Level 1 — Absolute Beginner

The Cannes Film Festival is a very big movie party in France. Every year, the festival gives a top prize called the Palme d'Or to one new film.

But the festival also gives a special golden prize for a whole life of movies. This year, the festival gave that special prize to the American actor John Travolta.

John Travolta is 72 years old. He was the star of famous movies like Grease and Pulp Fiction. When he got the prize, he cried and said it was 'beyond the Oscar.'

His friend Quentin Tarantino came from America to give him the prize. The Cannes party is in the south of France and ends on May 23.

festival

a special event with shows or films

movie

a long video that you watch in a cinema

prize

something good that you get for doing well

actor

a person whose job is to be in plays or films

famous

known by many people

star

the most important actor in a film

cry

to have water come out of your eyes from feelings

friend

a person you like and know well

Level 2 — Elementary

On Monday evening, May 18, 2026, the 79th Cannes Film Festival surprised the American actor John Travolta with an Honorary Palme d'Or. The award celebrates a whole career, not just one film, and it is one of the highest honours that the festival gives.

Travolta, who is 72, walked into the Grand Théâtre Lumière thinking he was there only to present a screening. Festival president Iris Knobloch then welcomed him on stage. A six-minute video showed scenes from his most famous films — Welcome Back, Kotter; Saturday Night Fever; Grease; and Pulp Fiction.

Travolta cried when he saw himself dance with the late Princess Diana at the White House. He told the audience, 'This is beyond the Oscar.' His friend, the director Quentin Tarantino, flew in from Los Angeles and joined him on stage to hand him the heavy golden palm.

Travolta is the third actor or director to receive an Honorary Palme this year. New Zealand director Peter Jackson got the first one on opening night, May 12. American singer and actor Barbra Streisand will receive the third at the closing ceremony on Saturday, May 23.

honorary

given as a sign of respect for past work, not because of a single competition

screening

the showing of a film, especially before its general release

career

the whole working life of a person in one main job

audience

the group of people who watch or listen to a show

director

the person who guides the actors and the look of a film

scene

one small part of a film with one place and time

late

(of a person) no longer alive; dead

ceremony

a formal public event where awards or honours are given

Level 3 — Intermediate

The 79th Cannes Film Festival ambushed American actor John Travolta on the evening of Monday, May 18, 2026, with an Honorary Palme d'Or, the festival's highest distinction for a lifetime body of work. Travolta, 72, had been told he was attending a screening of Quentin Tarantino's restored 35-millimetre print of Pulp Fiction in the Grand Théâtre Lumière; instead, festival president Iris Knobloch summoned him on stage and presented him with the heavy golden palm.

A six-minute montage edited by the Cannes Classics team traced Travolta from his early 1970s television breakthrough on Welcome Back, Kotter, through Saturday Night Fever and Grease, the late-1980s career trough, the Tarantino-directed reinvention of Pulp Fiction in 1994 — which itself won that year's Palme d'Or — and into more recent character work in Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House and Paradise. The clip that drew the loudest applause was a brief sequence of Travolta dancing with the late Diana, Princess of Wales, at the White House in 1985.

Visibly emotional, Travolta paused several times during his thank-you, telling the room that 'this is beyond the Oscar' and singling out Tarantino, his late mother Helen Burke, his late wife Kelly Preston, and the French audiences that 'understood what I was doing before half of America had finished laughing at it.' Tarantino, who had flown in from Los Angeles only for the ceremony, called Travolta 'the most underrated movement actor of the late 20th century.'

Travolta is the third Honorary Palme recipient of this edition. New Zealand director Peter Jackson opened the festival on May 12 with one, presented by Elijah Wood; Barbra Streisand will receive the third at the May 23 closing ceremony, presented by lifelong friend Bette Midler. The Honorary Palme is awarded entirely separately from the competitive Palme d'Or, which the official-selection jury, chaired this year by South Korean director Park Chan-wook, will announce on the final night.

distinction

a recognised mark of honour or quality, especially in a formal context

body of work

the entire collection of an artist's creative output across their career

ambush

here, a surprise public moment staged without the recipient's prior knowledge

montage

a sequence of short, edited-together video clips arranged for cumulative effect

career trough

an extended low period in a public figure's professional career

official selection

the list of films chosen by the festival to compete for or be shown alongside the main prizes

jury

the group of judges who decide the festival's main competitive awards

movement actor

a film performer whose physicality, dance and motion are central to their craft and screen presence

Level 4 — Advanced

On the evening of Monday, May 18, the 79th Cannes Film Festival staged its second great surprise of an unusually emotional edition, ambushing John Travolta in the Grand Théâtre Lumière with an Honorary Palme d'Or for lifetime achievement. Travolta, 72, had been told he was simply introducing Quentin Tarantino's restored 35-millimetre print of Pulp Fiction at a Cannes Classics screening; instead, festival president Iris Knobloch, joined on stage by Tarantino flying in from Los Angeles for the night, presented him with the festival's heaviest single artistic distinction.

A six-minute montage edited by the Cannes Classics team — a department that has grown sharply under artistic director Thierry Frémaux's continuing programme of authorial restoration — traced an idiosyncratic American career: the mid-1970s television breakthrough on Welcome Back, Kotter; the disco-era cultural detonation of Saturday Night Fever; the still-iconic Grease; a long late-1980s and early-1990s career trough that ended with Tarantino's 1994 Palme d'Or-winning resurrection in Pulp Fiction; and recent character work in Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House and Paradise. The brief clip that drew the loudest collective gasp was a 1985 cutaway of Travolta dancing with Diana, Princess of Wales, on the East Room floor of the Reagan White House.

Visibly emotional and pausing repeatedly, Travolta delivered an eight-minute remarks-from-the-floor that thanked his late mother Helen Burke, his late wife Kelly Preston, his children Ella Bleu and Benjamin, the unidentified French audiences that 'understood what I was doing before half of America had finished laughing at it,' and Tarantino, whom he embraced for a sustained moment that the festival's broadcast feed lingered on. Tarantino, in unscripted remarks of his own, called Travolta 'the most underrated movement actor of the late 20th century' and recalled writing the Vincent Vega role specifically against Hollywood industry advice to cast someone 'younger and on a hotter streak.'

Travolta becomes the third Honorary Palme recipient of this 79th edition, after Peter Jackson — presented his by Elijah Wood on opening night, May 12 — and ahead of Barbra Streisand, who will receive the third and final lifetime tribute at the May 23 closing ceremony from Bette Midler. The Honorary Palme is procedurally and structurally distinct from the competitive Palme d'Or, which the official-selection jury chaired this year by South Korean director Park Chan-wook is set to announce on closing night, with current bookmaker favouritism running between Pawel Pawlikowski's 'Fatherland,' James Gray's 'Paper Tiger' with Adam Driver and Cristian Mungiu's 'Fjord' with Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve.

ambush

an arranged surprise public moment staged without the recipient's prior knowledge, used here in a celebratory rather than aggressive sense

authorial restoration

the painstaking technical recreation of a film, often supervised by its original director, to its original visual and sonic state