Following an impressive history at the Cannes Film Festival, Indian director Payal Kapadia has now joined the festival’s jury. The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival has assembled a distinguished jury that includes Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, and Payal Kapadia, according to reports from ‘Variety’. The jury, which features a blend of actors, filmmakers, and authors, will also include South Korean director Hong Sangsoo, Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher, French-Moroccan author Leila Slimani, Congolese filmmaker and producer Dieudo Hamadi, and Mexican director and producer Carlos Reygadas.
As previously stated, Juliette Binoche will lead the jury, taking over from Greta Gerwig, who awarded the Palme d’Or to Sean Baker’s ‘Anora’. According to ‘Variety’, both Strong and Kapadia participated in last year’s Cannes competition. Strong showcased Ali Abbasi’s ‘The Apprentice’, in which he portrayed Roy Cohn, while Kapadia presented her fiction debut, ‘All We Imagine as Light’, which received the Grand Prize. Berry made history as the first African-American woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress for her role in Marc Forster’s ‘Monster’s Ball’. She directed her debut film, ‘Bruised’, in 2020 and has co-produced several films in which she stars, including the recent Alexandre Aja film ‘Never Let Go’.
Rohrwacher is a frequent participant at Cannes, having showcased multiple films in competition, including ‘The Wonders’, ‘Happy as Lazzaro’, and ‘La Chimera’, which was directed by her sister Alice Rohrwacher. Additionally, she has been involved with Matteo Garrone’s ‘Tale of Tales’ and Nanni Moretti’s ‘Tre Piani’. Sangsoo is also a regular at Cannes, having presented four films in the Competition and another four in the Un Certain Regard section. In 2020, Hamadi showcased his film ‘Downstream to Kinshasa’ at the festival. Reygadas has attended the festival numerous times since his debut in 2005 with ‘Battle in Heaven’, and he won the Best Director award for ‘Post Tenebras Lux’ in 2012. He has also co-produced works by Amat Escalante, Dea Kulumbegashvili, Christine Haroutounian, and Hilal Baydarov. Currently, Reygadas is in the process of developing his next film, ‘Wake of Umbra’. Slimani, a distinguished author, has connections to the film industry through her literary works.
