Isabelle Huppert
Courtesy of Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images
French actress Isabelle Huppert (Michael Haneke’s Elle, The Piano Teacher, La Cérémonie) will serve as the president of the international jury of the competition at the 81st Venice International Film Festival, which takes place Aug. 28-Sept. 7.
The jury will decide on the Golden Lion for best film, as well as other official awards.
The decision on the jury head was made by the board of directors of the Biennale di Venezia based on the recommendation of the director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera.
Huppert said: “There is a long and beautiful history between the festival and I. Becoming a privileged spectator is an honor. More than ever, cinema is a promise. The promise to escape, to disrupt, to surprise, to take a good look at the world, united in the differences of our tastes and ideas.”
Barbera lauded Huppert as “an immense actress, demanding, curious and of great generosity.”
He added: “The muse of numerous great filmmakers, she has never shirked the invitation of young or not-so-famous directors who have seen in her the ideal interpreter of their stories. Her enormous willingness to constantly put herself on the line, a sign of her uncommon intelligence, together with her ability to look at cinema beyond geographic and mental boundaries, make her an ideal president of the jury in a festival open to the entire world, such as the Venice Film Festival.”
