Pedro Almodóvar to head up the Jury at the 70th… | Little White Lies

Festivals

Pedro Almod­ó­var to head up the Jury at the 70th Cannes Film Festival

31 Jan 2017

Words by Little White Lies

Greying, bearded man wearing dark sunglasses and a black outfit.
Greying, bearded man wearing dark sunglasses and a black outfit.
The icon­ic Span­ish film­mak­er will serve as Pres­i­dent of the main com­pe­ti­tion jury for the first time.

Pedro Almod­ó­var is no stranger to the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val: in 2004 Bad Edu­ca­tion opened the fes­ti­val; 10 years ago he was on the offi­cial poster for the festival’s 60th edi­tion; and he received the most recent of his five Palme d’Or nom­i­na­tions in 2016 for Juli­eta.

This year, how­ev­er, the famous­ly flam­boy­ant Span­ish auteur is return­ing to the world’s most pres­ti­gious film fes­ti­val in a dif­fer­ent capac­i­ty, as Pres­i­dent of the Jury.

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Respond­ing to Pierre Les­cure and Thier­ry Frémaux’s invi­ta­tion, Almod­ó­var said: ​“I am grate­ful, hon­oured and a bit over­whelmed. I am aware of the respon­si­bil­i­ty that entails being the pres­i­dent of the jury and I hope to be up to the job. I can only tell that I’ll devote myself, body and soul, to this task, that it is both a priv­i­lege and a pleasure.”

Almod­ó­var has sat on the Jury once before, in 1992 under the pres­i­den­cy of Gérard Depar­dieu, with that year’s Palme d’Or going to Bil­lie August’s The Best Inten­tions. This will be the first time that a Span­ish film­mak­er has the final say on proceedings.

Giv­en his lega­cy of punk, protest-fuelled sto­ry­telling often cen­tring on the lives of oppressed and always pas­sion­ate women, we’re expect­ing this year’s top prize to go to the most orig­i­nal and uncom­pro­mis­ing work in the com­pe­ti­tion line-up, which will be announced in mid-April.

The Cannes Film Fes­ti­val runs 17 – 8 May 2017.

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