Denzel Washington Confesses He’s ‘a Little Emotional’ as He’s Surprised with Honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes

Denzel Washington received the surprise of a lifetime at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

Washington, 70, was moved when his frequent collaborator Spike Lee helped present the two-time Academy Award-winning actor with an honorary Palme d’Or in Cannes, France on Monday, May 19, as the pair presented their new movie Highest 2 Lowest out of competition.

“Sit down, please,” Washington told the audience after he received the award. “This is a total surprise for me so I’m a little emotional, but from the bottom of my heart, I thank you all. It was a great opportunity to collaborate with my brother once again — brother from another mother, Spike.”

“To be here once again in Cannes, you know, we’re a very privileged group in this room that we get to make movies and wear tuxedos and nice clothes and dress up and get paid for it as well,” Washington added, to some laughter in the room. “You know, we’re just blessed beyond measure, I’m blessed beyond measure, and from the bottom of my heart, I thank you all. Thank you.”

Cannes typically presents a select few major film industry figures with honorary Palme d’Or awards each year. Leonardo DiCaprio presented his two-time costar Robert De Niro with De Niro’s honorary Palme d’Or to kick the festival off on Tuesday, May 13, where he stated that meeting De Niro, 81, in the early 1990s “changed my life forever.“

Washington and Lee, 68, teamed up for the fifth time in their careers for Highest 2 Lowest, their first collaboration since 2006’s heist thriller Inside Man. Their new movie is a “reinterpretation” of the famed Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s own 1963 crime thriller High and Low, “now played out on the mean streets of modern day New York City,” according to a synopsis for the film.

A trailer for the movie showed Washington’s character delivering a monologue about the highest highs and the lowest lows associated with success, along with moments showcasing performances from rapper A$AP Rocky, Jeffrey Wright and Ilfenesh Hadera, who rounds out the movie’s cast.

“When a titan music mogul widely known as having the ‘best ears in the business,’ is targeted with a ransom plot, he is jammed up in a life-or-death moral dilemma,” reads an official synopsis for the movie.