50 years after his compatriot Ingrid Bergman, the Swedish director Ruben Östlund, twice Palme d’Or, will chair the jury during the 76th edition of the Cannes Festival, which will be held from May 16 to 27.
The Swedish director Ruben Östlund, twice Palme d’Or, was appointed president of the jury for the 76th edition of the Cannes Festival, which will take place from May 16 to 27, 2023. He succeeds Vincent Lindon, who had given him his second palm of gold for his film Triangle of Sadness/Filter without in May 2022 And allowed him to integrate the very closed circle of the eight directors who won this award twice. He became the third filmmaker who is doubly awarded to chair the Cannes jury, after Francis Ford Coppola and Emir Kusturica, and the first to take on this role the year following his coronation.
“” I am happy, proud and imprinted with humility to see me entrusted with the honor of chairing the jury of the Cannes festival this year. No other place in the world arouses such a desire for cinema when the curtain rises on a film in competition. How lucky to be there with these purposes of connoisseurs that are the festival -goers of Cannes. I sincerely think that the culture of cinema is going through a crucial period. The cinema is unique. We share it. Looking together requires more to what is shown and intensifies the experience. It brings us something so different that this dopamine secreted by the scrolling of individual screens. “Said the future president Ruben Östlund at the announcement of his appointment.
In just six feature films, the filmmaker experienced two selections in the Un Certain Regard section, of which he won the jury prize in 2014, before entering official competition. Hardly it appears that the Palme d’Or is given to him twice. First for The Square During the 70th Cannes Film Festival, then, for his next film, Triangle of Sadness/Filterhonored last year. Deserved reward for an amazing film. Triangle of Sadness is also appointed to the 2023 Oscars in three different categories: best film, best director and best original script.
Born on April 13, 1974, in Sweden, Ruben Östlund began working in various Alps ski resorts during the winter seasons, where he made ski videos for his friends, which allowed him to obtain a job in a local production company and to integrate the Göteborg film school. After graduating in 2001, he directed in 2004 his first feature film, The Guitar Mongoloid. At the edge of the documentary, the filmmaker describes the crossed destinies of marginal characters in a fictitious city resembling Göteborg. Humor is a sociological description tool that he also uses in his following films, such as Play Or Snow therapywhere he explores the dynamics of social relations through absurd and often tragic situations.
Ruben Östlund is known for his taste for trash and creaky humor, which has not always earned him the praises of criticism. As president of the jury, he will remind his colleagues the role of cinema as a connection tool to collective experience, stimulating reflection and encouraging discussion. He believes that the culture of cinema is going through a crucial period and that cinema is unique because it must be shared, demanding more of what is shown and intensifying experience.
“” As president, concludes Ruben Östlund, I will remind my colleagues from the jury the role of cinema. A good film also connects to the collective experience, it stimulates the reflection and makes you want to discuss it. So let’s go see movies together! »»
The festival has made this bold choice to offer its next edition, a well -tempered personality, a bit of provocative and a cinema defender in theaters. In its press release, the Cannes Film Festival said that its appointment was a tribute to intransigent and frank films that constantly demand that spectators question themselves and that art continues to invent themselves.
The jury of this 76th edition, chaired by Östlund, should be as provocative as its films, but the answer will not be known until May 27, 2023, at the end of this edition.
The official selection of this new edition will be unveiled in mid-April 2023.
Neïla Driss
