Juries Juries Juries: Sundance and Venice
Friday, January 17, 2020 at 2:12PM by Murtada Elfadl
Garcia, Rees and Hawke
It seems like there's a festival jury annoucement everyday!
The Sundance Film Festival has chosen 25 celebrated and revered expert voices across film, art, culture and science to review the films among their different programs. The 2020 Sundance Film Festival Jury members are...
U.S. DRAMATIC JURY
Director Rodrigo Garcia, of Albert Nobbs, Mother and Child, and Things You Can Tell Just by Looking at Her.
Ethan Hawke, who’s been to Sundance recently with Boyhood.
Dee Rees, was at Sundance 3 years ago with Mudbound, this year she’s bringing the Anne hathaway starrer The Last Thing He Wanted.
Isabella Rossellini, this marks Rossellini’s first time at Sundance. In recent years she directed award-winning series of shorts—Green Porno, Seduce Me, and Mammas— which offer comical and scientifically insightful studies of animal behavior.
Wash Westmoreland, Westmoreland and Richard Glatzer’s feature Quinceañera premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, winning both the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award and Grand Jury Prize.
U.S. DOCUMENTARY JURY
Kimberly Reed, director of and Dark Money and Prodigal Sons.
Rachel Rosen, director of programming for San Francisco International Film Festival.
Courtney Sexton, senior vice president for CNN Films.
E. Chai Vasarhelyi, Academy Award–winning filmmaker for Free Solo.
Noland Walker, vice president of content at ITVS.
Wagner Moura
WORLD CINEMA DRAMATIC JURY
Haifaa Al Mansour, director of Wadjda and Mary Shelley whose The Perfect candidate is playing at this year’s festival.
Wagner Moura, Brazilian stage, film, and television star of Narcos and Wasp Network.
Alba Rohrwacher, Italian actress of I Am Love and Happy as Lazzaro.
WORLD CINEMA DOCUMENTARY JURY
Eric Hynes, curator of film at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York.
Rima Mismar, executive director of the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC), a grant-making organization that supports artists across the Arab region.
Nanfu Wang, director of One Child Nation which played at last year's festival.
NEXT a jury of one!
Gregg Araki, filmmaker of Kaboom (2011), Smiley Face (2007), Mysterious Skin (2005).
Cindy Sherman
SHORT FILM JURY
Marcus Hu, president and cofounder of Strand Releasing.
Cindy Sherman, celebrated artist and fantastic Instagram follow (seriously follow her immediately).
Blanchett attending the Joker premiere at last year's Venice
And finally two years after her celebrated turn as Jury President at the Cannes Film Festival, Cate Blanchett will head the jury for the next edition of the Venice Film Festival in September. Her choices at Cannes (Shoplifters, Blackkklansman, Godard) were well received by most cinephiles so it’s an apt choice even if it comes too soon after Cannes. She joins Jane Campion as the only two women to head the jury of both of the two premier film festivals.
Reader Comments (4)
Why would you invite someone to be in the jury who was competing (or does Sundance of an “out of competition” slot)? I’m sure Rees can recuse herself but that just screams all kinds of awkward.
Blanchett joins the following women who have headed the juries at 2/3 of the premier European Film Festivals:
Jane Campion (Cannes, Venice)
Gong Li (Berlin, Venice)
Jeanne Moreau (Berlin, Cannes)
Liv Ullmann (Berlin, Cannes)
Blanchett may well be the first woman (first person?) to head all three... Stay tuned.
I don't know what you mean, exactly, by "at Sundance," but Isabella Rossellini was in Park City for the Sundance premiere of ZELLY AND ME in 1988. I sat a table a way from her at a cafe and was suitably starstruck.
Sundance has a slot for "Premieres" and one for "U.S. Dramatic Competition". Dee Rees is a juror for the latter so you can assume her film will be placed in the former slot so there's no conflict of interest.