French President Emmanuel Macron honored five major figures in international cinema at a ceremony held at the Élysée Palace in Paris on July 15: Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri, the producer behind the “Despicable Me” and “Minions” movies — the highest-grossing animated franchise of all time, with more than $5.7 billion at the global box office; “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” creator George Lucas; Jodie Foster, the two-time Oscar winner known for “Taxi Driver,” “The Silence of the Lambs” and “A Private Life;” Sigourney Weaver, whose credits include “Alien,” “Avatar” and “Call My Agent;” and French filmmaker Claude Lelouch, the Oscar-winning director of “A Man and a Woman.”
Weaver, Meledandri, Lucas and Foster were presented with the insignia of Knight of the Legion of Honor, while Lelouch received the insignia of Commander of Legion of Merit.
The ceremony was attended by filmmaker Costa-Gavras, Canal+ Group chairman Maxime Saada, Marrakech film festival boss Melita Toscan du Plantier, Cinépolis CEO Alejandro Ramírez, Annecy Film Festival chief Michael Marin, filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski, French visual artist JR, Prune Nourry, Illumination Studios Paris president Jacques Bled, Metropolitan FilmExport’s Victor Hadida, French culture minister Catherine Pégard, and CNC president Gaëtan Bruel, among others.
