Ruben Östlund, winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for The square in 2017 and last year for the satire The triangle of sadness, for which he was also nominated for three Oscars, values the highest award of the contest much more French than the statuette awarded by the Hollywood Academy. "I'd rather have another Palme d'Or than an Oscar. The Palme d'Or is the biggest film award in the world," the Swedish filmmaker confessed at a crowded press conference in which he spoke as president of a jury of the official section of which includes the Argentine filmmaker Damián Szifrón, the American actors Brie Larson and Paul Dano, the French actor Denis Ménochet, the filmmakers Julia Ducournau -Palma d'Or in 2021 for Titane- Rungano Nyoni, Maryam Touzani and the Franco-Afghan director Atiq Rahimi.
For Östlund, the Academy Awards come with a different "brand," revolving around audience growth for the nominated films. “I started at film school in the 1990s. A teacher at that school always said that his reference was to go back to Cannes.”
And he added: “I see myself as a European film director; I am part of a European tradition. The role of cinema that we have in European culture is something I am willing to fight for”.
The director has stated that he took "a day" to consider the festival's offer about his role as president of the jury: "Maybe he came 10 years too soon," he joked. "I felt too young to do it." Precisely about his position this year at the Festival that has given him so much joy, he says that he has asked all the members to "follow his first instinct, to pay attention to the feelings that each film provokes in them." .
For the filmmaker, it is a priority to flee from consensus, from "an atmosphere of a jury", so that each one "has their voice and defends it". Both Östlund and Ducournau have stressed the responsibility involved in choosing the winning film. "I come with an open spirit and without any prejudice. I have not wanted to know what each film is about. I arrive completely virgin to the viewers," insisted the French director.
Brie larson, winner of the Oscar for best actress for Room (2015) and protagonist of Captain Marvel and its sequel, The Marvels, has been one of the most requested questions from journalists. The 33-year-old interpreter has stated that she is very happy to come to Cannes for the first time, "surrounded by people I admire" and maintains that "each film is a unique visual experience" that she thinks she will appreciate.
Dano, whom we have recently seen as the father of Steven Spielberg in The Fabelmans, recalled that since he was a teenager he closely followed everything that happened in Cannes and it was at that moment that he began to think about directing and not just acting. . In fact, his directorial debut, Wildlife, competed in Critics' Week in 2018. Dano has also referred to the Hollywood writers' strike and has commented that his wife, the actress and screenwriter Zoe Kazan, participates in the protests with her 6-month-old son, and that she will join them immediately after finishing her assignment in Cannes.
