Italian cinema legend Bernardo Bertolucci, whose classics include "Last Tango in Paris" and "The Last Emperor", is to receive an honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes, festival organizers said Monday.

The award has previously been presented on an ad-hoc basis to movie directors such as Woody Allen or Clint Eastwood, but will now become an annual event, with Bertolucci the first recipient, they said in statement.

"His political and social involvement, driven by a profound lyricism, gives his films a unique place in the history of world cinema," they added.

The festival on the French Riviera opens on May 11 with US actor and director Robert De Niro presiding over the jury that will select the winner of the Palme d'Or award.

The list of the competing films is due to be unveiled in Paris today.

South Korean director Boon Joon-Ho will chair the jury that picks the winner of the Camera d'Or prize for best first film.

Last year Thailand's Apichatpong Weerasethakul took the Palme d'Or with a surreal and hypnotic reincarnation tale set in the jungle.