Venice Film Festival Jury: From French Film Queen to Top Chinese Star
One of the factors that attracts art lovers every festival is the jury, which is among the best in the art field, ranging from directors, actors to critics, and even writers! This year, the Venice Film Festival chose Isabelle Huppert - Europe's leading actress, as the President, along with many other prestigious names...
With the equalization of the role and status of female filmmakers everywhere, the reason Isabelle Huppert - a face with many unique roles, not only "weighs the scales" to decide the award winners, but also carries the responsibility of bringing the Venice Film Festival, despite its own perspective, to approach the world cinema trend, where female filmmakers always bring interesting, new and feminine works. Of course, Huppert has certain authority in the position of President of the Jury because following her are 8 names that are not inferior, they all have their own thinking and evaluation points, through their own career journey!
From Huppert to Ziyi
What makes the audience curious is that there are only two actors among the 9 members of the jury of the 81st season, this number is quite modest compared to the 4 female actors of the 74th and 75th seasons. But both Isabelle Huppert and Zhang Ziyi are typical representatives of their markets. With Huppert, although she is over 70 years old, she still regularly averages 4-5 films per year. If the French silver screen often praises Catherine Deneuve - a veteran beauty of the past, a typical face for beauty and a close public image.
Not afraid of sensational, even offensive images, it is her daring and passion for the art of transformation that has helped Huppert have many memorable roles throughout her 50-year career and hundreds of large and small films. Notably, and making her famous worldwide, is "Elle" in 2016 - a blockbuster in the thriller genre directed by Paul Verhoeven, the film that brought Huppert to the first Best Actress Oscar nomination in her massive career. Before that, Huppert also won the Golden Globe (surpassing Natalie Portman) and won three awards at the three oldest film critics associations in the US. The press once commented that if it weren't for the year Hollywood cheered on Emma Stone ("La La Land"), Huppert would have easily defeated Portman - who was also very talented when playing the wife of US President Jackie Kennedy.
After becoming a "late bloomer" at the age of over 60, Huppert's career clearly flourished, although before that she was still the "bullet point" name of many leading filmmakers in the world from Europe to Asia. Also after this period, Huppert actively participated in making films in many places including the Philippines, Korea, Japan. Before "Elle", Huppert had a series of prestigious works including "Story of Women" in 1988 as a mother looking after her children waiting for her husband during World War II; or "La Cérémonie" in 1995 as a young wandering woman who loved violence and the highlight was "The Piano Teacher" in 2001 with the image of a corrupt female piano teacher...
In 2020, The New York Times ranked Huppert second on its list of the Greatest Actors of the 21st Century, behind only black actor Denzel Washington. She is the only actress to have won Best Actress twice at both the Venice Film Festival and the Cannes Film Festival, but has never won a similar award at the Berlin Film Festival, despite having two honorary awards at this festival in 2002 and 2022. While actors in their 70s are considering... retirement or limiting their filmmaking, Huppert, on the contrary, is even more active in making films overseas than anyone else. She actively participates in English-speaking film projects including "Frankie", "Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris"...
As President of the Cannes Film Festival Jury in 2009, Isabelle Huppert was very sober when awarding the highest prize to "The White Ribbon" - a film directed by her close director, Michael Haneke. "The White Ribbon" after its wide release created a strong push in Haneke's career with two Oscar nominations and a Golden Globe award, making Haneke famous worldwide with only the next film "Amour". This proves that Huppert is both delicate, sensitive, and has enough vision to choose a brilliant work!
On the other hand, in this year's jury list, Zhang Ziyi, after her private life scandals, made a strong comeback to the film industry with a film that premiered earlier at the Cannes Film Festival and served as a jury member at Venice this year. Along with Shu Qi, Zhang is one of the few Chinese stars who are regularly invited to be judges at international film festivals. When mentioning Ziyi, it is impossible not to mention "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" - a martial arts film by Ang Lee that greatly contributed to bringing Zhang Ziyi's name to the world and building a brilliant career in the Chinese market. The period from 2002 to 2015 can be said to be Ziyi's peak when she appeared in a series of major projects in both Asia and Hollywood, such as Zhang Yimou's "Hero", Rob Marshall's "Memoirs of a Geisha", Hur Jin-ho's "Dangerous Liaisons", Wong Kar-wai's "2046" and "The Grandmaster", etc.
At the peak of her career, Ziyi decided to get married and almost neglected her acting role, leading to the fact that from 2015 to 2023, she only participated in small roles or guest roles. Her films during this period were not artistically successful. But it is worth mentioning that in 2022, Ziyi tried her hand at directing and won an award for the anthology film "My Country, My Parents", predicting her new direction in the future. In 2024, Ziyi played the main role after 5 years of absence, in a sensational project by Chan Kha Tan - "She's Got No Name" as a cold-blooded female murderer. The film has been purchased by A24 for distribution in the North American market and has the potential to help Ziyi regain her former glory!
The universe of romantic men!
Coincidentally, this year's jury includes two male directors who specialize in psychological and romantic films, and both have been recognized through valuable awards. Mentioning James Gray is mentioning "Ad Astra" in 2019 - one of the rare sci-fi films that inspires emotions in viewers. Gray represents the generation of independent filmmakers in Hollywood and mainly exploits the psychological perspective even in works of science fiction or action. In his career, Gray has competed for the Palme d'Or 5 times and the Golden Lion 2 times - not a modest number for a filmmaker born in 1969. In 1994, James Gray caused a stir with "Little Odessa" winning the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival, paving the way for him to enter Hollywood. Although Gray's recent film projects have been more macro in nature, audiences will surely not forget the fantasy love scene in "Two Lovers" in 2008 with a cast of talented actors including Joaquin Phoenix and Vinessa Shaw...
Gentle and emotional, Andrew Haigh also left many beautiful marks in his young filmmaking career. Right from his debut work - "Greek Pete", Haigh soon revealed his artistic views and sexual orientation in his works. Belonging to the LGBTQ+ community, Haigh showed a delicate sensitivity when exploiting the psychology of characters, especially men, thereby creating successful works including "Weekend", "Lean on Pete" and most recently "All of Us Strangers" released in 2023. However, the film that made Andrew Haigh famous everywhere was a film about an elderly couple on the brink of marital collapse - "45 Years" starring two veteran actors Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay. "45 Years" won both the Best Actor and Best Actress awards at the 2015 Berlin Film Festival, received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress and helped Haigh be nominated for the first European award as a screenwriter.
The presence of James Gray and Andrew Haigh shows that this year's Venice could be a "fertile land" for works that focus on inner thoughts, character psychology and emotional psychology, and if there is an LGBTQ+ element, it is also a big plus. In addition, having had experience in many positions before becoming a film director, as well as participating in major film projects in the past, could help both Gray and Haigh make more comprehensive comments about the works competing for the Golden Lion this year.
Pride
Like Berlin, Cannes, Venice will always cleverly honor European artists in many different roles and ways, in which the position of the jury seems to be the most worthy way to show gratitude. Besides famous global stars, English-speaking actors and filmmakers... the rest of the jury will be European faces, helping to diversify the awards given. Names like Kleber Mendonça Filho or Agnieszka Holland, Giuseppe Tornatore. Kleber Mendonça Filho from Brazil, a critic, screenwriter and director, is the author of two famous films in the arthouse film community: "Aquarius" in 2016 and "Bacurau" in 2019. Both films are shocking because of their sensational and topical elements: "Aquarius" is like a slap in the face of the government on land reform while "Bacurau" rings the bell of violence that is rampant in Brazil.
While Kleber Mendonça Filho often exploits the dark side, the Finnish female director Agnieszka Holland has chosen a softer approach in her filmmaking style for the past 50 years. As one of the most experienced and senior judges, Agnieszka Holland won an Oscar nomination for "Europa Europa" in 1990 as a screenwriter and "In Darkness" in 2011 in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. It can be said that, besides Isabelle Huppert, Agnieszka Holland is a prominent name who has won a lot of love in Hollywood, and is still working quite hard even though she is 75 years old! Her latest film "Green Border" won up to... 7 big and small awards in Venice last year.
Giuseppe Tornatore is probably both familiar and strange, familiar because he is the father of the classic films "Cinema Paradiso" and "Malena" years ago, strange because after two big marks, Tornatore began to exploit more thorny topics, with more "competitive" nature, typically "The Unknown Woman", "The Best Offer"... However, these films have not been able to reach out of Europe to become famous worldwide, although in Italy, Giuseppe Tornatore is still a respected name thanks to his previous contributions. Although his career is slowing down, Giuseppe Tornatore's presence in the jury shows that Venice always gives every opportunity to their Italian artists.
The remaining two names on the jury list, Abderrahmane Sissako and Julia von Heinz, are not unknown names, they have more or less made a splash over the years, including films competing in Berlin or Cannes, such as Abderrahmane Sissako's "Timbuktu" which received an Oscar nomination in 2014 and was even chosen by The New York Times as one of the best films of the 21st century! In general, the list of jury members at Venice this year is hard to ignore, although most of them are not the names that are causing a media stir, such as Greta Gerwig, who just had the most popular movie "Barbie" in 2023, and in 2024 was invited to be the President of the Cannes Jury, or Lily Gladstone, who just became the first native American actress nominated for an Oscar in 2023, and in 2024 was invited by Cannes to be the Jury.
Almost all the remaining faces on the list of 8 jury members of the 81st Venice Film Festival are quite familiar and have scored points with audiences who love arthouse films. Compared to previous decades, the recent promotion of feminism has had a huge impact on the role of the President of the Jury when in just 10 years, there have been 5 female artists holding this position, including Annette Bening in 2017, Lucrecia Martel in 2019, Cate Blanchett in 2020, Julianne Moore in 2022 and Isabelle Huppert in 2024.
What shocked fans was that in all four times as President of the Jury, both actresses and directors awarded the Golden Lion to films... speaking English, even some box office hits including "The Shape of Water" which won 4 Oscars; "Joker" won 2 Oscars and "Nomadland" won 6 Oscars while "All the Beauty and the Bloodshed" in 2022 was a documentary but was only nominated but did not win, even in the Documentary category. With two female directors winning the Golden Lion, this number is considered impressive for a long-standing International Film Festival like Venice because the Golden Lion has often fallen into the hands of male directors.
