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PARIS: Three weeks before its 75th session, the Cannes International Film Festival put an end to the suspense on Tuesday by announcing the formation of the jury to be chaired by French actor Vincent Lyndon, the 2015 Interpretation Prize and the actor in the movie “Titanium”. The Palme d’Or 2021.

He will replace American director Spike Lee, who won the French woman’s film, Julia Ducornu, with his jury in July 2021.

“It is a great honor and a very great pride to be entrusted, in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the many events we are experiencing in the world, with the wonderful and heavy task of presiding over the jury” of the festival, declared Vincent Lyndon, in the press release from the event organizations that attracts celebrities and crowds to the Croisette In Cannes, on the French Riviera.

The announcement comes at the end of a long period of suspense: the head of the jury is usually known at the beginning of the year and the jury is revealed a few weeks before the festival.

With the resumption of cinema after the epidemic and the rise of soap operas, “All artists are working”, confirmed, in mid-April, Thierry Frémaux, the festival’s general delegate, to justify this disturbing calendar.

The names of the two actresses, Penelope Cruz and Marion Cotillard, were circulated in the specialized newspapers, without any confirmation, as well as the names of the Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, who will eventually be a member of the jury.

The Oscar-winning director is accused of plagiarism by one of his former students for his latest movie, “Champion” of the Grand Prix at last year’s Cannes festival.

Choosing Vincent Lyndon, 62, the festival is betting a regular in Cannes, who has made nine feature films there since 1987 and loves to talk about the seventh art during professional classes at the Cinémathèque française or the Institut Lumière. No French figure has held this position since actress Isabelle Huppert in 2009.

The 62-year-old actor often embodies on screen a grumpy contemporary man, with apparent fragility, as in Stephane Brezy’s “La Loi du marché,” a scathing film about the brutality of the working world that has earned him interpretation. award in 2015.

Mission: Move

Finding the director three years later, and Cannes rallies, he made “En Guerre” in 2018, portraying a union actor fighting to prevent the closure of his factory.

In July 2021, he was surprised to be a bodybuilder and “a bruised firefighter, (who) distinguishes bodies, hearts and minds,” according to the festival.

Close to Thierry Frémaux, Vincent Lyndon will have to choose the Palme d’Or from 21 competing films, including the latest adaptation of Canadian David Cronenberg or that of Russian Kirill Serebnikov, breaking the line of Putin’s regime.

He will be supported in this task by Anglo-American actress and director Rebecca Hall (“Vicky Christina Barcelona”), Swedish film Noomi Rapace, revealed in 2009 in the first adaptation of the Millennium saga, Italian film Jasmine Trinca (whose first film was “” Marcel!” will be shown in a special show) and India’s Deepika Padukone.

Four famous directors will complete this jury: Iranian Asghar Farhadi, France’s Ladj Lee (“Les Miserables”, Jury Prize 2019 at Cannes), American Jeff Nichols (who presented his 2016 film “Loving” on Croisette) and Norway’s Joachim Trier ( “Julie in 12 Chapters”, 2021 Female Translation Award).

“With my jury, we will do our best to nurture the films of the future, which all hold the same secret hope, courage, loyalty, and freedom; their task is to move as many women and men as possible by speaking with them of their common wounds and joys.” Culture helps the human spirit rise and hope for Tomorrow,” confirmed Vincent Lyndon.