Female stars dominate Cannes jury as banned Von Trier set to return
Hollywood actresses will dominate the jury at Cannes next month, the film festival’s organisers said on Wednesday.
Cate Blanchett, Kristen Stewart and Lea Seydoux will head a starry jury, with American writer-director Ava DuVernay of Selma fame and Burundian singer Khadja Nin completing the five women on the nine-person jury that will decide the top Palme d’Or prize.
In a year when the #MeToo movement has dominated the headlines, and with only three female directors among the 18 in competition, the organisers clearly felt the need to make a stronger gesture towards women.
Yet as the majority-female jury chaired by Blanchett was unveiled, talks were under way to allow Lars Von Trier, who has denied sexual harassment claims by singer Bjork, back into the competition.
Von Trier was banned from Cannes seven years ago for saying he was a Nazi. Bjork — who won best actress at Cannes in 2000 for her performance in his musical Dancer In The Dark — claimed in October that he had harassed her on set.
Von Trier denied Bjork’s claims and his producer Peter Aalbaek Jensen charged that it was he and Von Trier who “were the victims” of the singer.
The remaining male members of the Cannes jury include Taiwanese actor Chang Chen of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon fame, Canadian director Denis Villeneuve and French director Robert Guediguian.
The organisers said on Tuesday that Russian auteur Andrei Zvyagintsev, the maker of such classics as The Return and Leviathan, would also be one of the nine.
Stewart, 28, star of the Twilight series, has long been a darling of the world’s top film festival, appearing in the main competition in On The Road by Walter Salles in 2012 and Olivier Assayas’ Clouds Of Sils Maria and Woody Allen’s Cafe Society in 2014.
She also premiered her first short film as a director, Come Swim, last year at the festival.
French actress Seydoux was a joint winner of the Palme d’Or in 2013 for the controversial lesbian love story Blue Is The Warmest Colour.