At 4th May, The Cannes Film Festival revealed the composition of the Jury for the 2023 edition. Next to the president, Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness ), there will be four women and four men, including Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau ( Titane ) and American — Captain Marvel — Brie Larson, to award the grand prize of the event to one of the 21 films in competition, from May 16th to 27th.
Composed of seven nationalities from four continents, the selection of actors, directors, and writers promises diversity and an arduous task ahead. Get to know below a little about the nine members of the jury of the 76th Festival de Cannes.
Ruben Östlund, president of the jury
The winner last year at Cannes, Swedish Ruben Östlund is one of the Croisette’s darlings, having won two Palms d’Or, the first in 2017 for The Square – The Art of Discord and the second last year for Triângulo da Tristeza.
With six feature films under his belt, the filmmaker uses humor in a mixture of sociological examinations and questions about humanity. This year, he becomes the third dual-awarded filmmaker to chair the jury, following Francis Ford Coppola (Apocalypse Now ) and Emir Kusturica ( Underground: War Lies ).
Julia Ducournau
The French Julia Ducournau is one of four women to be part of the Festival’s jury. Starring Vincent Lindon and Agathe Rousselle, her second feature, Titane, won the Palme d’Or in 2021, making her the second woman to receive the honor after Jane Campion ( The Piano, 1993).
A graduate of La Fémis, a famous Parisian film school, the 39-year-old filmmaker became known worldwide in 2016 with her first horror film Grave. Critically acclaimed Julia Ducournau directed episodes of the Apple TV+ series Servant and plans a new series, The New Look, for the same platform later this year. Committed to gender equality in the seventh art, Cineata is part of the 50/50 collective.
Brie Larson
Brie Larson plays in several positions in show business, as an actress, director, and singer, but she is best known for her performance in the Marvel universe, in the role of superheroine Carol Danvers since 2019. After several years playing supporting roles, the American was revealed in Destin Daniel Cretton’s films Temporary 12 (2013) and Lenny Abrahamson’s Jack’s Room (2015) .
In 2017, she made her directorial debut at TIFF with Loja de Unicorns. However, it received a lukewarm reception from critics. Committed to the fight against harassment and sexism in cinema, she is one of the 300 Hollywood personalities to have created the Time’s Up movement in 2019.
Maryam Touzani
A former Moroccan journalist, Maryam Touzani became an acclaimed screenwriter and director when she presented her feature film Adam (2019) at the Cannes Film Festival that year. Intimately political, the title addressed the condition of women in Morocco.
Last year, the filmmaker returned to the Croisette with highly praised The Blue Caftan, a film about homosexuality in her home country. Passing through the 2022 Rio Film Festival, the feature was chosen to represent Morocco in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 2023 Oscars.
Denis Menochet
Starting his career on television, Denis Ménochet little by little conquered the silent world of cinema and never abandoned it. His first major works were Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Mélanie Laurent’s The Adopted. Success came with his role in the drama Custódia, by Xavier Legrand, for which he received a César nomination for Best Actor.
Atiq Rahimi
Winner of the 2008 Goncourt Prize for his novel The Stone of Patience, Atiq Rahimi is a French-Afghan writer and director. After fleeing the Taliban regime in 1984, he sought political asylum in France and completed a doctorate in audiovisuals at Sorbonne University.
His first documentary, Terres et Cendres, adapted from his novel about the war in Afghanistan, earned him a presentation in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes Film Festival in 2004. He returned to cinema in 2013 for the adaptation of his award-winning novel A Pedra of Patience.
It is worth remembering that this year there are two documentaries in competition for the Palme d’Or: Les Filles d’Olfa, by Kaouther Ben Hania, and Jeunesse, by Wang Bing.
Damian Szifron
A regular presence at the Cannes Film Festival, Argentine screenwriter and director Damián Szifrón was nominated for the Palme d’Or in 2014 for his film Relatos Selvagens, which was also nominated for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
After a long period away from the screens, this year the filmmaker presents the feature Assassin’s Thirst, with Shailene Woodley and Ben Mendelsohn. With a premiere scheduled for May 25, the film tells the hunt for a mass murderer in the United States.
Paul Dano
Revealed in the early 2000s by the film Sem Exit, by Michael Cuesta, Paul Dano has successes on his resume, including the comedy Little Miss Sunshine (2006) and the drama Sangue Negro (2007). Few people know, but the artist has also held the position of director and screenwriter — even if only once — with the title Vida Selvagem (2018)
With his peculiar face for Hollywood standards, Paul Dano stood out for characters, sometimes funny, sometimes scary, as in Ruby Sparks – The Perfect Girlfriend (2012) and The Usual Suspects (2013), respectively. Last year, the actor played director Steven Spielberg’s father in the autobiography The Fabelmans (2022).
Rungano Nyoni
Zambian actress, screenwriter, and director, Rungano Nyoni is known for her short films: Nordic Factory (2014) and Kuuntele (2014). The second won Best Short Film at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Her notoriety comes from the feature I Am Not a Witch (2017), about a girl accused of witchcraft in a traditional village in Zambia. Critically acclaimed, the project premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes in 2017. In the same year, Rungano Nyoni won Best First Film at the BAFTA ceremony in the UK and was also chosen to represent the country as Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. 2019.
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