Apple’s Eddy Cue is set to win the festival’s Entertainment of the Year award at Cannes Lions next month. The agreement came in recognition of Cue’s role at the helm of the tech giant’s entertainment and services division and the rapid rise of the Apple TV platform since 2019.
Qiu, Apple’s senior vice president of services and health, will give the keynote speech on the first day of the event, which will be held from June 22 to 26 in the seaside resort town on the Cote d’Azur. Cue will be speaking with Hollywood veteran Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced last year’s worldwide box office blockbuster, F1: The Movie, with Apple Original Films.
Simon Cooke, CEO of the festival’s parent company Lions, also detailed the decision to make the Apple veteran a festival this year, pointing to Apple’s unique role in influencing consumer behavior with its pioneering devices.
“Eddie Cue has consistently pushed the boundaries of entertainment and storytelling, building platforms and experiences that redefine how audiences engage with culture,” said Cook. “Under his leadership, Apple has not only produced world-class content, but also shaped the future of entertainment through an unwavering commitment to innovation, creativity and quality. We are pleased to recognize Eddie as our 2026 Entertainment Person of the Year.”
Cue’s recognition at the festival is a celebration of creativity rooted in the advertising and marketing conversation, as well as all the associated adtech, fintech and AI-powered technologies that come with the business of persuading and delivering content to consumers.
Cue orchestrated Apple’s expansion into TV and movies with the Apple TV streamer, targeting theatrical movie releases. Apple won the Best Picture Oscar for 2021’s uplifting drama “CODA,” and the streamer’s industry satire “The Studio” won 13 times at last year’s Emmys, setting records for a comedy series in a single year and for a first-year series. Apple TV was launched in November 2019 (as Apple TV+).
“We’ve always considered art to be a big part of our own DNA,” Cue told Variety in June 2025 about the company’s evolution as a content producer and distributor. “But we never expected to end up producing movies and TV shows,” he said. But as streaming platforms proliferated, “we saw the world was changing, and everyone seemed to be chasing quantity. We thought there was an opportunity if we really focused on high quality.”
As the festival approaches, Cannes Lions has announced that it will host its first-ever Global CMO Summit as a private gathering on June 24th. It also named global beer company AB InBev as “Creative Marketer of the Year.”
