Cannes opening night time might be hit and miss, however these days, competition director Thierry Frémaux has used the event to import Hollywood luminaries like Meryl Streep, tributed by Juliette Binoche final yr. (The French star returned in 2025 to preside over the Competitors jury.) This yr, Frémaux scored large as Leonardo DiCaprio confirmed as much as current a tearful Robert De Niro together with his honorary Palme d’Or. He was rewarded with a heat hug.
“It’s a nice honor to acknowledge somebody who, for me and so many actors, has at all times been the archetype of who we glance as much as,” mentioned DiCaprio. “That’s Robert De Niro. It’s not simply the roles he performs. He impressed actors to deal with the craft not as efficiency however as bodily transformation.”
DiCaprio recalled screaming throughout his “robust” audition for “This Boy’s Life” to interrupt via, and that De Niro beneficial him, thus launching his profession at age 15. “That modified my life endlessly.” De Niro additionally instructed Martin Scorsese to take a look at DiCaprio, who, together with De Niro, collaborated with the maestro for his whole profession. “He doesn’t say a lot,” mentioned DiCaprio. “When he does, it issues. He reveals up.”
De Niro, the son of a painter, mentioned onstage, “Artwork is inclusive. It brings folks collectively tonight. Artwork seems to be for fact. Artwork embraces range, and that’s why artwork is a risk.”
His speech additionally took a characteristically political flip, simply because the jury press convention inevitably did earlier that day. “That’s why we’re a risk to autocrats and fascists,” De Niro mentioned. “Our philistine president has a self-appointed head of one in every of our premier cultural establishments. He has reduce funding and help to the humanities, humanities and schooling, and now he has introduced a 100% tariff on movies produced outdoors the U.S. Let that sink in, for you’ll be able to’t put a worth on creativity, however apparently you’ll be able to for the tariffs. In fact, that is unacceptable. All these assaults are unacceptable. And this isn’t simply an American drawback, it’s a world one. Like a movie, we are able to’t simply all sit again and watch. We’ve got to behave, and we have now to behave now with out violence, however with nice ardour and dedication…We present our power and dedication by celebrating artwork on this wonderful competition.”
To wind up, De Niro quoted the French rallying cry: “Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité!”
After a tribute to the late David Lynch and a transferring efficiency by the late director’s musical collaborator Chrystabell, Binoche, carrying a sublime caped white pant go well with, lined up on stage together with her jury, and Quentin Tarantino bounded down the steps to declare the Cannes Movie Competition “open!”
The standards for opening night time movies at Cannes are arcane. The movie has to open the identical day in a whole bunch of cinemas throughout France. On opening night time, it’s even screened in locations that haven’t programmed it. Thus, the Ceremonie d’Ouverture is a nationwide occasion, broadcast on Canal+, with musical visitors, the jury procession, and film stars like DiCaprio and De Niro. That’s one motive why so many opening night time movies are French — on this case, jukebox musical comedy “Go away One Day,” launched by Pathé and directed by Amélie Bonnin.
At a Monday press convention, Frémaux mentioned he’d like to open the competition with a giant occasion film like “Mission: Unattainable — The Ultimate Reckoning” (Paramount, Could 23), however large studio movies e book their launch dates years prematurely. As an alternative, he’s proud to advertise rookie lady filmmaker Bonnin, the primary debut-feature director to boast a gap night time slot. She’s solely the third lady filmmaker to open the competition (after Maïwenn, Emmanuelle Bercot, and Diane Kurys), which tends to be lower than inclusive of ladies administrators. (Frémaux retains attempting: the Competitors this yr boasts seven girls administrators, tying the file.)
After the film, a candy romantic comedy interrupted by bouts of the actors singing ’80s French pop hits, visitors piled into buses to attend the opening night time gala dinner on the Palm Seashore On line casino. DiCaprio sat together with his mentor, whereas Sean Baker was available to have a good time co-writing, producing, and enhancing Critics’ Week entry “Left-Handed Lady,” which is on the lookout for a house and directed by Baker collaborator Tsou Shih-Ching. Ari Aster (“Eddington”) chatted with Sony Photos co-president Michael Barker, who’s on the competition with out-of-competition title “A Personal Life,” starring Jodie Foster. And Michael Covino (“Splitsville”) lowered me and Searchlight chief Matthew Greenfield to tears of laughter, as he tends to do.
In Cannes, not less than, artists communing over effective meals and wine continues to be the final refuge.
Subsequent up, on Wednesday, “Mission: Unattainable — The Ultimate Reckoning” world-premieres at Cannes at each the Palais’ important venue, the Auditorium Louis Lumière, and on the Cineum in IMAX, a bus experience away for journalists and different attendees.