Cannes Film Festival announced the Un Certain Regard jury chaired by Lebanese director and actress Nadine Labaki; and the short films and Cinéfondation jury chaired by Claire Denis, French director and screenwriter.
Chaired by Nadine Labaki, the Un Certain Regard Jury includes Marina Foïs (Actress / France), Nurhan Sekerci – Porst (Producer / Germany), Lisandro Alonso (Director / Argentina), and Lukas Dhont (Director / Belgium). The prizewinners will be announced on Friday, May 24 during the Un Certain Regard Closing Ceremony.
Chaired by Claire Denis, the Short Film and Jury Cinéfondation includes Stacy Martin (Actress – France, United Kingdom), Eran Kolirin (Director & screenwriter – Israel), Panos H. Koutras (Director & screenwriter – Greece) and Cătălin Mitulescu (Director, screenwriter & producer – Romania).
The jury will name the Short Film Palme d’or winner from among the 11 films selected in Competition. It will be awarded at the Closing Ceremony, on Sunday, May, 25th in the Grand Theatre Lumière.
The 5 members of the Jury will also be awarding prizes for three of the 17 student films shown as part of the Cinéfondation selection. The Cinéfondation Prizes will be announced by the Jury on Thursday, May, 23rd during an Awards Ceremony in the Buñuel Theatre, which will be followed by a screening of the winning films.
Un Certain Regard Jury 2019
Marina Foïs – Actress / France
Marina Foïs began her acting career on stage, first by herself and then with the «Robin d es Bois» troupe. After Dominique Farrugia noticed the troupe in 1996, it came to represent a new era of French comedy. Marina Foïs went on to appear in films both comic and dramatic. She was nominated in 2003 for the César for Most Promising Actress in Filles perdues, cheveux gras. Then for Best Actress in 2008 for Darling, 2012 for Polisse, which had premiered in Cannes Competition 2011, again in 2017 for Irréprochable and in 2018 forL’Atelier, which had premiered in Un Certain Regard 2017. She appeared in the 2018 Gilles Lellouche comedy Le Grand Bain (Cannes 2018) and the Antoine Raimbault drama Une Intime Conviction. On stage, Marina Foïs portrayed Hervé Guibert for several months in «Les Idoles» by Christophe Honoré, which earned her a nomination for this year’s Molière Awards.
Nurhan Sekerci-Porst – Producer / Germany
Nurhan Şekerci-Porst has been working with scriptwriter, director and producer Fatih Akin since 2005. First as a tutor on Akin’s side at the HFBK University and later for his production company Corazón International which produced several awarded films such as Crossing the Bridge – The Sound of Istanbul, The Edge of Heaven, Soul Kitchen and Takva.
In 2012 she co-founded with Fatih Akin the production company Bombero International and produced The Cut and In the Fade, which premiered at the Festival de Cannes in 2017 and won the Award for Best Actress (Diane Kruger) and also the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film in 2018. Prior to her work as a producer Nurhan Şekerci-Porst studied English Literature, Politics and Film in Hamburg and Bristol (GB).
Lisandro Alonso – Director / Argentina
Born in 1975 in Buenos Aires, Lisandro Alonso studied for three years at the Universidad del Cine. After co-directing his first short film Dos En La Vereda in 1995, he worked as an assistant director and sound designer until 2000. His first feature film, La Libertad, which focuses on the relationship between a lonely lumberjack and his environment, premiered in Un Certain Regard. After creating his own production company 4L, Alonso returned to Cannes in 2004 with Los Muertos, which premiered in the Directors Fortnight. Two years later, he completed his trilogy with Fantasma. In 2008, the director decided to lean toward a more fictional approach with Liverpool, following a young sailor looking for his mother in the lost villages of Tierra del Fuego. Five years later, Jauja, set in 19th century Denmark and Argentina and starring Danish actor Viggo Mortensen, won the FIPRESCI award in the section Un Certain Regard.
Lukas Dhont – Director / Belgium
Lukas Dhont was born in Ghent, Belgium where he earned a degree in Audio-Visual Arts from the KASK Conservatorium. His short films Corps Perdu and L’Infini received numerous prizes. Throughout his studies, he focused on fiction but also explored the possibilities of documentary. In 2016 Lukas Dhont participated in the Cannes Cinéfondation Residence with the script of his first feature film Girl. The film combined themes the filmmaker had already examined, including dance, transformation and identity. Girl was awarded the Caméra d’or for best first feature at Cannes on its 2018 premiere in Un Certain Regard. Lukas Dhont is currently working on his second feature film.
The Short Films and Cinéfondation Jury 2019
Stacy Martin – Actress – France, United Kingdom
Stacy Martin’s first steps as an actress were in Lars Von Trier’s 2013 movie Nymphomaniac. Her acting career took off after that, and she took on multiple projects. In 2015, she starred in Tale of Tales by Matteo Garrone (Competition, Festival de Cannes 2015), The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun by Joann Sfar and Taj Mahal by Nicolas Saada. In 2017, she and Louis Garrel starred in Godard mon amour by Michel Hazanavicius, in Competition at the Festival de Cannes. That same year, she was a part of All the Money in the World by Ridley Scott. In 2018, she shared the screen with both Tahar Rahim for Treat Me Like Fire by Marie Monge selected at the Directors’ Fortnight, and Vincent Lacoste in Amanda by Mikhaël Hers. This year, she was in Casanova, Last Love by Benoît Jacquot and has been filming in the new Nicole Garcia feature alongside Pierre Niney and Benoît Magimel.
Eran Kolirin – Director & screenwriter – Israel
Eran Kolirin was born in 1973. His feature film debut as a director, The Band’s Visit, won him critical acclaim and over 50 prestigious awards around the globe, among them eight Ophir Awards of the Israeli Film Academy, the Un Certain Regard Jury Coup de Cœur Award in Cannes 2007 and the European Film Discovery Award. His second feature film, The Exchange, was selected for the 68th Venice Competition and received several prizes worldwide including the FIPRESCI Prize at the San Francisco International Film Festival. His third film, Beyond the Mountains and Hills, premiered at Cannes Un Certain Regard 2016 and was released to critical acclaim.
Panos H. Koutras – Director & screenwriter – Greece
Athens-born Panos H. Koutras started off directing several short films in Paris and London, which toured the world’s films festivals. In 1995, he founded the 100% Synthetic Films production company in Athens and began writing his first feature film, The Attack of the Giant Moussaka, which went on to achieve cult status. After Real Life and Strella were presented in Toronto and Berlin respectively, his fourth film, Xenia, was selected for Un Certain Regard in 2014. In 2015, he was an Un Certain Regard Jury member. He is currently preparing his fifth feature film, Dodo.
Cătălin Mitulescu – Director, screenwriter & producer – Romania
Cătălin Mitulescu was born in 1972 in Bucharest, Romania. His school short films Bucharest-Wien 8:15 and 17 Minutes Late were both selected in the Cinéfondation in 2001 and 2002. He won the Short Film Palme d’or for Traffic in 2004. In 2006, his first feature film, The Way I Spent the End of the World, was selected for Un Certain Regard and received Best Actress Award. Loverboy, his second film, premiered at Un Certain Regard in 2011 and won prizes in Sarajevo and Vilnius FF. By the Rails, his third feature, had its International Premiere at Karlovy Vary IFF in 2016, where it was awarded a Special Mention. He recently completed Heidi, his fourth film, to be released in 2019.