Cannes to bestow Honorary Palme d’Or upon Michael Douglas

Multiple award-winning actor Michael Douglas will receive the Honorary Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, reports ‘Variety’.

Cannes revealed that the ‘Basic Instinct’ star will return to the Croisette this month for the festival — and will be honoured as part of the May 16 opening ceremony.

Douglas’s first time in Cannes was the 32nd edition of the festival in 1979, with James Bridges’ disaster thriller movie ‘The China Syndrome’, adds ‘Variety’.

He returned for ‘Basic Instinct’ in 1992 and again in 1993 for ‘Falling Down’. He was most recently in Cannes for Steven Soderbergh’s 2013 movie, ‘Behind the Candelabra’, where he played the pianist-singer Liberace.

“It is always a breath of fresh air to be at Cannes, which has long provided a wonderful platform for bold creators, artistic audacities and excellence in storytelling,” Douglas said in a statement, quoted by ‘Variety’.

Douglas’ first venture as a producer, ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’, in collaboration with Saul Zaentz, directed by Milos Forman, scored nine Oscar nominations and the film was awarded best picture in 1975, ‘Variety’ notes.

As an actor he is known for his collaborations with Robert Zemeckis in ‘Romancing the Stone’ (1984), Ridley Scott in ‘Black Rain’ (1989) and Barry Levinson in ‘Disclosure’ (1994). He won the Oscar for best actor in 1987 for his portrayal of Gordon Gekko, a greedy New York broker in Oliver Stone’s ‘Wall Street’. The sequel, ‘Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps’, was screened out of competition at the 63rd edition of Cannes in 2010.