French director Claire Denis, who recently made her English-language debut with “High Life” starring Robert Pattinson, is to preside the Short Films and Cinéfondation Jury at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival.
Denis will succeed Abderrahmane Sissako, Naomi Kawase, Cristian Mungiu and Bertrand Bonello. Denis and her jury will name the three prizes winners of the Cinéfondation on May 23; and two days later the Short Film Palme d’or will be announced during the festival’s closing ceremony.
“Claire Denis has occupied a unique place in contemporary cinema for more than 30 years. She has directed a compelling body of work, including 13 feature films, four of which were screened in the Festival de Cannes’s Official Selection,” stated Cannes, which described the director as a “true adventurer.”
“She has established her taste for observation and experimentation throughout her artistic journeys, navigating between introspection and openness to the world (…). “Always daring, always free, Claire Denis has never stopped reforming the paths between the unknown and the familiar up to her latest ‘High Life’ in which the power of her direction and expertise in the ellipsis were reinventing science fiction,” said the festival.
Denis’s credits include “Chocolat;” “I Can’t Sleep” which played at Un Certain Regard; “Bastard” which also played at Un Certain Regard; “Beau Travail” and “White Material” which competed at Cannes.
Last year’s short film Palme D’or was awarded to Charles Williams’s “All These Creatures.” Lynne Ramsay, Jim Jarmusch, Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Jane Campion are among the only directors who won both the Short Film Palme d’or and the Palme d’or for a feature.