The Cannes Film Festival has tapped “Sister” director Ursula Meier to lead its 2018 Caméra d’or Jury. According to a press release, Meier will serve as president and, alongside the six-member jury, will choose the best first film screened in the Official Selection, the Semaine de la Critique, and the Directors’ Fortnight categories. The jury will present the winning film with the prestigious Caméra d’or prize at the Closing Ceremony on May 19.
“A first film is the place of all possibilities, of all audacity, of all risk-taking, of all madness,” Meier commented. “It is often said that you should not put everything into a first film but the opposite is true, you should put in exactly that — everything — just as you should put everything into every film while always preserving deep within yourself that original, vital, brutal, wild desire of the first time. What immense excitement and joy to discover all these films!”
Meier’s “Home” was nominated for the César Award for best first film in 2009. The Isabelle Huppert-starrer traces the upheaval — literal and figurative — a rural family experiences when a highway opens next to their house.
The director’s impressive résumé also boasts anthology “Bridges of Sarajevo,” sibling crime drama “Sister,” and TV movie “Des épaules solides.” Meier’s latest project, “Shock Waves — Diary of My Mind,” screened earlier this year at the Berlinale. An installment of a four-part TV series inspired by real crimes, “Diary of My Mind” centers on a young man who sends a detailed confession to his teacher before killing his parents.
“She who claims to be fascinated by the notion of no man’s land has built her imagination there,” the press release said of the new Caméra d’or Jury prez. “[Meier] manages to reach out to buried areas of human nature, filming with tenderness, without pathos or judgment, characters who are guided by a powerful survival instinct.”
Last year Léonor Serraille received the Caméra d’or for “Montparnasse Bienvenüe,” a portrait of a young woman struggling to make a go of it in Paris.
Cannes 2018 runs May 8–19. The lineup has not yet been finalized.
