Cannes may start in a few days, but the fall film festivals are also approaching. Earlier this morning, it was announced that Academy Award nominee Isabelle Huppert (“Elle“) would preside over the competition jury for the 81st annual Venice International Film Festival. The jury will decide who walks away with the coveted Golden Lion prize (last year’s winner was Yorgos Lanthimos’s Oscar-winning film “Poor Things“). The acclaimed French actress has had a long history with the festival, winning the Coppa Volpi for Best Actress twice for two Claude Chabrol films, “Story of Women” in 1988 and later “La Cérémonie” in 1995.
Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera mentioned in a statement, “Isabelle Huppert is an immense actress. Demanding, curious, and of great generosity. The muse of numerous great filmmakers, she has never shirked the invitation of young or not-so-famous directors who have seen in her the ideal interpreter of their stories.”
Barbera adds, “Her enormous willingness to constantly put herself on the line, a sign of her uncommon intelligence, together with her ability to look at cinema beyond geographic and mental boundaries, make her an ideal President of the Jury in a festival open to the entire world such as the Venice Film Festival. We are very grateful to her for accepting the position, aware of the many commitments in film and theater that she will face in the coming months.”
Huppert mentioned her “long and beautiful history“ with the festival. “Becoming a privileged spectator is an honor,“ she said. “More than ever, cinema is a promise. The promise to escape, to disrupt, to surprise, to take a good look at the world, united in the differences of our tastes and ideas.”
The 81st Venice International Film Festival will run from August 28th-September 7th.
Are you excited for the 2024 Venice Film Festival? Are you planning to attend the festival this year? Which films do you think will be announced? Please let us know in the comments section below or on our Twitter account.
