The full 2023 Film Festival Competition Jury revealed
“I Am Not a Witch”' director Rungano Nyoni and “Beau is Afraid” actor Denis Ménochet also join Cannes 2023 Jury President Ruben Östlund to judge this year's Palme d'Or contenders.
“The Batman” and “The Fabelmans” star Paul Dano, “Titane” directing Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau, “I Am Not a Witch” breakout filmmaker Rungano Nyoni, and “Captain Marvel” herself, Brie Larson will help make up the superstar competition jury for this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Together with French actor Denis Ménochet, of Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglorious Basterds” and Ari Aster’s “Beau is Afraid”; Argentinian director Damián Szifron (“Wild Tales, “To Catch a Killer”); Afghani-born, French-based filmmaker Atig Ranimi (“Earth and Ashes”, “The Patience Stone”); and Moroccan director Maryam Touzani (“The Blue Caftan”, “Adam”), they will join jury president Ruben Östlund, director of last year’s Cannes winner “The Triangle of Sadness”, in judging the Palme d’Or winners at the 76th Cannes International Film Festival.
Together, the jury will screen the 21 films picked for Cannes competition this year —among them Todd Haynes’ “May December”, Wes Anderson’s “Asteroid City”, Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall”, and “The Old Oak” from fellow two-time Palme winner Ken Loach — and pick this year’s winners, presenting the 2023 Palme d’Or at the closing ceremony on May 27.
Disney Pixar animated feature “Elemental”, from “The Good Dinosaur” director, Peter Sohn, will close the festival, screening after the awards ceremony.
Most of the jury have close ties with Cannes. Ducournau presented her first short, 2011’s “Junior”, on the Croisette, following up with Critics’ Week entry “Raw” in 2016, only to win the Palme d’Or in 2021 with the taboo-smashing “Titane”. Dano walked the Cannes red carpet for Paolo Sorrentino’s “Youth” in 2015 and Bong Joon Ho’s “Okja” in 2018, the same year he screened his directorial debut, “Wildlife”, in Cannes’ Critics’ Week. Nyoni’s film debut “I Am Not a Witch” had its world premiere in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight sidebar back in 2017. Ménochet’s performance in the opening scene of “Inglorious Basterds”, in Cannes competition in 2009, made him an international star. He’s since been back to Cannes with Rebecca Zlotowski’s Un Certain Regard entry “Grand Central” in 2013, Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch” in 2021, and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Realm” last year. Both of Touzani’s features as a director, “Adam” (2019), and “The Blue Caftan” (2022), were picked for Un Certain Regard and she co-wrote, with director Nabil Ayouch, the 2021 competition title “Casablanca Beats”.
The 2023 jury president Östlund is in the very elite club of two-time Palme d’Or winners, having claimed Cannes’ top prize both for “The Triangle of Sadness” last year and for “The Square” in 2017. Pretty much Östlund’s entire career has played out against a Cannes backdrop, with his 2008 sophomore effort “Involuntary” screening in Un Certain Regard, the 2011 feature “Play” premiering in Directors’ Fortnight, and international breakthrough “Force Majeure” bowing in Un Certain Regard in 2014.