Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund was named today president of the jury of the 76th Cannes Film Festival, which will be held from May 16 to 27, 2023. With an original career, the director’s films have often marked the public and critics. A consecration?
A bold choice, but surely not by chance. It was announced today, the Swedish director Ruben Östlund will be the president of the jury of the 76th Cannes Film Festival, to be held from May 16 to 27. He inherits the position fifty years after his compatriot, Ingrid Bergman. But above all, he succeeds Vincent Lindon, the president of the jury of the 75th edition of the Cannes Festival, which had awarded him and his jury the Palme d’Or for his last film, Triangle of Sadness.
“I am happy, proud and humbled to be entrusted with the honor of presiding over the Jury of this year’s Cannes Film Festival”, said Ruben Östlund upon the announcement of his appointment. “No other place in the world evokes such a desire for cinema when the curtain rises on a film in competition.”
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Master of satirical cinema and black humor
Ruben Östlund is a particular director, often seeking in his films to convey an exacerbated vision of society. This is evident from his first international success, Snow Therapy (2014). In this chilling comedy, the filmmaker films a model Swedish family falling apart. Faced with an avalanche, the father flees at full speed leaving wife and children to face the danger alone. Ruben Östlund shatters the constructed patterns of the protective father and attacks the foundations of Western society.
With The Square (2017), the director won the Palme d’Or at the 70th Cannes Film Festival. It features a director of a contemporary art museum, responsible for preparing an exhibition on tolerance. There too, the clever Swede manages to create unease. This satire brilliantly discusses the boundaries of public space, art and our animal part. But it also builds a grating and voluntarily provocative reflection on the established comfort and the gentrification of modern art. The film did not cease to divide the public and the critics of Cannes. Mission accomplished…
Ruben Östlund has done it again with the release of his latest film, Triangle of Sadness (2022). The film tells the story of the sinking of an ultra-luxury cruise where a gallery of characters meet and illustrates the class struggle. Here again, the film received a mixed reception, even though it was nominated for the Palme d’Or at the 75th Cannes Film Festival.
Double Palme d’Or winner
With his awards for the films The Square and Triangle of Sadness, the 48-year-old Swede adds to the list of double award-winning filmmakers (8). But also, he becomes the third double award-winning filmmaker to become president of the festival jury, after the American Francis Ford Coppola and the French-Serbian Emir Kusturica. Even better, he becomes the first to assume this role the year after his coronation.
Next May, Ruben Östlund will have to award the Palme d’Or to one of the twenty selected films, which will be revealed soon. The director will also be joined by eight other jurors to name the 2023 Palme d’Or.
The Cannes Film Festival is considered one of the most important film festivals in the world, along with the Berlinale in Berlin and the Venice Film Festival. To be appointed to this position is the recognition of a talented and exceptional career. So, is this nomination a consecration ?
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Featured photo : © Festival de Cannes
