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Cannes 2021 Jury Features Five Women, Including Maggie Gyllenhaal and Mélanie Laurent

Elsa Keslassy
·3-min read

The Cannes Film Festival has unveiled the jury for the competition, which will be powered by a majority of women, including American actor-filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal, French actor-helmer Mélanie Laurent, French-Senegalese actor-director Mati Diop, Austrian director Jessica Hausner and cult French singer Mylene Farmer.

Spike Lee will presider over the jury which will also include French actor Tahar Rahim, Brazilian helmer Kleber Mendonça Filho and South Korean actor Song Kang-ho. It’s a history-making jury, with a first-time Black president and a ratio of five women to three men.

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Gyllenhaal, who just made her directorial feature debut with “The Lost Daughter,” is best known for her roles in “Donnie Darko,” “Secretary,” and Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight.” She earned her first Oscar nomination with “Crazy Heart” and won a Golden Globe for her performance in the miniseries “The Honourable Woman.” She went on to produce and star in the HBO series “The Deuce” and the thriller “The Kindergarten Teacher.”

As an actor, Laurent has worked Quentin Tarantino (“Inglorious Basterds”), Mike Mills, Denis Villeneuve, Angelina Jolie and most recently Alexandre Aja. She’s also a well-established filmmaker, who made her feature debut with “The Adopted,” and followed with “Breathe” which premiered at Cannes’ Critics’ Week. She went on to make her English-language filmmaking debut with “Galveston,” and recently shot “Le Bal des folles,” adapted from Victoria Mas’ short story.

Diop made her feature debut with “Atlantics” which competed at Cannes in 2019 and won the Grand Prize. It went to be shortlisted in the Oscars’ international film race. She received the Lincoln Center of New York’s Martin E. Segal – Emerging Artist Award. As an actress, Diop has appeared in Claire Denis’s “35 Shots of Rum,” among others.

Farmer is a French music icon whose career spans 35 years. Farmer’s visually bold shows underscore her love for cinema. Over the years, she has enlisted high-profile artists and filmmakers, such as Jean-Baptiste Mondino, Peter Lindbergh, Herb Ritts and Abel Ferrara, to direct the music videos of her cult songs, notably “Libertine”, “Sans contrefaçon”, “California”, “L’Âme-Stram-Gram” and “Pourvu qu’elles soient douces.” Farmer also starred in Pascal Laugier’s movie “Ghostland” in 2018.

Hausner made her feature debut with “Lourdes” which was selected at Venice and won the FIPRESCI Prize, and the European Film Award for best actress for Sylvie Testud. She made her sophomore outing with “Amour” which played in Un Certain Regard. Her fifth film, “Little Joe,” competed at Cannes in 2019 and won the best actress for Emily Beecham.

Mendonca Filho, meanwhile, made his feature debut with “Neighboring Sounds” played at Rotterdam and was Brazil’s candidate in the international film race at the Oscars. His 2019 film “Bacurau,” which was co-directed by Juliano Dornelles, competed at Cannes and won the Jury Prize.

Rahim, who recently a BAFTA and Golden Globe nominations for his performance in Kevin Macdonald’s “The Mauritanian” and earned critical acclaim with his work on “The Looming Tower” and “The Serpent,” broke through the international scene with his performance in Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet.” Rahim returned to Cannes’s competition with Asghar Farhadi’s “The Past.” He will soon be starring in Rebecca Miller’s “She Came to Me.”

Kang-Ho is the South Korean star of Bong Joon-ho’s Oscar-winning “Parasite.” The movie won the Palme d’or at Cannes in 2019 and went on to win four Oscars. Kang-Ho has so far starred in more than 40 films, including “Memories of Murder,” “The Host,” and “Snowpiercer.” He recently finished filming “Emergency Declaration” by Han Jae-rim, and “Broker” by Hirokazu Kore-eda.

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