Robert De Niro & JR

Robert De Niro 

Robert De Niro is one of the most influential and versatile actors of his generation, celebrated for his extraordinary range and deep commitment to his craft. He began his film career in 1969 with Brian De Palma’s The Wedding Party and garnered early acclaim for Bang the Drum Slowly and Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets. De Niro earned Academy Awards for The Godfather Part II (Best Supporting Actor, 1975) and Raging Bull (Best Actor, 1981). He received additional nominations for Taxi Driver, The Deer Hunter, Awakenings, Cape Fear, Silver Linings Playbook, The Irishman, and Killers of the Flower Moon. His directorial credits include A Bronx Tale and The Good Shepherd.

Over a career spanning more than five decades, he has been honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award, Kennedy Center Honor, Cecil B. DeMille Award, BAFTA Britannia’s Stanley Kubrick Award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, SAG Life Achievement Award, a 2025 Honorary Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival, and, most recently, Rome’s Lupa Capitolina, the city’s highest honor.

As co-founder of Tribeca Productions, Tribeca Film Center, and the Tribeca Festival, he has championed independent filmmaking and helped to revitalize New York City’s cultural landscape in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. With recent and upcoming projects including Zero Day, Tin Soldier, Ezra, The Alto Knights, The Whisper Man, and Focker In-Law, De Niro continues to build on his legacy as an actor, producer, and creative force committed to storytelling and the arts.

JR 

French artist JR creates monumental public art projects that inspire passersby to ask questions and confront their own perceptions. After his first major project Portrait of a Generation (2004–06), which challenged stereotypes of Parisian suburban youth, he began working internationally. JR’s larger-than-life installations, like the faces of Israeli and Palestinian people on both sides of the Separation Wall (2007), the eyes of women on train cars in Kibera, Kenya (2009), and a giant toddler peeking over the U.S.-Mexico border fence (2017), amplify the stories of everyday people and foster dialogue.

From creating a trompe- l’oeil at the Louvre with 400 volunteers (2019) to pasting alongside incarcerated men in a California maximum-security prison (2019–22), he seeks to involve everyone in the act of artistic creation, hoping to create conversations and drive social change. As of September 2025, his global participatory art project Inside Out has empowered more than half a million people to stand up for what they believe in through large-scale black-and-white portraits.

JR also has a rigorous studio art practice, creating gallery artworks that are exhibited internationally. He has had major retrospectives at the Brooklyn Museum (2019) and Maison Européenne de la Photographie (2018), as well as shown artworks and installations at the Venice Biennale (2022), the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2019), and the NGV Triennial (2020).