Trier takes charge of Cannes Critics’ Week jury

Norwegian director Joachim Trier, president of Cannes Critics’ Week Jury, pictured with Isabelle Huppert in Cannes for Louder Than Bombs Photo: Richard Mowe

As the date for the official launch of the Cannes programme comes closer (April 12), the race is on to confirm juries. Hot on the heels of the Camera d’Or announcement today Critics’ Week organisers have announced that Norwegian director Joachim Trier has been named jury president for this year’s sidebar.

The president will lead the five-person jury that will award the section’s main prizes, including the Nespresso Grand Prize and the France 4 Visionary Award to one of the seven films selected for the main competition, and the Leica Cine Discovery Prize to one of the ten shorts films in contention. Trier has made his mark on Cannes with his film Oslo, August 31st, a second feature, screening in Un Certain Regard in 2011, while he was in the Official Selection in 2015 with Louder Than Bombs featuring Isabelle Huppert and Jessie Eisenberg. His latest film Thelma, a foray in to the supernatural, was screened at the last Toronto Film Festival and was Norway's Foreign Language Oscar nominee.

Nahuel Perez Biscayart is also on the Critics' Week Jury Photo: Richard Mowe

Critics’ Week organisers said they were delighted to have as president a film-maker “whose body of works offers a sensitive, mature exploration of some of the great issues of his generation".

The jury also comprises actress and director Chloë Sevigny, the Argentinian actor Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, recent César winner for his role in Robin Campillo's 120 Beats Per Minute, Eva Sangiorgi, the new Italian director of the Viennale, the Vienna International Film Festival, and the French culture journalist Augustin Trapenard.

Previous jury presidents have included Kleber Mendonca Filho, Valerie Donzelli and Andrea Arnold.

The 57th Semaine de la Critique, organised by the French Union of Film Critics, will run from May 9 to 17. The selection will be announced on April 16.