30/08/2005

Announcing itself as a particularly open year, the official competition for the 62nd Mostra, which kicks off tomorrow in Venice, will develop, as do all the large festivals, through the strong personalities on its jury. A characteristic which certainly applies to Claire Denis who will join her six colleagues on the jury, headed by Italian designer Dante Ferretti, with the task of finding a winner among the 19 features selected (20 with the surprise film of the 2nd September which could be The New World by Terence Mallick).

Of the eight features she has directed since 1988 and Chocolat, Claire Denis has had three films which have been selected for the Mostra: S’en fout la mort in 1990, Vendredi soir [+see also:
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film profile] screened in the Controcorrente section in 2002 and L’Intrus in official competition last year. Born on the 21st April 1948 in Paris, the filmmaker worked between 1974 and 1986 as assistant, notably to Jacques Rivette, Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Les Ailes du désir) and Jim Jarmusch (Down by Law). Selected in Official Competition at Cannes with her first feature, she also picked up in 1996 the Golden Leopard at Locarno for Nénette et Boni. Worth noting too in her filmography Beau travail (1999), Trouble Every Day (2001) and the documentary Vers Mathilde (2005).

Two others natives of France are part of the 2005 vintage on the various Venetian juries. Jean-Michel Frodon, critic and director of "Cahiers du Cinéma" for the last two years appears on the panel for the Horizons section in the company of notably the Spanish director Isabel Coixet. As for Ismael Ferroukhi, winner of the prize for best first feature at the 2004 Mostra with Le grand voyage, he will help decide his successor with the five other jury members for the "Luigi De Laurentiis" Award for a First Film.

(Translated from French)