11/05/2011

There was media excitement this afternoon on the Croisette for the press conference with the competition jury at the 64th Cannes Film Festival. President Robert De Niro partook in the Q&A session flanked by the eight other members of his jury: Uma Thurman, Martina Gusman, Linn Ullmann, Nansun Shi, Jude Law, Olivier Assayas, Mahamat Saleh-Haroun and Johnny To.

What are you looking for in the films in competition?
Robert De Niro: I don’t know what I’m looking for. We’ll see. I’m looking forward to discovering the films. Even if watching 20 films in such a short space of time is unusual for me, it’s a privilege.

What do you think about awarding prizes to films?
De Niro: There are reasons for and against. It’s a double-edged sword. Good films have picked up prizes, but there are also people who deserved them who didn’t win any. But prizes can help attract attention towards a particular film or a particular director. It’s a sort of validation. It’s the rules of the game. We’re going to award lots of prizes and one of the films will receive the first prize.

Do you feel more pressure because it’s the Cannes Festival?
De Niro: I’ve been coming to Cannes for 35 years. It’s a wonderful, unique festival. There will be situations where we’ll have to make decisions. I’ll have my preferences, other members of the jury will have others: it’s an interesting dynamic and we’ll see what happens.

Jude Law : It’s a great honour to be part of such a special jury and to watch films of such a high standard. I’m surrounded by great people and this further increases our sense of responsibility.

Olivier Assayas: There are nine different sensibilities, nine points of view about cinema. We must raise up the films we consider the strongest and most stimulating, but also find some common ground. Inevitably, it’s impossible to satisfy everyone and have a perfect prize list. Every jury tries their best, to be as fair and generous as possible, but there are always mistakes and there always will be.

(Translated from French)