2013 Cannes Feature Films Jury Led By Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg is leading the 2013 Cannes Feature Films Jury, which will determine the winner of the Palme d’Or prize. The Palme d’Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival.

The jury is comprised of an impressive mix of actors and directors from around the world, including two recent Oscar winners. Ang Lee, who won the Best Director Oscar for his work on Life of Pi, sits on the jury this year. He has previously shown four of his films at the Cannes Film Festival. Joining him are Indian actress Vidya Balan, and Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Christoph Waltz. Representing France is actor-director Daniel Auteuil, who won an award for Best Actor at Cannes in 1996 for his performance in Le Heuitième Jour and his film La Reine Margot. Originally released in 1994, La Reine Margot is being shown as part of the Festival’s Cannes Classics.

The final three members of the jury, all directors, have a history of success at Cannes. Cristian Munjiu won the coveted Palme d’Or in 2007 for his film 4 months, 3 weeks, and 2 days; and received an award for Best Screenplay last year for Beyond the Hills. Lynne Ramsay, from Britain, most recently presented We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) at the festival. Ramsay won the 1996 Jury Prize for her short film, Small Deaths, and reclaimed that prize two years later with Gasman. She is the only Feature Film jury member to have previously served on a jury at the Cannes Film Festival; she sat on the jury for Courts métrages (Short Films) in 2001. The last member of the Feature Films jury, Japanese director Naomi Kawase, made history as the youngest director to win the Caméra d’or– a prize awarded for best first film – in 1997 for Moe No Suzaku. He also won the Grand Prix for The Mourning Forest in 2007.

The Cinefondation and Short Films jury is being led by Jane Campion, whose 1993 film, The Piano, made her the only female winner of the Palme d’Or – a title she holds to this day. Joining her on the jury are two directors, Maji-da Abdi and Semih Kaplanoglu; and two actresses, Nicoletta Braschi and Nandita Das.

Leading the jury of Un Centrain Regard is Thomas Vinterberg, a Danish director who co-authored the Dogme 95 manifesto with Lars von Trier. Vinterberg previously served as President of the Short Films jury in 1999, and won the Jury Prize in 1998 for his feature film Festen. Producer Enrique Gonzales Macho, Rio Festival Director Ilda Santiago, and actresses Ludivine Sagnier and Zhang Ziyi are also members of the Un Certain Regard jury.

Finally, the Caméra d’or jury is being led by Agnès Varda, a French director who has presented ten films at the Cannes Film Festival; her first premiered in 1958. She previously served as a member on the Official Selection jury in 2005. She leads a group comprised of Michel Abramowicz, a photo director; Gwénolé Bruneau, from FICAM; directors Isabel Coixet, Eric Guirado, and Régis Wargnier; and French Union Critic Chloé Rolland.