The Festival de Cannes will celebrate its 70th anniversary edition from May 17 to 28. I will speak about the Jury and the history of the French film festival.
El Festival cumple el 70 aniversario desde su creación, una vez más llega a Cannes un festival de cine a todo lo alto. Le contaré sobre el jurado y los orígenes del festival.
El Festival de Cannes es un festival de cine categoría «A», celebrado en la ciudad francesa de Cannes, y acreditado por la FIAPF, junto con los festivales de Berlín, San Sebastián, Mar del Plata, Karlovy Vary y Venecia, entre otros. Este festival, además de presentar filmes con presencia más independiente, también significa uno de los más grandes honores dentro de la industria del cine.
The Cannes Festival , named until 2002 as the International Film Festival (Festival international du film) and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around the world. Founded in 1946, the invitation-only festival is held annually (usually in May) at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès.
El jurado se presento para la prensa y nos dio su parecer en este festival, Pedro Almodóvar, nos cuenta que durante la cena de ayer, que tuvieron todos los miembros del jurado, les ayudo a conocerse mejor y compenetrarse como amigos, la tarea del jurado será muy importante, para nombrar el ganador del festival de Cannes 2017.
The jury was presented to the press, during the interview they share their thoughts about the festival, Director Pedro Almodóvar, told us that during last night dinner they met together and it helped them to know each other better and create a bone and become friends, the task of the jury will be very important to name the winner of the Cannes festival 2017.
Interview of the Jury
PRESIDENT OF THE JURY PEDRO ALMODÓVAR
Director, Writer, Producer
Pedro Almodóvar was born in the heart of La Mancha in the 50s. At seventeen, he moved to Madrid with a very specific project in mind: to study cinema and direct films. He wrote, loved, acted with the mythical independent theatre group Los Goliardos, made short films, collaborated with various underground magazines, wrote stories and was a member of a parodic punk-rock group, Almodóvar and McNamara. His personal explosion coincided with the explosion of the democratic Madrid in the mythic period the world knew as La Movida. In 1980, he opened Pepi, Luci, Bom. In 1986, he founded the production company El Deseo with his brother Agustín Almodóvar. Their first project was Law of Desire. In 1988, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown brought him international recognition. With All About my Mother, he won his first Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, and many other prizes all over the world. Three years later, Talk to Her had the same or better fortune, with an Academy Award for Best Original Script and another bunch of international prizes. In 2004, Bad Education was chosen to open the Festival de Cannes. In 2006, he presents Volver in Competition of the Festival de Cannes, where it got two awards. His latest production to date is Julieta and he is already working on his new script.
Maren ADE
Biography
In 1998, Maren Ade began studying film production and direction in Munich. During her studies, she co-founded the film production company Komplizen Film. Since then, she works as a writer, director and producer. In 2004, Maren Ade first film, The Forest for the Trees, premiered in Toronto and won the Special Jury Award at the Sundance Film Festival. In 2009, her second film Everyone Else celebrated its world premiere in Berlin where it received the Silver Bear for Best Film and for Best Actress. Maren Ade third film, Toni Erdmann, debuted in Competition at the 2016 Festival de Cannes and won numerous awards like the European Film Award and the FIPRESCI Grand Prix for the Best Film of the year 2016. As a producer, she worked on productions like Tabu by Miguel Gomes, Sleeping Sickness by Ulrich Köhler and Western by Valeska Grisebeach.
Jessica CHASTAIN
Biography
Two-time Academy Award nominee Jessica Chastain has emerged as one of Hollywood’s most sought after actresses of her generation. She can currently be seen in Niki Caro’s The Zookeeper’s Wife and most recently starred in John Madden’s Miss Sloane, which earned Chastain her fourth Golden Globe Award nomination. She has received numerous nominations and accolades for her work, following riveting performances in Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, A Most Violent Year, indie darling The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, and Ridley Scott’s The Martian. Chastain launched Freckle Films, a new production venture alongside transatlantic financing-production banner Maven Pictures. She is currently in production for Susanna White’s period drama Woman Walks Ahead and will be seen in Xavier Dolan’s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, as well as Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game.
FAN Bingbing
Biography
Born in 1981, Fan rose to fame in 1998 with the mega-hit TV series My Fair Princess. In 2003, she starred in Cell Phone, which became the highest-grossing Chinese film of the year and received critical acclaim at the Hundred Flowers Awards. Since then, she has starred in many films, most notably The Matrimony (2007), Lost in Beijing (2007), Buddha Mountain (2011), Stretch by Charles de Meaux (2011) and Double Xposure (2012), where she received awards from the Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards, Tokyo International Film Festival and Huading Awards. In 2014 she participated in the Hollywood blockbuster X-Men: Days of Future Past, produced and starred in an 82-episode TV series The Empress of China. In 2016 she starred in I Am not Madame Bovary and received the San Sebastian Film Festival Best Actress Award as well as the 11th Asian Film Best Actress Award. Fan is selected for the 2017 TIME 100.
Agnès JAOUI
Biography
Multi-award winning artist Agnès Jaoui joined forces with Jean-Pierre Bacri to develop a theatre and film style of which Kitchen with Apartment and Family Resemblances were first to meet with success. They worked with Alain Resnais on Smoking/No Smoking and Same Old Song. In 2000, Agnès Jaoui directed The Taste of Others, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and won four César, including the César Award for Best Film. She wrote and directed Look at Me, which won Best Screenplay Award at the 2004 Festival de Cannes, followed by Let’s Talk About the Rain (2008) and Under the Rainbow (2013). She is a singer, and her Latin “Canta” album won a Victoire de la Musique award in 2007. She returned to the stage in 2014, and regularly appears on the silver screen, most recently in Bruno Podalydès’ The Sweet Escape and Aurore by Blandine Lenoir.
PARK Chan-wook
Biography
Ever since his Korean box office record breaking Joint Security Area in the year 2000, Park Chan-wook’s diverse body of work has garnered recognition both at home and abroad. These include his successes at the Festival de Cannes in 2004 with the prestigious Grand Prix for Old Boy and the Jury Prize for Thirst in 2009. In 2013, Park expanded his œuvre to include English language films with Stoker, released worldwide by Twentieth Century Fox and Fox Searchlight Pictures to critical acclaim. He also produced Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho’s first English language film, Snowpiercer in the same year. With his most recent work, The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook returned to Cannes in 2016. After winning the Vulcan Prize, the film went on to receive enthusiastic response from critics and audience world over, once again establishing him as one of the most significant talents working in cinema today
Will SMITH
Biography
Two-time Academy Award nominee Will Smith has a vast filmography including portrayals of true-life icons in Ali, The Pursuit of Happiness and Concussion. His headlining credits include Independence Day, I, Robot, Hitch, I Am Legend, Men in Black I, II, & III, and last summer’s Suicide Squad. He stars in Netflix’s Bright out this December. The two-time Grammy Award winner began his career as a musician selling millions of records worldwide before crossing over into television with the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. In 1998, he, and partner James Lassiter, founded production and management company Overbrook Entertainment. Will Smith is dedicated to working toward the advancement of communities and individuals through areas of Education, Sustainability, Empowerment, and Health through the Will and Jada Smith Family Foundation
Paolo SORRENTINO
Biography
Paolo Sorrentino, director and screenwriter, was born in Naples in 1970. Seven of his 8 films have been presented in Competition at the Festival de Cannes, where Il Divo won the Prix du Jury in 2008. In 2014, his film La Grande Bellezza (The Great Beauty) won the Oscar and Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as a BAFTA and five EFA Awards. In 2016, La Giovinezza (Youth) gained an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song and two Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress and Best Original Song. The film won three European Film Awards. In 2016, he made his first TV Series: The Young Pope. He has also published a novel “Hanno tutti ragione (Everybody’s Right)” in 2010, and two collections of short stories: “Tony Pagoda e i suoi amici” (2012), and “Gli aspetti irrilevanti” (2016
Gabriel YARED
History
The Cannes Film Festival has its origins in 1932 when Jean Zay, the French Minister of National Education, on the proposal of Philippe Erlanger and with the support of the British and Americans, set up an international cinematographic festival. In 1947, the festival was held as the «Festival du film de Cannes», where films from sixteen countries were presented. At that time the principle of equality was introduced, with a jury made up of only one representative per country. The festival is now held at the Palais des Festivals, expressly constructed for the occasion, although for its 1949 inaugural the roof was unfinished and blew off during a storm. The festival was not held in 1948 and 1950 on account of budgetary problems. Although its origins may be attributed in part to the French desire to compete with Autumn’s Venice Film Festival, in 1951 Cannes was moved to spring to avoid a fall clash.
In 1955, the Palme d’Or was created, replacing the Grand Prix du Festival which had been given until that year. In 1957, Dolores del Rio was the first female member of the jury as a Sélection officielle – Member. In 1959, the Marché du Film (Film Market) was founded, giving the festival a commercial character and facilitating exchanges between sellers and buyers in the film industry. Today it has become the first international platform for film commerce. 
In 1983, a new, much bigger Palais des Festivals et des Congrès was built to host the Festival. It was nicknamed «The Bunker» and provoked many reactions against it. It was not until 1995 that Gilles Jacob created the last section of the Official Selection: la Cinéfondation. Its aim was to support the creation of works of cinema in the world and to contribute to the entry of the new scenario writers in the circle of the celebrities.created to inspire and support the next generation of international filmmakers.
Historia del festival
Aunque la primera edición del festival tuvo lugar hasta 1939, su origen se remonta a comienzos de los años 30. Se pueden buscar las raíces en el actual festival en la Venecia de 1932, donde se organizó el primer festival internacional de cine. En aquella época el acontecimiento tenía mucho más que ver con rivalidades nacionalistas que con las películas en sí mismas. La Segunda Guerra Mundial se acercaba, y en Venecia se empezaban a favorecer las filmografías alemana e italiana. En 1938 todo el mundo esperaba que La gran ilusión de Jean Renoir se llevara el gran premio en Venecia, pero la Coppa Mussolini se fue ex-aequo para Olympia (de Leni Riefenstahl) y la película italiana Luciano Serra pilota (de Goffredo Alessandrini). Los franceses se marcharon iracundos del festival, así como los representantes británicos y estadounidenses, en protesta por la irrupción de la política en el arte.
Inmediatamente, un grupo de críticos y cineastas franceses se reunieron para pedir al gobierno francés que sufragase los gastos de un festival internacional de cine en Francia, donde los filmes pudieran competir y ser vistos sin sesgos políticos ni represión política. Nadie quería por aquel entonces estar a malas con Mussolini, pero el grupo resultó realmente persuasivo, con miembros como Philippe Erlanger, al frente de Action Artistique Française; Robert Favre Le Bret, la cara visible del festival durante 50 años; y uno de los padres del invento, Louis Lumière.
Quedaba por escoger un sitio para celebrar el festival, algún lugar en la costa atlántica, como Biarritz, o en la mediterránea, que podría ser Cannes. La ciudad de la Costa Azul se comprometió a construir una sede a la altura del acto y eso decantó definitivamente la balanza.
Finalmente, el 1 de septiembre de 1939 se inauguró el Festival International du Film, sólo para ser cancelado un día después por el inicio de la Segunda Guerra Mundial.
El primer festival se lleva a cabo después de la guerra, del 20 de septiembre a la 5 de octubre de 1946. En la siguiente década el festival había logrado hacerse un nombre, y se decidió trasladar el evento de septiembre a abril. Por un lado, los festivales competidores de Venecia y Berlín se estaban celebrando unos meses antes, lo que hacía que Cannes se perdiera gran parte de las premieres. Por otro, la industria turística local no acababa de ver la conveniencia de celebrar un acontecimiento tan costoso cuando la temporada se acababa y la gente empezaba a marcharse.
Con el traslado a la primavera, el festival atrajo aún más a los mejores realizadores de todo el mundo. En los 50 se premió a nombres como Orson Welles, Luis Buñuel, Ingmar Bergman o Satyajit Ray.
En 1954 se producirían dos cambios que modificarían para siempre la imagen que Cannes daría al mundo. En primer lugar, la orfebre parisina Suzanne Lazon propuso la palma como motivo para el galardón principal. Fue Jean Cocteau quien se encargó de hacer un esbozo de lo que a partir del año siguiente se llamaría la Palme d’Or.
El segundo gran cambio fue la entrada de la sensualidad como parte integrante de la imagen del festival. Y es que durante una sesión fotográfica de Robert Mitchum, la actriz inglesa Simone Silva se quedó en topless y le pasó sus brazos alrededor del cuello.Ese momento ya sólo sería eclipsado por la gran Brigitte Bardot, quien a finales de los 50 tenía siempre una cita con la prensa en la playa.
Wrote Catalina Donoso by Positive Diva
With collaboration of Festival de Cannes.
Positive Diva Magazine 