| |
Popular Hong Kong director John Woo is enlisted as member of the Palm d’Or Jury Panel, which chooses the winner of the prestigious Palm d’Or honor among the 21 films in competition at this year’s 58th Cannes Film Festival. This marks the second Chinese director to join the Cannes jury board, following Woo’s former buddy Tsui Hark last year.
Many of Woo’s works have been considered mainstream and none was ever invited to compete for the Palm d’Or. Only The Killer, starring Chow Yun Fat as a lonely assassin teaming up with a disillusioned cop, was screened as part of the Directors’ Fortnight in 1989.
We can only wait and see if Woo’s presence can lead to a surprise winner like last year when, according to writer Richard Corliss, Tropical Malady of Thailand ’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul won the Jury Prize because of an aggressive lobbying effort by Tsui Hark.
Bosnian-born, Czech-educated director Emir Kusturica chairs the jury panel this year. Kusturica has won a number of awards at Venice Film Festival and Palm d’Or at Cannes twice—for When Father Was Away on Business in 1985 and for Underground in 1995.
Another well-known jury member is French female director Agnes Varda, a new wave director similar to Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut. Varda is widely regarded as a feminist and has complimented Thai female director Pimpaka Towira after watching her 2003 film One Night Husband. The detail of their conversation is up to Khun Pimpaka to disclose.
Benoit Jacquot is another French director on the panel. He has spent 30 years in the filmmaking business with leading French celebrities and competed for Palm d’Or in 1998 with L’Ecole de la Chair. German-born director, producer, screenwriter, and occasional actor Fatih Akin also serves as a jury member.
Three actors sit on the panel. One of them is Spanish actor Javier Bardem, who won two Best Actor awards from Venice Film Festival for Before Night Falls in 2000 and The Sea Inside in 2004 (as well as numerous nominations at the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and many more). Another is Mexican actress Salma Hayek, most famous for her leading role in Frida (2002). The last actress on the jury is Nandita Das from India, a veteran who has appeared in more than 25 films and won numerous awards.
Joining directors and actors on the panel is American author Toni Morrison, who won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Song of Solomon in 1977, the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction for Beloved in 1988, and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993. |
