[NOTE: We’re kicking off our daily Cannes preview series later today — stay tuned.]
We knew months ago that Robert De Niro was presiding over this year’s Cannes jury, but the eight people joining him on the bench were finally named yesterday. Red-carpet stargazers should be pretty happy with this year’s crop: joining De Niro from the Hollywood side of things are Jude Law and Uma Thurman. (Perhaps festival director Thierry Frémaux is as big a fan of “Gattaca” as we are.)
Filling the big-name auteur slot on the panel is Olivier Assayas, a three-time Competition entrant who some might say has earned jury president status. Other Cannes alumni include Chadian filmmaker Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, who took the Jury Prize at last year’s festival for “A Screaming Man,” and Hong Kong action merchant Johnnie To, twice a Palme d’Or contender.
Rounding out a jury that is happily, like the Competition selection, a little more gender-balanced than last year’s (where only actresses Kate Beckinsale and Giovanna Mezzogiorno represented for their sex) are Chinese producer Nansun Shi, formidable Argentinian actress Martina Gusman and Norwegian critic and novelist Linn Ullmann. (The latter’s name should indeed ring bells: she’s the daughter of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman.)
It’s a pleasingly diverse lineup, though I’m a tad disappointed to see no below-the-line talent in this year’s group: after Alexandre Desplat did jury duty at last year’s fest, and Sandy Powell at Berlin this year, I was hoping for the trend to continue. (On a more trivial note, is this the most photogenic Cannes jury in memory? Even Assayas and Haroun are veritable supermodels by auteur standards.)
The question mark remains what level of influence De Niro will bring to the table this year. The last two Palme d’Or winners have both, coincidentally or otherwise, reflected that year’s jury president to some degree: Isabelle Huppert handed the prize to her friend and collaborator Michael Haneke, while under Tim Burton’s watch last year, a fantasy film took the gold for the first time.
De Niro, however, appears to be a more neutral personality — and in any event, it’s a mistake to assume a jury head can make a group of nine people think as they do. So all bets are off this year; though if Terrence Malick, the lone US filmmaker in competition, takes the Palme, expect the annual round of Cannes conspiracy theories.
Comments
7 responses to “Cannes jury includes Law, Thurman, Assayas”
“who some might say has earned jury president status. ”
Word. Assayas’s one-two punch of Summer Hours and Carlos must rank as the greatest in recent memory and quickly take him near the top of the chart of the greatest film-makers of our time, if not the very top.
What a shame he is only a jury member where De Niro is president. I’d be toughen up if I were De Niro now, the French Press will surely take him to task on his recent work just like they did Tim Burton in last year’s opening jury press conference.
“…the lone US film in competition (“The Tree of Life”)…”
I may be mistaken by your definition of a U. S. film, but is ‘Drive’ not an American film? Or are you talking about the nationality of the director to imply that that commonality would more likely appear biased?
Also, I was unaware that Desplat was on the jury last year. He is my favorite active film composer. Awesome.
I don’t like this jury, feels too Hollywoodyan for me, although I have no objections to any of the members individually.
Davin: Yes, I meant “filmmaker” rather than “film” — it got swallowed in the draft. Since Cannes, for better or worse, determined so extensively on directorial identity, it seems a distinction worth making.
A MESS AS USUAL
DeNiro, Thurman, I smell a Tarantino flick being casted.
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