The organizers of the Cannes Film Festival have announced Jane Campion will preside over the Jury of the 67th Cannes Film Festival, taking place from May 14-25. Campion is the only female director to have ever won the Festival’s Palme d’or when she won for The Piano in 1993.
The New Zealand director who is currently earning kudos for her television series, Top of the Lake, which is nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and two Screen Actors Guild Awards, will follow in the footsteps of Steven Spielberg who served as the head of the jury last year where the much talked about Blue Is the Warmest Color won the Palme.
Quoted in the press release Campion said, “Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986, I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my admiration for this Queen of film festivals has only grown larger. At the Cannes Film Festival they manage to combine and celebrate the glamour of the industry, the stars, the parties, the beaches, the business, while rigorously maintaining the festival’s seriousness about the Art and excellence of new world cinema.”
Cannes President Terry Fremieux adds, “We are immensely proud that Jane Campion has accepted our invitation. Following on from Michèle Morgan, Jeanne Moreau, Françoise Sagan, Isabelle Adjani, Liv Ullmann and Isabelle Huppert in 2009, she is the latest distinguished name to grace a prestigious roster of female Presidents. Coming from a country and indeed a continent where film is a rare but powerful phenomenon, she is one of those directors who perfectly embody the idea that you can make films as an artist and yet still appeal to a worldwide public. And we are confident that her exacting approach will be mirrored by her Jury.”
Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend this year’s festival, but I can’t help but be excited to hear what great films will play this year’s fest, but we are still several months away from that announcement, though speculation is sure to run rampant until the April announcement.
