The 79th Cannes Film Festival goes up at the Palais des Festivals from May 12 this year. South Korean director Park Chan-wook, who heads the jury that awards the Palme d’Or, the top prize at Cannes, has defended the role of politics in film. (Also read: ‘Shame on Hollywood’: Cannes jury member Paul Laverty calls out industry for blacklisting actors who oppose war in Gaza)
(Photo by Sameer AL-DOUMY / AFP) (AFP)
What Park Chan-wook said
During the press conference, the director embraced the political dimension in films. He said, “I don’t think politics and art should be divided. I think it’s a strange concept to think that they’re in conflict with each other. Just because a work of art has a political statement, it should not be considered an enemy of art. At the same time, just because a film is not making a political statement, that film should not be ignored.”
He went on to add, “Even if we are to make a brilliant political statement, if it’s not expressed artfully enough, it would just be propaganda. So what I want to say is that art and politics are not concepts that are in conflict with each other, as long as they are artistically expressed, they are valuable.”
The other members of the jury for the main competition are Demi Moore, Ruth Negga, Laura Wandel, Chloé Zhao, Diego Céspedes, Isaach de Bankolé, Paul Laverty, and Stellan Skarsgård.
The debate over art and politics began earlier this year at the Berlin Film Festival over jury president Wim Wenders’ remarks that cinema should “stay out of politics”. When the German director was asked about his country’s support for Israel’s military actions in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, he said: “We cannot really enter the field of politics”, and described filmmakers as “the counterweight to politics”. The comments led to immense backlash, with Arundhati Roy withdrawing from making a presence at the festival.
Meanwhile, the Cannes Film Festival opened with the world premiere of Pierre Salvadori’s The Electric Kiss, screening out of competition. The jury will be responsible for judging on the 22 films in competition. They will be deciding the ones who will eventually win the Palme d’Or, as well as the Grand Prix, Jury Prize, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Actor. The winners will be revealed at the closing ceremony on May 23. New films by Pedro Almodóvar, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Paweł Pawlikowski, Cristian Mungiu and Andrey Zvyagintsev are in contention.