Three weeks before its 75th edition, the Cannes Film Festival put an end to the suspense on Tuesday by announcing the composition of its jury. This will be chaired by the French actor Vincent Lindon, interpretation prize in 2015 and actor in “Titane”, the Palme d’or 2021.
Vincent Lindon will take over from American director Spike Lee as president of the Cannes Film Festival jury. This announcement comes at the end of a long suspense: usually, the president of the jury is known at the beginning of the year, with the jury unveiled a few weeks before the Festival. With the restart of post-pandemic cinema and the rise of series, “all the artists are working”, underlined mid-April Thierry Frémaux, the general delegate of the Festival, to justify this jostled calendar.
“It is an immense honor, and a very great pride to see me entrusted, in the midst of the tumult of the multiple events that we are going through in the world, the splendid and heavy task of presiding over the Jury of the 75th Cannes International Film Festival” , said Vincent Lindon, quoted in the Festival press release.
Faithful to Cannes
By choosing Vincent Lindon, 62, the Festival is betting on a regular at Cannes, who has presented nine feature films there since 1987 and likes to talk about the 7th art during masterclasses at the Cinémathèque française or the Institut Lumière. No French personality had held this position since actress Isabelle Huppert in 2009.
On screen, the actor often embodies an angry contemporary man, with manifest fragility, as in “The law of the market” by Stéphane Brizé which won him the interpretation prize in 2015. Reuniting with the director three years later later, and the Cannes marches, he presented “At War” in 2018, where he portrayed a union representative who will lead the fight to prevent the closure of his factory.
In July 2021, in “Titane”, by Julia Ducournau, he surprised himself as a bodybuilt and “bruised firefighter, (who) marked bodies, hearts and minds”, according to the Festival. The film won the Palme d’Or.
Priority to emotion
Vincent Lindon will have to choose the Palme d’or among the twenty-one films in competition, including the latest opus by Canadian David Cronenberg or that by Russian Kirill Serebrennikov, breaking with the line of Vladimir Putin’s regime.
He will be supported in this mission by the Anglo-American actress and director Rebecca Hall (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”), the Swedish Noomi Rapace, revealed in 2009 in the first adaptation of the “Millennium” saga, the Italian Jasmine Trinca, including the first feature “Marcel!” will be presented in a special session, and the Indian Deepika Padukone.
Four renowned directors will complete this jury: Iranian Asghar Farhadi, Frenchman Ladj Ly (“Les Misérables”, 2019 jury prize at Cannes), American Jeff Nichols, who presented his film “Loving” in 2016 on the Croisette, and the Norwegian Joachim Trier (“Julie in 12 chapters, prize for female interpretation in 2021).
“With my jury, we will do our best to take care of the films of the future, which all carry the same secret hope, courage, loyalty and freedom; whose mission is to move the greatest number of women and men by speaking to them of their wounds and their common joys. Culture helps the human soul to rise and to hope for tomorrow”, underlined Vincent Lindon.
The 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will take place from May 17 to 28, 2022 on the Croisette.
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