Twice winner, the Swedish director will have the mission of choosing the Palme d’or of the 76e Cannes Film Festival, which will be held from May 16 to 27.
By JLB with AFP
© MONIKA SKOLIMOWSKA / DPA / dpa Picture-Alliance via AFP
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VS’is a first. Only one year after his coronation, the Swedish director Ruben Östlund was appointed president of the jury of the 76e Cannes film festival. He takes over from French actor Vincent Lindon, who, with his jury, awarded the Palme d’Or to his latest film, Without filterfive years after his first award with The Square.
Ruben Östlund will have to choose the Palme d’or from among the twenty films in competition, which are to be unveiled soon. He will be supported by several jurors, whose names will also be revealed soon.
“I am happy, proud and humbled to be entrusted with the honor of presiding over the Cannes Film Festival jury this year. No other place in the world arouses such a desire for cinema when the curtain rises on a film in competition, ”said the 48-year-old filmmaker, quoted in the press release.
He becomes, after the American Francis Ford Coppola and the Franco-Serbian Emir Kusturica, the third doubly palmed filmmaker to become president of the jury, and the very first to take on this role the year following his coronation, specifies the press release.
A well-known director on the Croisette
The director rose to fame with Snow Therapy (2014), a film that debunks the modern family with a father fleeing an avalanche, his mobile phone in his hand, but leaving his children in the face of danger. The film won the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard category at Cannes.
In 2017, he made the audience of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes shout with joy by winning the Palme d’Or for The Square. For this film, he surrounded himself with the American Elisabeth Moss (madmen), Briton Dominic West (TheWire) and Denmark’s Claes Bang, who stars. Five years later, he obtained a new Palme d’or with Without filtera satire of the super-rich and luxury.
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The Cannes Film Festival is considered one of the biggest festivals of the 7e art in the world, alongside the Berlinale in Berlin and the Venice Film Festival. During their last edition, these two festivals had appointed at the head of their jury two women, respectively Kristen Stewart and Julianne Moore. The last president of the Cannes jury dates back to 2018, with Australian Cate Blanchett.