French President Emmanuel Macron honored five major figures in international cinema at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace in Paris on July 15: Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri, the producer behind the films “Despicable Me” and “Minions,” the highest-grossing animated franchise of all time, with more than $5.7 billion at the global box office; George Lucas, creator of “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones”; 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, Oscar-winning director of “A Man and a Woman.”

Weaver, Meledandri, Lucas, and Foster received the insignia of Knight of the Legion of Honor, while Lelouch received the insignia of Commander of the Legion of Merit.

The ceremony was attended by the filmmaker Costa-Gavras, the president of the Canal+ group, Maxime Saada, the director of the Marrakech film festival, Melita Toscan du Plantier, the general director of Cinépolis, Alejandro Ramírez, the director of the Annecy film festival, Michael Marin, the filmmaker Rebecca Zlotowski, the French visual artist JR, Prune Nourry, the president of Illumination Studios Paris, Jacques Bled, Victor Hadida of Metropolitan FilmExport, the minister of French culture, Catherine Pégard, and the president of the CNC, Gaëtan Bruel, among others.

In his tribute to Meledandri, Macron credited him with helping turn France into one of the world’s leading animation centers through his long-standing partnership with Paris-based studio Mac Guff and the creation of Illumination Studios Paris in 2011.

“I am especially happy that you have chosen to spend several months of the year in France and that you have contributed to making our country one of the great centers of animation in the world,” Macron said. “Thanks to your films, of course, but also because you personally supported, together with the CNC, the creation of the international tax credit in 2009, an essential measure for the attractiveness of our country.”

Macron recalled that Meledandri recognized Mac Guff’s “immense potential” in 2007, when the French animation studio employed fewer than 100 people. Working with studio artists filmmaker Pierre Coffin and Pharrell Williams, Meledandri developed “Despicable Me,” which introduced Gru and the Minions and became the basis for the successful Illumination franchise. Meledandri and Bled later turned the French-American collaboration into a long-lasting partnership by founding Illumination Studios Paris, where 16 feature films and 40 short films have since been created.

“Film after film, you give us a new reason to go to the cinema,” Macron told Meledandri. “You also strongly advocate for releasing films in theaters to preserve that precious shared experience and collective joy. And I appreciate that.”

Illumination’s latest release, “Minions & Monsters,” directed and co-written by French artist Pierre Coffin, is currently playing in theaters and has grossed more than $283 million worldwide as of July 15.

As for Lucas, Macron traced the filmmaker’s journey from a car-obsessed teenager in Modesto, California, to one of cinema’s most influential storytellers, recalling how a near-fatal car accident prompted him to switch from racing to filmmaking. He praised Lucas as part of the generation of filmmakers, along with Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese, who anchored the New Hollywood era.

Macron described “Star Wars” not just as a movie but as “an entire galaxy, a mythology” in which courage could triumph over death, a young man from a forgotten planet could become a knight among the stars and the fight for democracy could be passed on from one generation to the next.

“Thanks to this film and the entire saga, you offered a new generation a territory of escape, a dream space where everything was possible again,” Macron said. He praised Lucas for combining the retro and the futuristic while creating a cinematic universe encompassing sound design, monumental sets and epic storytelling.

The French president also celebrated Lucas’ influence beyond management, calling him “an exceptional entrepreneur” who founded Lucasfilm, THX and Industrial Light & Magic. He highlighted Lucas’ ties to France, including his commitment to preserving Provence’s winemaking traditions at Château Margüi, and recalled that Coppola presented him with an honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2024.

“You have become a great Jedi Knight of cinema and today you become a Knight of the Legion of Honor,” Macron said. “For his pioneering use of technology in the service of cinema, for his visionary imagination and for this force that, for decades, has continued to inspire awe in young and old, and for his love of France, I am extremely proud to present to him today the insignia of Knight of the Legion of Honor.”

Macron dedicated much of his tribute to Foster’s lifelong relationship with France, recalling that her mother, Evelyn, introduced her to French and European cinema, took her to Paris and bought her an apartment on the Île Saint-Louis. He also highlighted Foster’s education at the Lycée Français of Los Angeles and Yale, where he studied literature and met Toni Morrison, as well as his early appearance in Cannes at age 13 with “Taxi Driver.”

The French president reviewed Foster’s evolution from child prodigy to two-time Oscar winner and filmmaker, praising her refusal to accept conventional female roles. She noted “The Accused,” in which she played a woman struggling to tell her story “in her own words,” and “The Silence of the Lambs,” where Clarice Starling was “a woman in a man’s world, strong in a world of brutes.”

“Time and time again, archetypes were refused, to play someone else’s wife or daughter, and characters who existed in their own right were chosen, characters with strength,” Macron said. He also celebrated Foster’s pioneering transition behind the camera, noting that she was among the relatively few American actresses of her generation to become a director.

Macron went on to highlight Foster’s continuing ties to France, from her honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes to her French-language starring role opposite Daniel Auteuil in Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Vie privée,” which had its world premiere at Cannes and was released in the United States by Sony Pictures Classics.

“France has always been like a second home for you, an intimate part of yourselves and your history,” Macron said. He also recalled Foster’s participation in the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the Liberation of Paris and praised her battles against intrusions into private life and the pressures placed on actresses. “You have always been a free woman, as your mother showed you and taught you.”

“For 50 years, you have embodied an independent and free woman,” Macron concluded, paying tribute to Foster for “this immense talent,” for having been “a child prodigy, an exceptional student and an actress who, in short, has not gone through different eras but has reinvented, each time, a new era for herself and for cinema,” as well as for her “love for our country.”

Macron praised Weaver as a pioneer who transformed the place of women in blockbuster cinema, recalling that when she was cast as Ripley in Ridley Scott’s “Alien,” “no one imagined that the last person to survive could be a woman,” least of all Weaver, who was then unknown to the general public.

“With ‘Alien’ we are therefore confronted with the creature that devours the passengers of the Nostromo one by one, but also with another no less formidable adversary: ​​the limitations and prejudices of the time,” said Macron. “A heroine of courage, you also paved the way for many other great female figures: Lara Croft, Katniss Everdeen, Imperator Furiosa and many others.”

The French president stressed that Weaver’s greatest strength may have been her refusal to remain confined to the role of action heroine.

“You managed to remain part of the great franchises that made you famous and at the same time establish yourself as a complete and, ultimately, unclassifiable actress,” Macron said. “You change register and role as you wish.”

He cited Weaver’s ability to move between comedy, drama and spectacle, from “Working Girl” and “Ghostbusters” to “Gorillas in the Mist,” “The Ice Storm,” “Master Gardener” and “Avatar,” while always seeking “the truth” from her characters and never taking “the easy way out.”

Calling France Weaver his “adopted country,” Macron recalled that she lived for two years in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, speaks French, has filmed in the country – including a memorable episode of “Call My Agent” – and loves both French cinema and France’s “spirit of independence.”

Previous Hollywood filmmakers, actors and entertainers to receive the Legion of Honor during Macron’s tenure include Tom Cruise, Denis Villeneuve and Pharrell Williams, among others. Previous winners include Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and Clint Eastwood.