George Lucas to receive prestigious Palme d'Or Award at Cannes Film Festival

Thank the maker! George Lucas will receive an honorary Palme d'Or Award on May 25th at the 77th Cannes Film Festival Closing Ceremony, according to Deadline.

Lucas, who just topped Forbes' list of the World's Richest Celebrities, is estimated to have a net worth of $5.5 Billion. The filmmaker amassed this fortune over several decades and is one of the most commercially successful filmmakers of all time, with 10 of the 100 highest-grossing movies of all time at the American box office.

Not only has George Lucas created memorable films like Star Wars and Indiana Jones, but he has also transformed filmmaking technology and changed the way films are made. He pioneered the development of CGI, digital film editing, and digital cinematography. Lucas also founded Lucasfilm in 1971 and Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) in 1975.

The Festival De Cannes official social media account summarized George Lucas' achievements as follows:

"Immense figure of Hollywood cinema, the legendary director, screenwriter and producer at the helm of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones sagas, has managed to combine great entertainment and innovation, mythology and modernity and cinephilia and technology!

He will be celebrated on Saturday, May 25, at the Closing Ceremony, broadcast live on French TV channel France 2."

- Festival De Cannes official account

Many filmmakers credit Lucas with inspiring them to take up the craft, and his work in Star Wars continues to inspire current and future creators. Lucas mentored Lucasfilm's Chief Creative Officer, Dave Filoni, during the making of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, the studio's first CGI animated series after Lucas' work on Droids and Ewoks.

On the Awards front, George Lucas has been nominated for four Academy Awards and numerous lifetime achievement awards for his work, including Kennedy Center Honors and an AFI Lifetime Achievement Award. George took a backseat as a filmmaker after he sold Lucasfilm to the Walt Disney Company in 2012, but occasionally, he visits the sets of various projects, including The Mandalorian.

The 77th Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 14, 2024, to May 25, 2024. George Lucas will receive the Palme d'Or on May 25th.