Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako, whose internationally acclaimed film Timbuktu premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year, is set to return to the 68th Cannes Film Festival as president of the Cinefondation and Short Films jury.
Previous presidents of the jury include Abbas Kiarostami, Jane Campion, Michel Gondry, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Martin Scorsese.
Sissako comments, “I would never want to make a film that somebody else could make, and I want to see films that I would never make.
“What’s important to me is the cinema of anonymity – addressing the conflicts but above all the suffering endured by anonymous people – empowering them and making them visible, testifying to their courage and their beauty.’
Four personalities from the arts industry will accompany Sissako on the jury. The jury will award three prizes to films submitted to the Cinefondation Selection, as well as the Short Film Palme d’or. Prizes will be presented during the festival’s closing ceremony, on Sunday, 24 May 2015.
