72nd Cannes official jury speaks out about "cinematic decisions"

Elle Fanning

The jury members for the 72:e Festival de Cannes were unanimously taken in by Palme d’Or winner The Parasite by South Korean director BONG Jo ho.

Atlantics by French filmmaker Matti Diop, according to Italian jury member Alice Rohrwacher, last year's best screenplay award winner for Happy as Lazzaro , won the heart of the jury, a film about men and young boys who die at sea and the women they leave behind at shore.

Although the awards this year were given to films that concern social justice, or injustice according to Jury President Alejandro Iñárritu “cinematic decisions” were involved with the process and he emphasized that “cinema has to speak for itself”.

The jury was diverse including the youngest jury member at Cannes in history, 21 year old Elle Fanning. Iñárritu mentioned several times that since she was young “was not attached to older ideological ideas”. He  described her as  a “millennial” and “old soul” who came to the experience with “fresh ideas and young eyes”. This description is an interesting commentary on the historical selection of jury members at Cannes who have been much older than Fanning.

Fanning said the experience has made her “see films in different ways” and was forever changed from the experience.