Oliver Stone will receive the first annual Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Leo The Lion Award on May 21 at the Cannes Film Festival. The award will be presented to Stone by MGM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Harry Sloan, at a cocktail reception to be held at the Majestic Hotel on Sunday, May 21 beginning at 7 p.m.

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Leo The Lion Award has been established to recognize and encourage artistic excellence in individuals who, through significant contributions to filmmaking, have made an indelible impact on the overall value and merit of the library of MGM released films as well as on the world’s movie going public.

Oliver Stone’s “Platoon,” the Vietnam war film starring Charlie Sheen, Willem Dafoe, Tom Berenger and Forest Whitaker, will have a special screening at the Palais des Festival following the cocktail reception with the screening beginning at 10 p.m. “Platoon,” which earned $135 million at the American box office during its 1986 release and won the Academy Award(R) for Best Picture, is celebrating its 20th anniversary.

“Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer is proud of its film legacy,” said Harry E. Sloan, MGM Chairman and CEO, “and this year we celebrate the 20th anniversary of Oliver Stone’s Academy Award(R) winning film ‘Platoon.’ This was not just another war film. It was written and directed by a combat veteran who brought an authenticity to cinema that had not been seen before, and consequently set the standard for all other films concerning the U.S. involvement in Vietnam. MGM is honored that the 2006 Cannes Film Festival has scheduled a special anniversary presentation of ‘Platoon’.”

Written and directed by Oliver Stone, “Platoon” received both praise and criticism when it was initially released in 1986. While not the first film about the USA’s involvement in the Vietnam conflict, the film was the first to devote its entire storyline to the effect of the war on the common soldier. Loosely based on Stone’s personal experiences as an Army combat infantryman in Vietnam (he was wounded twice and received the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star), the film challenged the glossier patriotic versions of the war portrayed in earlier releases like 1968’s “The Green Berets,” starring John Wayne.

“Getting to make ‘Platoon’,” says Stone, who is being invited for the first time to show one of his films in the Festival, “was one of the highlights of my life. To have it shown 20 years later in this great garden of cinema is a deep honor.”

MGM COO Rick Sands confirmed that Oliver Stone, Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger and Willem Dafoe would be traveling to Cannes for the special anniversary presentation.

Executive Produced by John Daly and Derek Gibson of Hemdale, and Produced by Arnold Kopelson, the film earned eight Academy Awards(R) nominations, including Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Tom Berenger), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Willem Dafoe), Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Oliver Stone), winning 1987’s Best Director (Stone), Best Film Editing (Claire Simpson), Best Picture (Arnold Kopelson) and Best Sound (John Wilkinson, Richard D. Rogers, Charles Grenzbach, Simon Kaye) Oscars.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment will release the much-anticipated two-disc 20th Anniversary Collector’s Edition DVD of “Platoon” in the United States on May 30. “It’s been digitally re-mastered, so it’s the cleanest version of the film there’s ever been,” said MGM executive vice president, corporate communications, Jeff Pryor.