This week, the composition of the jury of the 2017 Cannes International Film Festival was finally unveiled. While waiting for the opening ceremony which will take place on the 17th of May and will be hosted by Monica Bellucci, OOK magazine gives you the great names in cinema that will have to judge the movies this year.
Pedro Almodovar (© Georges Biard)
Under the direction of the great Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar, who won the Best Direction Award at Cannes in 1999 for All About my Mother and who was chosen to preside the jury; eight major figures of the cinema world – four women and four men, as usual – will have the tough assignment of establishing the list of award-winning movies.
This year, the jury will include two huge American stars: Jessica Chastain, who is worldly well-known for her roles in such films as Zero Dark Thirty or The Martian, and Will Smith who became famous in the TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel Air and starred in many blockbusters like Men in Black or I-Robot. French actress, director and screenwriter Agnès Jaoui, who won the Best Screenplay Award at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival for Look at me, and French songwriter Gabriel Yared, who composed the soundtracks of about a hundred movies including The English Patient and Just the End of the World, will be judges too. Asian cinema will be represented by Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, who notably played in X Men: Days of Future Past, and by Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, who was awarded the Prix du Jury in 2009 for Thirst. German director Maren Ade and Italian moviemaker Paolo Sorrentino, who won many awards including the Prix du Jury at the 2008 Cannes Festival for Il Divo, will also be part of this exceptional jury.
It is also worth noting that Uma Thurman will be the president of the jury of the Un Certain Regard category (which awards movies that the selection committee wishes to support but outside the official competition). French actress Sandrine Kiberlain will lead the jury of the Caméra d’Or (which will have to choose the best first film).
All this promises a very glamorous festival. We really can’t wait for the 17th of May!