Robert De Niro criticised president Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on films made outside the US at the Cannes Film Festival’s opening night ceremony, which took place tonight (May 13).
De Niro, receiving the honorary Palme d’Or, said: “In my country, we’re fighting like hell for the democracy we once took for granted. And that affects all of us here because the arts are democratic. Art is inclusive. It brings people together, like tonight. Art looks for truth, art embraces diversity and that’s why art is a threat — that’s why we are a threat — to autocrats and fascists.”
Referencing Trump’s idea for 100% tariffs of all films imported from “foreign lands”, De Niro added: “You can’t put a price on creativity, but apparently you can put a tariff on it.”
“Of course, this is unacceptable. All these attacks are unacceptable, and this isn’t just an American problem. It’s a global one. And like a film, we can’t just all sit back and watch. We have to act now. Without violence, but with great passion and determination. It’s time for everyone who cares about liberty to organise, to protest, and when there are elections, of course to vote.”
De Niro was awarded the honorary Palme d’Or from Leonardo DiCaprio who said on stage that the Raging Bull star wasn’t “just another great actor - he was the actor”, adding that he was “the archetype for who we look up to” as actors.
The duo were previously at Cannes in 2023 when they starred in Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon. De Niro was also president of the Cannes jury in 2011 and has a long history at the festival including as the star of 1976’s Palme d’Or-winning Taxi Driver.
De Niro called the festival “a marketplace of ideas, a celebration of work and a catalyst of new projects,” saying that “this is my community.”
The festival opened on a musical note with the premiere of Amélie Bonnin’s Leave One Day, with famed French singer Mylène Farmer performed a brand new track paying tribute to late filmmaker David Lynch.
The jury headed was headed up by president Juliette Binoche who took to the stage where she addressed more serious themes: “War, misery, climate change, primitive misogyny,” she said. “Artists have the opportunity to bear witness for others. The greater the level of suffering, the more vital their involvement. Art remains, it is the powerful testimony of our lives, of our dreams, and we, the spectators, embrace it. May the Cannes Festival, where anything can happen, contribute to this.”
The 2025 jury also includes actors Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, and Alba Rohrwacher, auteur directors Hong Sangsoo, Payal Kapadia, and Carlos Reygadas, French Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani, and Congolese documentarist Dieudo Hamadi.
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