Cannes: Andrea Arnold To Lead Critics’ Week Jury

The jury for the 53rd edition of the Semaine de la Critique, Critics’ Week, will be presided over by British filmmaker Andrea Arnold. Arnold’s first short, Milk, ran in the section in 1998. Since then, she’s become a Cannes Film Festival regular which is rare for a female director. In 2006, her thriller Red Road won the Jury Prize in the main competition. In 2009, Fish Tank, which starred Michael Fassbender, also scooped the Jury Prize. In 2011, she presented her adaptation of Wuthering Heights in competition at Venice. Earlier in her career, she won the Best Live Action Short Film Oscar for Wasp. Four other jury members will join Arnold to judge the seven feature films in the Critics’ Week competition this year which awards the Nespresso Grand Prize. Today, she said, “I was so excited when Milk screened in La Semaine de la Critique that I kept crashing into things. When I got home I counted 19 bruises. I am just as excited about being asked to be President of the Jury… I think it might be a good idea to put away the china. I see it as an adventure. I will go into it open. See what and who comes.” Last year’s Grand Prize winner was Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s Salvo. Critics’ Week is an important Cannes sidebar which has helped foster such talent as Guillermo del Toro, Gaspar Noé, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Emanuele Crialese, and Jeff Nichols. The section runs this year from May 15-23.