Jury of Feature Films – Press Conference © Tristan Fewings/Getty Images
Interview with the Feature Film Jury of the 78th Festival de Cannes
The Feature Film Jury of this 78th edition of the Festival de Cannes appears for the first time before journalists from all over the world. Led by the President of the Jury, actress Juliette Binoche —who first walked the red carpet in 1985 for her role in André Téchiné’s Rendez-vous—the members spoke about the vital role that art and cinema play in a world in crisis. Selected excerpts of their responses.
Juliette Binoche on how Festival de Cannes relates to the current state of the world
The Festival is following this trend in social and political life. There have been great changes occurring in the world. Sometimes it follows the trends, sometimes it spearheads. I think that the Festival is increasingly in step with what’s happening today. Our #MeToo wave took some while to gain strength. We reacted very strongly recently.
Halle Berry on her expectations
I expect to see wonderful film. Is there any preparation? No, I don’t think there’s any preparation. We all have a unique perspective when we watch film. No one person owns the truth. I look forward to hearing what everybody else has to say. That’s the beauty that makes us human, that we’re all different and that we all see things from our different cultural backgrounds, our family of origin, our age, our gender… And so, I’m looking forward to the conversations and really seeing what brings us together, but also sometimes those things that separate us, because that’s also beautiful!
Carlos Reygadas on having films from South America featured among the Official Selection
What I care about is how is it that humans can interpret in an artistic way what living feels like. I don’t tend to think in this kind of national level or regional or group level; it’s just humans always. But of course I’m happy that there’s filmmakers from our areas that are always proposing interesting things. I think we should take more risks. It doesn’t matter, in the end, where things come from, as long as they are meaningful for our experience of life.
Jeremy Strong on his role in The Apprentice in 2024
Roy Cohn [his character in the film] I see as the progenitor of fake news and alternative facts and we’re living in the aftermath of what I think he created. I think that this time where truth is under assault, where truth is becoming an increasingly endangered thing, that the role of stories, of cinema, and art, but here the role of film is increasingly critical because it can combat those forces. What I’m here doing this year is, in a way, a counterbalance to what Roy Cohn was doing last year…
Leïla Slimani on the role of the Festival de Cannes
The role of the Festival is to highlight artists and stories and characters, to show human life in what is most horrible and most beautiful, talk about these contradictions that all inhabit in us. Yes, there are many monstrous things in human life, but life goes on. You wake up in the morning, you get dressed, you take your children to school, you laugh, even when part of the world is plunged in darkness. And I think this is what we must do, we must defend beauty, poetry, artists, and the will to live.
