Thursday, April 23, 2015

Cannes 2015: Jury

It was known for some time that the Coen Brothers will preside at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival, and now the full list of members of the Jury has been announced. It consists of the following distinguished ladies and gentlemen:

  • Joel and Ethan Coen
  • Rossy de Palma
  • Sophie Marceau
  • Sienna Miller
  • Rokia Traoré
  • Guillermo del Toro
  • Xavier Dolan
  • Jake Gyllenhaal

Can you guess from their personalities which film will get the Palme d'Or?


It is a bit surprising to find Rokia Traoré among the Jury members, since she doesn't seem to have any obvious connections with cinema. Nevertheless, she is undoubtedly a very gifted music artist, so the organizers made a great choice. She was born in Mali but travelled most of her youth and is now London-based, if I'm not mistaken. Her influences are so broad that she passes for a Londoner musician in Mali and for a Malian musician in London. Her 2003 album Bowmboi is wonderful, and even features the renown Kronos Quartet.

Rossy de Palma will bring some Movida madness to the Jury. She performed in many movies by Pedro Almodovar, such as the hilarious Tie me up! Tie me down!

Hopefully Sophie Marceau will be less stressed out than in 1999 when she delivered a speech that went down in history as a masterpiece of vacuity and awkwardness.

It's fantastic that the organizers also chose the remarkably talented Canadian director Xavier Dolan. Although he's only 26, he is already very accomplished, and won the Jury Prize last year for Mommy. Actually he shared it with none other than Jean-Luc Godard for Goodbye to Language!

Given the energy and freshness of this Jury, I wouldn't be surprised if the Palme d'Or went to László Nemes for his first film Saul Fia (Son of Saul). I don't think this ever happened in the history of Cannes Film Festival.


Note also that the delightful Isabella Rossellini will be the president of the Un Certain Regard Jury. Will she favor some Green Porno?


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