From Tahar Rahim to Mylène Farmer, the Cannes Film Festival unveils the jury that will award the Palme d’Or

Published on : 06/24/2021 – 09:15

The headliner of “Parasite”, the singer Mylène Farmer or the Franco-Senegalese director Mati Diop: the Cannes festival unveiled Thursday the composition of its jury, mostly female – five women and four men including Skipe Lee, the president of the 2021 edition.

Its members come “from five continents and (are) from seven nationalities,” said the festival in a statement. The composition of this jury was the last big announcement for moviegoers before the opening ceremony, in less than two weeks. The film which will be screened during the last screening has not yet been revealed.

The jury will have to designate the successor of “Parasite” by Bong Joon-Ho, crowned in 2019, during the last edition which was held on the Croisette before the pandemic. The headliner of this global success from South Korea, Song Kang-Ho – the actor playing the father of the family – is part of the jury this year.

He will rub shoulders with Tahar Rahim, a Frenchman with now international notoriety, revealed as a prisoner in “A Prophet” by Jacques Audiard. The actor is now making his way in Hollywood, as recently in “Designated Guilty”, where he plays a Mauritanian locked up in Guantanamo, alongside Jodie Foster.

Her compatriot, actress and director Mélanie Laurent, co-director with Cyril Dion of “Demain”, a documentary committed to the environment – one of the causes highlighted by the festival this year – is also part of it.

She is also not unknown in Hollywood where she tours regularly since “Inglourious Basterds”, by Quentin Tarantino.

Gauges lifted?

Mélanie Laurent is not the only actress member of the jury to go behind the camera: the American Maggie Gyllenhaal, famous since “The Dark Knight”, is currently working on her first film.

As for the filmmakers, the jury includes the Brazilian Kleber Mendonça Filho (“Bacurau”), awarded at Cannes in 2019, as well as the Austrian Jessica Hausner (“Little Joe”) and the Franco-Senegalese Mati Diop, whose first film is marked by fantastic on emigration, “Atlantic”, had received the Grand Prix.

A star of French-speaking song completes this jury: Mylène Farmer. The native of Quebec, interpreter of hits like “Sans contrefaçon” or “Désenchantée”, is “inseparable from the world of image and cinema which has always fascinated her”, in particular through her clips, underlines the festival.

These jurors will have to decide between the filmmakers in the official competition, including several established names already crowned, such as Nanni Moretti, for “Tre Piani”, Jacques Audiard for “The Olympics”, or Apichatpong Weerasethakul for his first film in English produced outside Thailand (” Memoria “).

This selection also includes three French women – Mia Hansen-Love (“Bergman Island”), Julia Ducournau (“Titane”) and Catherine Corsini -, the Russian Kirill Serebrennikov for “Petrov’s flu” or the Iranian Asghar Farhadi, for “Un Héros “, shot in his country of origin.

Pandemic requires, the festival will be held under strict sanitary conditions, but the gauges should be completely lifted by the opening.

International stars are already announced on the red carpet: Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard (for “Annette” by Leos Carax, the opening film), Matt Damon who shot, in Marseille, in “Stillwater” (out of competition) or again Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton and Benicio del Toro, in the cast of the last Wes Anderson (“The French Dispatch”).

With AFP