On April 28th local time, the organizers of the Cannes Film Festival announced the jury lineup for the main competition unit of the 78th Cannes Film Festival this year.
In addition to the previously announced French actress Juliette Binoche as the jury president, other judges include American actress Halle Berry, Indian director and screenwriter Payal Kapadia, Italian actor Alba Rohrwacher, French-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani, Congolese director and documentary maker Dieudo Hamadi, South Korean director and screenwriter Hong Sangsoo, Mexican director Carlos Reygadas, and American actor Jeremy Strong. The above five women and four men from four continents will decide who will win the Palme d'Or this year.
From left to right, top to bottom: Jeremy Strong © Paola Kudacki, Alba Rohrwacher © Stephanie Gengotti, Diudo Hammadi © Gertrude, Leila Slimani © Francesca Mantovani - Gallimard, Juliette Binoche © Brigitte Lacombe, Halle Berry © Randy Holmes ABC, Carlos Reygadas © DR, Payal Kapadia © Ranabir Das, Hong Sang-soo © DR. Image from Cannes official website.
Among the jury, the most familiar to the outside world are naturally several actors. Juliette Binoche, who served as the chairman, has a deep connection with Cannes films. In 1985, she first shone on the Cote d'Azur with André Téchiné's "The Secret of Passion". In the following forty years, nine works she starred in were shortlisted for Cannes, the most recent of which was "Fondue" directed by Tran Anh Hung in 2023; she also won the Cannes Best Actress award in 2010 with "Legal Copy" directed by Abbas.
Halle Berry, a famous Hollywood actress, became the first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in "Monster's Ball" directed by Marc Forster. She has long been wandering between commercial blockbusters and independent films, starring in various works such as "X-Men", "Swordfish", "Die Another Day", "Gothica", and "Cloud Atlas". In 2020, her first directorial work "Scarred" was released, and she has since served as a co-producer of many of her participating works, including "Never Let Me Go", a new work directed by Alexandre Aja.
Jeremy Strong is a golden supporting actor who has become famous in Hollywood in recent years. His performance in "The Apprentice", which was shortlisted for the main competition unit of the Cannes Film Festival last year, was particularly outstanding, and he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Thanks to the hit TV series My Brilliant Friend, Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher has gradually become known to audiences around the world. In fact, she is also a regular at Cannes. The three works she collaborated with her sister, director Alice Rohrwacher, were all shortlisted for the Cannes main competition unit. Among them, Miracle won the 2014 Jury Prize, and Lazzaro won the Best Screenplay Award in 2018.
In addition to the actors, several directors on the jury are also well-known. It is well known that Hong Sang-soo prefers the Berlin Film Festival, but this prolific director has actually been shortlisted for the Cannes main competition unit and the Un Certain Regard unit four times. In addition, the work "Claire's Camera" specially screened in Cannes is based on this coastal town, which confirms his deep connection with the film festival.
Mexican director Carlos Reygadas can be said to have started his directorial career at Cannes. His first feature film, "The World Is Here," won the Special Honor Award at the Caméra d'Or. After that, "War in Heaven," "Silent Light," and "A Brighter Summer Day" were all shortlisted for the Cannes Main Competition. Among them, "Silent Light" won the Jury Prize in 2007, and "A Brighter Summer Day" won the Best Director Award in 2012.
Indian director and screenwriter Payal Kapadia is the latest rising star discovered by the Cannes Film Festival. Her first feature film, "The Light of Imagination", won the 2024 Jury Prize and subsequently attracted the attention of the world film community.
Congolese director Dioudo Hammadi has always paid attention to social issues from a documentary perspective. In 2014, his film Unified Examination won the Grand Prix at the Agadir Film Festival; in 2017, his film The Colonel's Wife won the Grand Prix at the French Real Film Festival.
Leila Slimani is a popular young writer in the French literary world. In 2014, she published her first novel, The Garden of the Ogre, which was shortlisted for the Flore Prize. In 2016, her best-selling work, Songs of Tenderness, won the Goncourt Prize and the ELLE Reader Award, and was introduced to more than 40 countries and regions. While writing, Slimani also actively participated in the equal rights movement and won the Simone de Beauvoir Prize in 2020.
