As reported earlier, Robert De Niro received the honourary Palme d'Or award on the opening day of the 78th Cannes Film Festival. Leonardo DiCaprio, who acted alongside De Niro in films such as This Boy's Life and Killers of the Flower Moon, presented the award to him. As he called De Niro on to the stage to collect the honourary Palme d'Or, DiCaprio said that nobody is "more deserving of this award" than the Raging Bull star. In his acceptance speech, De Niro described Donald Trump as "America's philistine president" and criticised his decision to impose "100 per cent tariff on films produced outside the US." De Niro also rebuked Trump's decision to "cut funding to the arts, humanities, and education" after the president's appointment as the chairman of the Kennedy Center.

De Niro added, "You cannot put a price on creativity, but apparently, you can put a tariff on it." Calling it an attack on creativity, De Niro said that it is an "unacceptable" move. He went on to emphasis that it is a "global" problem and urged the film fraternity to act against it.