It’s a bit like in Loto-Québec’s advertisement for 6/49: being the big winner doesn’t change the world, except that… Same story for obtaining the Palme d’or, which makes the existence of a filmmaker suddenly more comfortable. Tuesday, we met the jury of the official competition.
Its president, the Swede Ruben Östlund, a great dialogue writer and fine observer of society with an acid and grating humour, is part of the select club of double palmés d’or on the Croisette. He won the jackpot with The Square in 2017, then last year with Without filter. This last opus, a kind of fun cruise on steroids, later found himself in the race for the Oscars. But there is no question for him of spitting in the Cannes soup: “Of course the international impact is greater when you go through Hollywood, but to choose, I would prefer the Palme to the Oscar. I consider myself first and foremost as a European filmmaker, and European cinema is worth fighting for. In his eyes, winning this Palme is the equivalent of winning the jackpot in the lottery. A matter of luck, of complicity between the jury and a film. “There could be so many other scenarios on the list…”
The French Julia Ducournau sits alongside him on this jury. The famous Cannes statuette, she herself received it in 2021 for her stripper Titanium. She thus became the second female filmmaker to reach the top, after New Zealander Jane Campion for The piano lesson in 1993. This year we celebrate the 76e edition of the Cannes Film Festival. This shows how the winners were not often the ladies’ night. Its price was then a historic event.
“I have few memories of that evening,” says Julia Ducournau. The emotion was too intense. Being on the jury will allow me to measure the extent of it, because I will be on the other side of the fence. A Palme d’or is not only honorary or symbolic. To give it to someone is to offer him a colossal change of life, which will modify the financing of his following films. You give someone a springboard to develop their art. There is a weight in there. »
Different visions
The composition of the jury is more than interesting, with strong personalities on board and different visions. Seated there is the French actor Denis Ménochet (Up to the hilt, As bestas), Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani (The blue of the caftan), American actress Brie Larson (Oscar winner for her role in Room), American actor and filmmaker Paul Dano (Twelve Years a Slave, The Fabelmans), the avid Afghan writer Atiq Rahimi (Syngué sabour. stone of patience), British-Zambian director Rungano Nyoni (I Am Not a Witch) and Argentinian director Damián Szifrón (The new savages). All highly deserving.
Will they fight claws and nails out for their favorites? This is what Ruben Östlund hopes after their first meeting the day before. “Everyone will have their voice. Consensus should be avoided. We don’t have to be smart, but to follow our first instinct, to be sensitive to a certain atmosphere, to maintain our freedom. Our backgrounds are so different. It will involve stormy, but hopefully heated debates as well. One thing is certain, we will not listen to rumors about the favorites of festival-goers. We will make real jury choices through the dynamics of the group. »
Denis Ménochet considers this experience as being in a kind of school, university. “I want to let myself be impregnated, by ceasing to be an actor. Only a spectator. The author and filmmaker Atiq Rahimi feels particularly attracted by the sensitivity of the words of the screenplay: “Cinema begins with writing. »
As for the women of the jury, they do not want to privilege one sex rather than the other, but to run on emotion. “You put a lot of yourself into watching a film,” says Maryam Touzani. It’s not a matter of male or female director. »
A writers’ strike is underway in Hollywood. Ruben Östlund recalls that in May 1968, the filmmakers sympathized with the students on the cobblestones and had abolished the demonstration in Cannes. “I also support those who protest”, declares the president of the jury. As for Paul Dano, whose wife is a screenwriter, he will return to picket with her after the festival.
In this assembly, no one wants to see Cannes as an island. The festival is also a forum for protesting voices from France and elsewhere. We will tell you about it throughout an edition called to take place partly in the street.
Odile Tremblay is the guest of the Cannes Film Festival.