The Triangle of Sadness director had also won the Palme d’Or at the festival last year.
An article by Hollywood News writes that Ruben Östlund, director of films like The Square and Triangle of Sadness has been named the president of the jury of the 76th Festival de Cannes, the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Both of those aforementioned films have won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the festival, the latter winning just last year.
The report also says: According to the official press release, sent to us this morning, by inviting Ruben Östlund to preside over the jury, the Festival de Cannes wishes to pay a tribute to films that are uncompromising and forthright and which constantly demand that viewers challenge themselves and that art continue to invent itself.
#CannesFamily ✨ Ruben Östlund will preside over the Jury of #Cannes2023. Let’s look back on the journey at the @Festival_Cannes of the man who becomes the 3rd double-Palme-winning to preside over the Jury, and the very first to take on this role the year after his award! pic.twitter.com/o0E2R9Bd61
— Festival de Cannes (@Festival_Cannes) March 1, 2023
Östlund said in a statement: “I am happy, proud, and humbled to be trusted with the honor of Jury president for this year’s Competition at the Festival de Cannes. Nowhere in the film world is the anticipation as strong as when the curtain rises on the films in Competition at the Festival. It is a privilege to be part of it, together with the Cannes audience of connoisseurs. I am sincere when I say that cinema culture is in its most important period ever. The cinema has a unique aspect – there, we watch together, and it demands more on what is shown and increases the intensity of the experience. It makes us reflect in a different way than when we dopamine scroll in front of the individual screens.”
A related story by Yahoo states: “As president, I will remind my colleagues in the jury about the social function of the cinema,” Östlund continued. “A good movie relates to the collective experience, stimulates us to think and makes us want to discuss what we have seen. So let’s watch together!”
Östlund is a favorite of the prestigious French film festival, first competing in the Un Certain Regard category for his 2008 sophomore feature “Involuntary.” In 2014, he won the jury prize for “Force Majeure,” and his next films, 2017’s “The Square” and last year’s “Triangle of Sadness,” competed in the festival’s main competition. Both films received the Palme, and “The Square” received an Oscar nod for Best International Feature Film. At this year’s Oscars, “Triangle of Sadness” is nominated for Best Picture, and Östlund also received Best Screenplay and Best Director nods for the film. He is the first Swedish jury president at Cannes since Ingrid Bergman in 1976, and the third two-time Palme winner to head the jury, after Francis Ford Coppola and Emir Kusturica.
Yahoo also reports: Early titles projected to make the lineup include Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Pedro Almodóvar’s gay cowboy short “Strange Way of Life.”
The festival will be happening from May 16 to 27, 2023.
Banner photo via Festival De Cannes website.
