In keeping with tradition, the opening night of the Cannes Film Festival was full of surprises – and Tuesday night's celebration took a political twist when veteran actor Robert De Niro slammed United States President Donald Trump’s cuts to arts funding.
Ceremony host French actor Laurent Lafitte set the tone with a mix of jokes and an ode to fellow actors, who he said don’t simply entertain, but are also role models, and citizens standing up for what they believe in.
As if to prove his point, Robert De Niro, upon receiving an honorary Palme d'Or award for his contribution to cinema, presented to him by Leonardo DiCaprio, told the audience: "In my country, we are fighting like hell for democracy."
The veteran actor, who was welcomed by a standing ovation, has been a longtime fierce critic of his fellow New Yorker Trump. Last night, he said the "philistine" president's drastic cuts in funding for the arts and education were deliberate.
'Art is a threat'
"Because art is the crucible that brings people together... Art looks for truth. Art embraces diversity. That's why art is a threat. That's why we are a threat to autocrats and fascists," De Niro continued.
He also lambasted Trump for threatening 100 percent tariffs on movies "produced in foreign lands", announced earlier this month.
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"You can't put a price on creativity. But apparently, you can put a tariff on it. Of course, all these attacks are unacceptable. This is not just an American problem, it is a global one," he said.
"We can't just all sit back and watch. We have to act, and we have to act now, without violence, but with passion and determination."
De Niro concluded with a French touch, saying the Cannes Film Festival was an opportunity to “pay homage to liberté, égalité, fraternité".
Open letter on Gaza
Earlier in the evening, Cannes jury president Juliette Binoche also hailed cinema's capacity to be inclusive, giving voices to those often unheard or sidelined.
"In every region of the world, artists are fighting every day and making resistance into art," she said.
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She took a moment to pay tribute to the Gazan photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike last month.
"She should have been here tonight with us," an emotional Binoche said of the young woman, who features in the documentary Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk by exiled Iranian director Sepideh Farsi, to be screened on Thursday in Cannes.
On the eve of the festival, more than 380 film insiders signed an open letter published in French newspaper Libération and US magazine Variety saying they were "ashamed" of their industry's failure to speak out about Israel's siege of Gaza.
The signatories – including Richard Gere and Susan Sarandon – also denounced the death of Hassouna.
"We cannot remain silent while genocide is taking place in Gaza," read their letter, which was initiated by several pro-Palestine activist groups.
A song for Lynch
Homage was also paid during the opening ceremony to award-winning filmmaker David Lynch, who died in January.
French singer Mylène Farmer, accompanied by a pianist, appeared on stage in front of images of Lynch and his films. Farmer was close to Lynch and has drawn inspiration from his work – her 1991 song Psychiatric is a reference to Lynch's 1980 film The Elephant Man.
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"Everywhere, everywhere, it's crazy, I feel you near me, everywhere, everywhere, in everything, in the twists and turns of a long sleep," she sang, in memory of the man who brought films including Mulholland Drive to Cannes.
American filmmaker Quentin Tarantino brought the ceremony to a close in typically enthusiastic style, declaring the 2025 event officially "opeeeeeen!".
Follow all the action from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival with RFI here.
