05 · 03 · 11

Daniela Michel: Juror at Cannes

Clara Sánchez/ Translated by Carlos Garza

In 1998, the Prize "Un Certain Regard" was introduced to recognize young talent and encourage innovative and daring works. The winning film receives a grant to aid its distribution in France.

The Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica will preside the jury which also includes French actress Elodie Bouchez, Director of Tribeca Enterprises Geoffrey Gilmore, and The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw.

It is in this section that Miss Bala, by Mexican filmmaker Gerardo Naranjo, will compete. In 2006 Naranjo participated in the Critics' Week with the film Drama/Mex, which was screened at the fourth edition of the Morelia International Film Festival.

The rest of the films competing in "Un Certain Regard" are: Okhotnik  (The Hunter) by Bakur Bakuradze, Halt Auf Freier Strecke by Andreas Dresen, Hors Satan by Bruno Dumont, Martha Marcy May Marlene by Sean Durkin, Les Neiges Du Kilimandjaro by Robert Guédiguian, Skoonheid by Oliver Hermanus, The Day He Arrives by Hong Sangsoo; Bonsái by Cristián Jiménez, Tatsumi by Eric Khoo, Arirang by Kim Ki-duk, Et Maintenant On Va Où? by Nadine Labaki, Loverboy by Catalin Mitulescu, The Yellow Sea by Na Hong-jin, Trabalhar Cansa (Hard Labor) by Juliana Rojas and Marco Dutra, L'exercice de l'Etat (The Minister) by Pierre Schoeller, Toomelah by Ivan Sen and Oslo, August 31st by Joachim Trier.

The following films will be screened Out of Competition: La Conquête (The Conquest) by Xavier Durringer, The Beaver by Jodie Foster, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides by Rob Marshall, and Bollywood- The Greatest Love Story Ever Told by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and Jeffrey Zimbalist.

Two titles will be featured as midnight screenings: The Mexican film Días de gracia (Days of Grace) by Everardo Gout and the Chinese film Wu Xia by Chan Peter Ho-Sun.

Michel is the first director of a Mexican film festival to be invited to participate in a Cannes jury. In 2010, the actor Gabriel García Bernal was president of the jury which awarded the Caméra d'Or for the best first feature film to the Mexican production Año bisiesto by Michael Rowe.

Among the members of the national film community which have participated in Cannes' Official Section are the director Alfonso Cuarón and the actress Salma Hayek.

The Morelia International Film Festival maintains an important partnership with the Critics' Week, a parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival. Every year the Morelia Film Festival programs a selection of films from the Critics' Week, while the Critics' Week selects a program of winning films from Morelia to screen in Cannes.

Click here for more information on the Cannes Film Festival.