Jean-Paul Belmondo fikk sitt store gjennombrudd med hovedrollen i Til siste åndedrag. Andre klassikere han har spilt i er Une femme est une femme,  Pierrot le Fou og Borsalino. Han er en av Frankrikes mest anerkjente skuespillere og har jobbet med regissører som François Truffaut, Vittorio De Sica, Jean-Pierre Melville og ikke minst Jean-Luc Godard. Under årets Cannes-festival blir skuespilleren hedret.

- We are delighted that he has agreed to attend this gala evening in celebration of his talent and career. His range and personal charisma, the precision of his acting, his cocky wit, the ease with which he carries himself have made him, along with Jean Gabin and Michel Simon, one of the greatest French actors of all time, a fact to which many films bear ample witness. No doubt the entire panoply of French actors, headed by his Conservatory friends Jean Rochefort, Claude Rich, Pierre Vernier and Jean-Pierre Marielle, will want to walk up that Cannes staircase to celebrate ‘Bébel’ to the sound of the rapturous applause of his diehard fans, sier festivalsjefene Gilles Jacob og Thierry Frémaux i en uttalelse.