Jodie Foster to receive honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival

The prize is the highest honour bestowed at the prestigious film festival, which returns in July

Jodie Foster will be the guest of honour at the Opening Ceremony of the 74th annual Cannes Film Festival and the receive the event's Honorary Palme d'Or. EPA

Jodie Foster has been named this year's recipient of the honorary Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

The honorary Palme d’Or, first introduced in 1955, is the highest prize awarded at the prestigious film festival and will this year serve to honour Foster’s five-decade career, in which she has won two Academy Awards, three Baftas and three Golden Globes as well as the Cecil B DeMille Award.

Previous recipients of the honorary Palme d’Or include Jeanne Moreau, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jane Fonda, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Manoel de Oliveira, Jean-Pierre Leaud, Agnes Varda and Alain Delon. Foster will also be the guest of honour on the festival's opening night.

On announcing the news, the festival praised Foster for her “brilliant artistic journey, a unique personality with a modest yet strong commitment to some of the major issues of our time".

"Cannes is a festival to which I owe so much; it has completely changed my life," said Foster, who was only 13 when she attended Cannes for the first time in 1976 for the world premiere of Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, which won the Palme d'Or that year.

“Although I had already directed before, my first time on the Croisette was a defining moment for me. Showcasing one of my films here has always been a dream of mine.

I am flattered that Cannes thought of me and I am very honoured to be able to share a few words of wisdom or tell an adventure or two with a new generation of filmmakers.”

This year's festival, which will take place in person after being cancelled in 2020, kicks off on July, with the premiere of Leos Carax's Annette, starring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard.