Audrey Diwan. The director of "Happening," which won the 2021 Venice Golden Lion, has been named jury president of the 62nd annual Critics Week.
Swati Bhat
Portuguese photographer Rui Poças ("Tabu," "Zama"), German actor, choreographer, and dancer Franz Rogowski ("A Hidden Life"), Indian journalist Meenakshi Shedde, curator and Berlinale programming advisor, and Sundance programming director Kim Yutani are among the jury members.
The Cannes Film Festival's Critics Week sidebar, which concentrates on first- and second-run movies, runs concurrently. Last year's jury was presided over by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania ("The Man who Sold his Skin").
Former journalist Diwan makes her music debut in 2019 with "Losing It." Two years later, the director won the top award at the Venice Film Festival for her second film, the heartbreaking abortion drama "Happening," which IFC Films acquired for distribution. After Chloe Zhao, the director of "Nomadland" in 2020, she became just the second woman to win the Golden Lion since Agnès Varda won it in 1985 for "Vagabond."
According to press releases from Critics Week, Diwan is a member of a "new generation of female filmmakers whose sharpness and formal freedom are reinventing the codes and redefining the boundaries of international cinema."
The Diwan jury will present the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for best actor and actress, the Leitz Ciné Discovery Prize for best short film, the Jury's French Touch Prize, the Critics Week Grand Prize for best feature film, and the Critics Week Grand Prize for best feature film.
In the 2022 competition, Andrés Ramrez Pulido's "La Jaura" won the Grand Prize, and Charlotte Wells' "Aftersun," whose co-star Paul Mescal later received his first Oscar nomination, won the French Touch Prize. In other news, Zelda Samson received the Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award for "Love according to Dalva" by Emmanuelle Nicot, and Joo Gonzalez's "Ice Merchants" won the Leitz Cine Discovery Prize.
Program dates are May 17–25.