CANNES, France — Hollywood icon Robert De Niro lambasted “philistine” US President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday and his proposed film tariff at the Cannes Film Festival’s opening ceremony, where he used his lifetime achievement award speech to call for protests.

The 81-year-old actor shared the stage at the plush Grand Theater Lumiere with fellow Oscar-winning superstars like Halle Berry, Juliette Binoche, and Quentin Tarantino to accept the award from longtime collaborator Leonardo DiCaprio.

Mr. Trump “has cut funding and support to the arts, humanities and education. And now he has announced the 100% tariff on films produced outside the US,” said Mr. De Niro, known for films like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and more recently Killers of the Flower Moon.

“You can’t put a price on creativity, but apparently, you can put a tariff on it,” said Mr. De Niro, who called on “everyone who cares about liberty” to protest against Mr. Trump.

Festival organizers stress that they want to avoid politics and focus on the films, but this year’s inclusion of movies from Gaza, Ukraine, and Iran, as well as Mr. Trump’s tariff announcement shortly before the festival, has put more focus on the world outside Cannes.

Ms. Binoche, the head of this year’s jury, used her speech to pay tribute to Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza and is the subject of a documentary to be shown at Cannes.

OFFICIALLY OPEN
Mr. Tarantino, the US director who launched his career at Cannes, officially opened the festival, which now runs until May 24, with a mic drop before audiences settled in for the opening film, French comedy Leave One Day.

Ms. Binoche, head of this year’s Cannes Film Festival jury, said on Tuesday that Mr. Trump’s tariffs threat on films, among his other policy decisions, was also about saving his reputation.

“We can see that he’s fighting, and he’s trying in many, many different ways to save America and save his ass,” the French actor told journalists in the French Riviera resort town.

“We have a very strong community of filming in our continent, in Europe, so I don’t know what to say really about that (his tariff announcement),” added Ms. Binoche.

The Oscar-winning actor will decide, along with eight other jury members, including actors Halle Berry and Jeremy Strong, which film will take home the festival’s Palme d’Or top prize.

Mr. Strong, known for playing Kendall Roy in the HBO series Succession, said that under Mr. Trump’s presidency, the role of film as a way to communicate truth had become more important.

He said he regarded his jury membership as a counterbalance to his portrayal of the young Mr. Trump’s mentor Roy Cohn in last year’s Cannes competition film The Apprentice.

“Roy Cohn I see essentially as the progenitor of fake news and alternative facts. And we’re living in the aftermath of what I think he created,” said Mr. Strong.

Separately, Ms. Berry, who played Jinx in the James Bond film Die Another Day, ruled out returning to the spy franchise after Amazon’s MGM Studio struck a deal earlier this year to take creative control under a new joint venture.

“I don’t know if 007 really should be a woman,” said Ms. Berry, who added that the time for a Jinx spin-off had also passed.

“In 2025, it’s nice to say, ‘Oh, she should be a woman,’ but I don’t really know if I think that’s the right thing to do.” — Reuters

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