Poitier honoured

Sidney Poitier. Picture / Reuters

France has given Sidney Poitier its highest arts honour at the Cannes Film Festival, where the country's Culture Minister praised him for breaking down barriers for black actors in Hollywood.

Poitier, 79, was named a commander in France's Order of Arts and Letters.

The actor, who won an Oscar for Lilies of the Field in 1963, thanked the directors who broke convention to hire him, calling them "men who chose to change that pattern because it was not democratic, it was not American, it was not human".