy score. "When you're working in such a simple animation style, it's the sound that makes it feel more real," Gondry says. "The fun part is that we'd find a great sound, then use it for something completely different that it has nothing to do with." Keeping his animation simple allows the audience to fill in the best possible special effects: the ones we conjure up in our minds, just like he and his brothers. "The less technical the medium, the more freedom you have in the storytelling," Gondry says. "So that's where paper cutouts are great. I stop in the middle between realism and the abstract, and the audience completes the journey using their imagination." Does he hope that Maya, who also appears in live-action interludes, will follow in his footsteps? "I would be happy whatever she does," Gondry says. "If she's happy, that's the main thing." Maya, Give Me a Title screens at MIFF

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store