A Palme d’honneur to Agnès Varda

Agnès Varda is to receive an honorary Palme d’or during the Closing Ceremony of the 68th Festival de Cannes. Previously, only Woody Allen, in 2002, Clint Eastwood, in 2009, and Bernardo Bertolucci, in 2011, have been granted this supreme distinction by the Board of Directors of the Festival de Cannes. The award is given to renowned directors whose works have achieved a global impact but who have nevertheless never won the Palme d’or.

Agnès Varda is the first female director to garner the prestigious trophy. With her legendary humour, she notes: “And yet my films have never sold as much as theirs!” A photographer, screenplay writer, actress, director and visual artist, Agnès Varda is a total all-rounder, a versatile genius whose insatiable curiosity has led her into a whole variety of projects, each of which she somehow turns into gold.

Among her films are La Pointe Courte, her first feature film, which was edited by Alain Resnais, in 1962 she came to prominence with Cléo from 5 to 7, then in 1965 she won an official recognition by the Prix Louis-Delluc for her film Le Bonheur.

A born maverick and inspired by her travels and spontaneous whims, Agnès Varda moved at will from short to long films and from documentary to fiction, covering every subject under the sun: Mur, Murs, Daguerréotypes and Jane B par Agnès V reveal the extent of her poetic imagination while her fictional work, including One Sings, the Other Doesn’t or Vagabond (Lion d’or in Venice in 1985), offer up uncompromising takes on everyday social reality.

After the death of her life partner, Jacques Demy, she made three films in his memory, including the very moving Jacquot de Nantes.

In 2000, she made Les Glaneurs et la Glaneuse, alone and using a digital camera, and in 2006, she turned visual artist-cum-set designer for an exhibition dedicated to her at the Cartier Foundation, entitled I’lle et elle. Two years later, her autobiographical work Les plages d’Agnès picked up the César for best documentary.