Be a member of the jury in cannes film festival it shouldn’t be easy. Damián Szifron is living it in the same flesh as him. To the honor of being chosen to be part of the Jury that awards the Palme d’Or to the best film, and to see all the films in the Official Competition, we must add the predisposition to be available for everything: events, lunches, dinners, meetings.
And you sleep very little.
There are “only” 21 films to be rated this year. And the Jury does not see them in the 12 days that the Festival lasts, but crushes them in 11.
There are 9 members and, depending on the gender of whoever holds the Presidency, they are 5 men and 4 women, or 5 women and 4 men. This year the president is Ruben Östlund, winner of two Palme d’Or (for the squarein 2017 and last year for The triangle of sadness).
stamp of silence
As a matter of protocol, Contact of the jurors with the press is strictly prohibited from the start day of the Festival until the end of the award ceremony.
For some years now, the Festival has started on a Tuesday and ended eleven days later on a Saturday. Jurors usually arrive on the Sunday before the opening, as if to acclimatise and give them some time off. Because the tamer, the meat grinder, starts on Tuesday at noon.
Historically they all stayed together in one of the three large hotels facing the Croisette, the boulevard of the sea, which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. Before they were at the Majestic, one block from the Palais des Festivals, where all the activities of the Festival take place, or at the Carlton and the Martinez (without accents, s’il vous plaît).
Where is Szifron
I’m not at the Majestic this year, but at the Carlton and the Martinez. In the latter the director of the simulatorsby your own choice. Perhaps, we said in the first shipments, to remember the moments in a distant 2014, he left from there for the screening of wild taleswho competed for the prize he will now award.
The juries have a privileged position in the Sala Lumière, the most important in the Palais, and where, among other screenings, the galas of the Official Competition are held. It’s a sort of box, a sort of balcony at the back, in the center of the stalls. From there, they can access an equally exclusive room, where they can enjoy drinks and snacks.
And this year Östlund, the director born in the same lands as Ingmar Bergman – who has never won the Palme d’Or – has organized how the jury will meet.
This year’s judging panel
Together with Monsieur President e Damiano Szifron there’s American actress Brie Larson, Oscar winner for Room, who is Captain Marvel; French director Julia Ducournau, Palme d’Or at Cannes 2021 with titan; French actor Denis Ménochet; Moroccan director Maryam Touzani; Anglo-Zambian director Rungano Nyoni; American actor Paul Dano and Afghan writer Atiq Rahimi.
Usually, in all festivals, there are usually no more than two or three meetings, depending on the duration: one when 50% of the films are screened and another at the end, or three, strategically distributed. Well, Östlund told them that they will meet after watching three movies. In other words: they will meet seven times, with cool movie views.
Another of the “obligations” that the juries have is to attend the historic lunch offered by the mayor of Cannes, in the hills, to “be” together with the people. It sounds good to say it, but it is not so, given that contact with the inhabitants of Cannes – who, in total, number around 75,000, according to the last time they were registered – is nothing more than a greeting raising a hand: the table of the jury is separated from the rest of the guests by a rope.
Before Szifron, in this 21st century, the only Argentinian who was part of the Jury was Martina Gusman, in the 2011 edition, chaired by Robert De Niro. It was the year she won The tree of Lifeby Terrence Malick.
But that’s another story.
Source: Clarin
