12/05/2010

There was media excitement this afternoon on the Croisette at the press conference given by the competition jury at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. President Tim Burton partook in the Q&A session, flanked by the eight other jury members: Giovanna Mezzogiorno, Kate Beckinsale, Benicio Del Toro, Victor Erice, Emmanuel Carrère, Alexandre Desplat, Alberto Barbera and Shekhar Kapur.

Organisation of the jury’s work
Tim Burton: We’re professionals and we all know what it’s like to be judged, so we’re going to do it without preconceived ideas, without prejudice. We’re going to discover the films in a spirit of openness and compassion for the directors. We’re going to see the films, discover how they’ve touched us emotionally and intellectually, discuss them and hope to reach a consensus. I’m very curious to embark on this festival with a jury that brings together different cultures and countries. I hope we’ll enjoy the films and discussions and we won’t behave like ten frustrated and bad-tempered artists.

Judgement criteria
Our job is to be totally open. When I was young, I didn’t know anything about the films I went to see. Nowadays, we know everything: how much they cost, how they were made, etc…But it’s wonderful to be surprised: it’s what we look for in a film. In competition, there are directors we know, and others we don’t know. We’re going to start a journey together with certain obligations, towards a goal that is not yet determined, but we expect to be surprised on this journey.

No women directors in competition
Whether a film is directed by a woman or a man, whether it comes from one country or another, there is in any case a sort of fraternity.

The Cannes Festival
The festival is something fantastical, a sort of fantasy film. It enables you to see films that I perhaps wouldn’t normally see. That’s the beauty of cinema: seeing what is outside one’s usual sphere. And we’ll show generosity.

(Translated from French)