A knee injury may have kept Barbra Streisand away from Cannes this year, but it wasn’t enough to stop her sending a special video message for the festival’s closing ceremony, where she was honored in absentia with the Palme d’Or. The statuette was brought on stage by Isabelle Huppert, who gave a speech that highlighted […]

Cristian Mungiu’s complex moral drama “Fjord,” starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, has won the Palme d’Or for best film at the Cannes Film Festival, making the Romanian writer-director the tenth filmmaker to win the coveted award twice — 19 years after his first victory for “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.” The film, […]

CANNES, May 18 — United States actress and singer Barbra Streisand has cancelled her appearance at the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival, where she had been due to receive an honorary Palme d’Or in person, reported German Press Agency (dpa).

“On the advice of my doctors, as I continue recovering from a knee injury, I am sadly unable to attend the Festival de Cannes this year,” Streisand said in a statement released by the festival on Sunday.

She said she felt “deeply honoured” to receive the award and had been looking forward to celebrating the “remarkable films of the 79th edition”.

The festival said the tribute to Streisand would go ahead despite her absence.

The closing ceremony, including the awards presentation, is scheduled for Saturday, May 23.

Streisand, 84, is an icon of both music and film. She has released 37 studio albums and won 10 Grammy Awards, two Oscars — including one as the first woman to win for Best Original Song — and 11 Golden Globes.

She has also left a lasting mark on cinema with films such as Funny Girl, Yentl, What’s Up, Doc? and The Mirror Has Two Faces.

She will be the third figure to be awarded an honorary Palme d’Or at this year’s festival.

At the opening ceremony, Peter Jackson, director of The Lord of the Rings, received the prize, while John Travolta was presented with a surprise honorary Palme d’Or on Friday. — Bernama-dpa

Barbra Streisand is unable to attend the Cannes Film Festival closing ceremony to accept her honorary Palme d’Or after suffering a knee injury. “On the advice of my doctors, as I continue recovering from a knee injury, I am sadly unable to attend the Festival de Cannes this year,” Streisand said in a statement on […]