Beauty Break: Cannes 2018 Jury
Wednesday, April 18, 2018 at 12:17PM by Nathaniel R
"Avengers Cannes Jury Assemble!" Australia's champion actress Cate Blanchett, as you know, is presiding (and only the 9th actress to have the honor) but who will be joining her on the Croisette? The beautiful people are after the jump...
CHANG CHEN (Taiwan, Actor)
We've loved this Asian film star long time. Credits include: Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Three Times, Red Cliff, The Assassin, The Grandmaster and many more.
AVA DUVERNAY (US, Writer/Director/Producer)
Everyone's favorite former publicist / now Hollywood game-changer. Credits include: Middle of Nowhere, 13th, Selma, and A Wrinkle in Time.
ROBERT GUÉDIGUIAN (France, Writer/Director/Producer)
I have to admit I am not too familiar despite being a French film fan. Credits include: Marius and Jeanette, The Town is Quiet, The House by the Sea.
KHADJA NIN (Burundi, Musician)
Singer Songwriter. Here's her official website to familiarize yourself.
LÉA SEYDOUX (France, Actress)
One of our favorite current actreses. Yay!
KRISTEN STEWART (US, Actress)
She's obviously quite popular in France, winning the César for Clouds of Sils Maria. Credits include: Personal Shopper, Cafe Society, Still Alice, Twilight, On the Road, and many more.
DENIS VILLENEUVE (Canada, Director)
The still rising auteur is clearly intelligent and gifted with great aesthetic taste so he'll probably make an ideal jury member! Credits include: Blade Runner 2049, Arrival, Sicario, Incendies, Enemy, Prisoners and more.
ANDREY ZVYAGINSTEV (Russia, Writer/Director)
Oscar and broader cinephilia's current favorite Russian director. Credits include: The Return, Leviathan, and Loveless.
TRIVIA NOTE: This is the third Cannes jury to have more female than male members. The first was Isabelle Huppert's jury in 2009, then Jane Campion's jury in 2014 both of which also had five women and four men. There have been a couple additional years where the jury had 10 members and a 50/50 split.
Reader Comments (21)
Has a person of color ever lead the jury?
I plead ignorance on this subject so I'm honestly asking: why is there a singer/songwriter there? If she doesn't have any film credits, why include her?
Chang Chen! Yum.
I wish we could know what or WHO stopped Pedro from following his heart and giving la Palme d'Or to BPM, also known as the great movie of 2017.
@Me34: Wong Kar Wai headed the jury in the mid-00s
me34 -- Twice from what i can gather. Hong Kong's Wong Kar-Wai and Japan's Tetsurō Furikake
DJDeeday -- i dont think this is the first time. Every once in a while they have a musician or literary luminary that isn't a cinema person on the jury.
It's nice to see a (slightly) majority female/female-led Cannes jury. Has *that* ever happened before?
DJDeeJay
Cannes (and most of film festivals around the world) traditionally add artists from other backgrounds to their jury, due their relevant contribution to culture such as literature Nobel prize winners Patrick Modiano, Orhan Pamuk, Toni Morrison, and many others authors, musicians and designers.
Me34
I think the only non-white person to ever led this jury was Wong Kar-wai, 12 years ago. :(
Ani di, Clarence, and me -- Japan's Tetsurō Furikake was the first in the 1960s. Then Wong Kar Wai in the Aughts.
HHEELLLLLOO Chang Chen.
By the way, the name of the 1962 Jury President is misspelled -- it should be "Testurō Furukaki" This makes a difference, as "Furikake" is seasoning sprinkled onto rice, and not a family name.
He is another example of a non-cinema person being on the jury -- his main claim to fame is being a prominent Japanese Francophile, with several books about that published in French, as well as work as a media executive at the Asahi Newspaper and acting as the head of NHK for a while.
Sometimes English-language wikipedia makes mistakes! That then propagate all over the web ;)
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetsurō_Furukaki
I'm thinking about two things.
1) I saw YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE yesterday and it floored me. It's hard to call it a "favorite" but I definitely think it's a masterpiece that I wouldn't recommend to anyone. So many elements have stuck with me - two (maybe?) veterans holding hands and singing Charlene as one dies, another incredible Greenwood score, when Nina screams "JOE!" in one of the few moments of clear, unambiguous dialogue. Joaquin Phoenix managing to fully be new people every time I see him. Incredible.
2) This is a deep cut, but I can't get this moment from GONE GIRL out of my head, it makes me laugh so much. It's when Lisa Banes as "Amazing Amy"'s mother is at the press conference informing the audience how they can help, and she has to say "Drury Lodge." It's such a hard word to say anyway but there's this subtle undertone of DISGUST at the hotel's very existence that comes through in her line reading. It's like a dirty word coming out of her East Coast elite mouth for the first time and I love it so much. Maybe it's just me, but I'm glad Fincher does hundreds of takes.
Go Kristen.
I hope Cate Blanchett really turns up the glamour. It seems like she has been off the screen (apart from that forgettable Thor movie) for a long time. I still have high hopes for her to be the next Streep (a woman who is wildly successful in her 40's, 50's, 60's etc.).
I know nine sounds like a small number of actresses who've "had the honor" but roughly as many male movie stars have led the jury—maybe fewer, depending on how you categorize someone like Clint Eastwood who wasn't chosen for his acting.
If anything, actresses have been generously represented in the overall history of the festival and female filmmakers (directors, screenwriters, etc.) need the love. Greta Gerwig will probably get the gig one of these years and it shouldn't stop there.
They also haven't reached outside cinema for a president in a long time: There's a rich history of Cannes presidents from theater, opera, criticism, literature, etc. A serious curveball would be fun—Joan Didion?
Yes to Kristen Stewart,your fave Lea my fave Kristen,never seen the twilight films,so she's always been v good in my eyes.
Chang Chen will be forever loved by me because of his heartbreaking pivotal supporting role in Happy Together. That performance is short but SO BEAUTIFUL.
This lineup is actually most interessant than the competition one...
If you consider "Latin American" as POC, you have to count Miguel Angel Asturias. He was president of the jury in the 60's, and, in spite of being light-skinned, had a mixed racial family.
Cal Roth, I was going to mention “Happy Together,” but as often happens, you spoke first. Chang Chen is magical in that film, almost the definition of subtlety, beautiful yet light and comic as well.
I would totally change AVA DUVERNAY for DEE REES.
Dee is much more interesting and best director than Ava.
I'm sorry Ava fans.