
©Courtesy of Sundance Select, “Clouds of Sils Maria.”
The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will see Juliette Binoche take over the role of jury president from Greta Gerwig. The Cannes jury will be headed by a woman for the second time in two years, marking the second time in the history of the city.
Binoche is one of France’s most revered performers and has led an international career, having worked with auteurs around the world including Michael Haneke, David Cronenberg, Anthony Minghella, Abel Ferrara, Abbas Kiarostami, Olivier Assayas, Leos Carax, Claire Denis, Amos Gitaï, Naomi Kawase, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Krzysztof Kieślowski, Louis Malle and Hou Hsiao-Hsien.
The French star received recognition for her Oscar winning performances in “The English Patient” in 1997 and She also garnered the Cannes best actress prize for Abbas Kiarostami’s “Certified Copy“ in 2010. That same year she protested against the imprisonment of Jafar Panahi, brandishing a placard bearing the director’s name on stage.
Binoche said of her role as Cannes jury president that she’s “looking forward to sharing these life experiences with the members of the jury and the public. In 1985, I walked up the steps for the first time with the enthusiasm and uncertainty of a young actress; I never imagined I’d return 40 years later in the honorary role of President of the Jury,” she continued, adding that she “appreciates the privilege, the responsibility and the absolute need for humility.”
Binoche began her career, which has spanned more than 40 years and 70 films, with André Téchiné’s “Rendezvous” which premiered at Cannes in 1985. Binoche has frequently claimed that she was born at the Cannes Film Festival. Her most recent Cannes appearance was in 2023 when Tran Anh Hùng’s “The Taste of Things” won best director.
The adventurous actor has made occasional appearances on prestige TV, particularly with “The Staircase” and “The New Look“, the AppleTV+ series in which she played Coco Chanel. In an hilarious episode of “Call My Agent!”, she played herself and presiding over the Cannes Film Festival’s opening ceremony, while rejecting advances from a sleazy yet powerful movie producer.
The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival will take place May 13-24. Accreditations for the festival opened Monday and will close on April 18. Curated by Cannes Film Festival’s director and artistic director Thierry Frémaux and his selection committee, the festival’s Official Selection will be unveiled in mid-April.