French President Emmanuel Macron inducted two of American cinema's biggest names into the Legion of Honor this week, decorating Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro — longtime friends and collaborators, both 83 — for their decades of work protecting and promoting film as an art form.

The ceremony took place Tuesday at Villa Albertine, France's cultural residence in Manhattan, while Macron was in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, which ran from Sept. 21 through Sept. 23.

Scorsese received the insignia of Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, one of the organization's higher ranks, in recognition of his work restoring world cinema heritage and supporting independent movie theaters through the Film Foundation, the nonprofit he founded in 1990. De Niro was named an Officer of the Legion of Honor for what French officials described as his commitment to image education and independent audiovisual creation.

FOR THEIR COMMITMENT IN FAVOR OF CINEMA AND ITS PRESERVATION.

Leonardo DiCaprio, who has made multiple films tied to both men's careers, was among the guests at the ceremony, a fitting audience given how tightly the careers of all three are intertwined in modern American film history.

The Legion of Honor, created by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, is France's highest order of merit and has previously been awarded to a range of American entertainers and artists recognized for cultural contributions. Scorsese and De Niro's decades-long partnership includes films from "Taxi Driver" and "Raging Bull" to "Goodfellas" and "The Irishman," and both have separately been vocal advocates for film preservation and independent cinema funding in the U.S.

Neither Scorsese nor De Niro has a major new joint project publicly announced, but both remain active in the industry — Scorsese continuing to direct and produce, and De Niro maintaining an acting and production slate alongside his advocacy work through film-preservation and independent-cinema causes.