Hollywood legend Harrison Ford has been surprisingly awarded a palm of honour for his life's work at the Cannes Film Festival. The 80-year-old US actor, who had come to the French Riviera for the presentation of the film "Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Fate", said he was "deeply touched by this award" after the award was presented by festival director Thierry Frémaux on Thursday evening.

The organizers of Cannes had already announced in advance that Ford would receive an "extraordinary honor". In his decades-long career, the 80-year-old has embodied numerous roles that have gone down in film history: from Han Solo in the "Star Wars" saga to "Blade Runner" and archaeologist Indiana Jones, who made his first appearance on screen in Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in 1981.

At the opening ceremony of this year's Cannes Festival on Tuesday, the 78-year-old US mime Michael Douglas received an honorary palm. Last year, the US actor Tom Cruise was surprisingly honored before the screening of the film "Top Gun: Maverick".