Denzel Washington Receives Surprise Palme d’Or Honor at Cannes Film Festival
In a surprise move, Denzel Washington was honoured with a Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, ahead of the world premiere of Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, the actor and filmmaker’s fifth collaboration. According to Deadline, the unannounced honour was bestowed upon Washington after a reel of his stellar career was shown in the Palais.
The bombshell announcement was made by festival chief Thierry Frémaux as he addressed the crowd. “It’s a very special day,” he said. “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.” As reported by Deadline, Lee presented the Honorary Palme to Washington, putting his arm around the actor and saying: “This is my brother right here. I love him, I love him. I’m glad you’re here where all the people love you too.”
The reel shown at the festival included clips from Washington’s Oscar-winning turns in Training Day — “King Kong ain’t got nothin’ on me!” — and Glory, along with such films as The Tragedy of Macbeth, Carbon Copy and his previous Spike Lee joints Mo’ Better Blues (1990), Malcolm X (1992), He Got Game (1998) and Inside Man (2006). As Deadline notes, Highest 2 Lowest is Lee’s “reinterpretation” of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime thriller High and Low, with Washington playing David King aka “King David,” a hugely successful music mogul whose son and godson are mistaken for each other by an inept kidnapper.
Washington has only attended the Cannes Film Festival once before for a film in the Official Selection, which was in 1993 for Ken Branagh’s Shakespeare adaptation Much Ado About Nothing. Along with his Best Actor Oscar for 2001’s Training Day and Supporting Actor Oscar for Glory (1989), Washington has amassed eight other Academy Award nominations, as reported by Deadline. He was up for Best Actor for Malcolm X, The Hurricane (1999), Flight (2012), Fences (2016), Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017) and the Coen brothers’ The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021); Supporting for Cry Freedom (1987); and Best Picture as a producer of Fences.
Interestingly, Washington’s honour comes 16 years to the day after Lee’s debut film, Do the Right Thing, electrified the Palais after its world premiere in Competition. As Deadline reports, Tom Cruise, who was in Cannes last week for the premiere of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, received an honorary Palme d’Or when he was on the Croisette for Top Gun: Maverick in 2022.
According to Deadline, Nancy Tartaglione contributed to this report. With this honour, the film community recognises Washington’s significant contributions to cinema, solidifying his status as a Hollywood legend. The Deadline article provides further insight into Washington’s illustrious career and his enduring impact on the film industry.
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