The jury and the guests

Since 1968 (there’s no such thing as chance), with “Fando y Lis”, Alejandro Jodorowsky has shaken cinema from the inside. When that very film, now world-famous, was screened in Acapulco, it triggered a lot of blasphemy and praise, and received both hatred and love… Since then, each of his films has led to strong reactions. We are thus proud of presenting you with his pre-”Danza de la Realidad” feature-length films as well as the breathtaking and jarring “Psychomagic” with which Jodorowsky is making his grand return.

New Yorker director James Gray was only 25 years old when he entered our fantasies with the surprising “Little Odessa”, a truly dark film noir. He hasn’t left since then, offering us, among others, the gloomy “We Own the Night”, the melancholic “Two Lovers”… and “Ad Astra”, his latest work that send Brad Pitt into space and was praised by the press at the Mostra.

American screenwriter and director Zal Batmanglij was born in 1981. He presented his avant-garde work at Sundance twice (“Sound of My Voice” in 2011; “The East” in 2013) before getting into the creation of the science fiction series “The OA”, whose second and last season was made available on Netflix earlier this year. A loyal collaborator of actress Brit Marling, he focuses on mystique and the blind spots of a suffering society.

A revelation from Xavier Dolan’s “Heartbeats” (2010), Monia Chokri has led a successful career acting in more than 15 films since then. Following the success of her short film “Quelqu’un d’extraordinaire” in 2013, her first feature-length film “A Brother’s Love” was selected as part of Un certain regard selection at Cannes this year and won the jury’s “Coup de coeur” award.

Rachid Djaïdani started his career as a production manager for Mathieu Kassovitz’s “La Haine” before becoming an English boxing champion and an actor. He simultaneously published three novels and directed several documentaries as well as a web series. “Hold Back”, which he worked on for 9 years and filmed with no funding, was nominated for the Best First Feature Film César and screened at the Directors’ Fortnight. His second film, “French Tour”, also screened in the same section in 2016.

After an acclaimed performance in Abdellatif Kechiche’s “Games of Love and Chance” (2004), she acted in films by Claude Lelouch, Bertrand Blier as well as Alain Resnais’s “Wild Grass”. Sara Forestier was awarded the César for Best Actress in 2011 for her role in Michel Leclerc’s “The Names of Love” and was nominated in the same category two times later on.  After starring in Arnaud Desplechin’s “Oh Mercy!”, she has just finished shooting Frédéric Fonteyne’s “Filles de joie”.

A graduate from École nationale d’arts de Cergy-Pontoise, he started exhibiting his work in 2001 before directing “The Lord’s Ride” (2011), a feature film shot in the nomadic Yenich community and “Eat Your Bones” which was screened at the Directors’ Fortnight and was awarded the Jean Vigo Prize. Earlier this year, he won a prize at the Brive Film Festival with “Topo y Wera”. He is currently finishing a film in Tijuana (Mexico).

She was only 19 years old when the fashion industry discovered her creativity and her unique fairy-like universe at the presentation of her very first haute couture lingerie collection. Her passion for numerous artistic fields got her the attention of various artists among whom famous photographers who chose her as their muse. In 2019, she landed her first important role in Rebecca Zlotowski’s film “An Easy Girl”, which was awarded a prize at the Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s Cannes Festival.

A graduate from École Louis Lumière, he directed “La Peau Dure” in 2007, a short film that received many prizes in several international festivals, before working on “La Fugue” in 2013, that received the Short Film Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 2013 and was nominated at the César Awards in 2014. In 2018, his first feature-length film, “Shéhérazade”, was selected at the Critics’ Week in Cannes and awarded the Jean Vigo Prize in 2018 as well as three César Awards this year.

The singer and musician started her career aged 16, collaborating with an unrelenting electronic duet. She soon became Fishbach and performed at the inRocks Festival before being awarded the Inouïs Prize in 2016 at The Printemps de Bourges Music Festival. Her first record, “À ta merci”, soon followed in 2017. The following year, Flora Fischbach began acting in the adaptation of Virginie Despentes’ “Vernon Subutex” for the screen, which was directed by Cathy Verney.

Discovered at aged 11, Roxane Mesquida started her career filming with Manuel Pradal and Benoît Jacquot (“The School of Flesh”) before working with Kim Chapiron, Catherine Breillat and Quentin Dupieux, with whom she went on collaborating. She settled in the United States and became one of Gregg Araki’s favorite actresses but still regularly stars in French productions, among which Rémi Bezançon’s “Our Futures” and Philippe Grandrieux’s “Despite the Night”.

After studying at the École nationale supérieure d’art de Bourges, Félix Maritaud became known through his role in Robin Campillo’s “120 Beats per minute” which was awarded the César for Best Film in 2018. He then acted in “Knife + Heart” by Yann Gonzalez and “Wild” by Camille Vidal-Naquet, for which he was given the “Prix Fondation Louis Roederer de la Révélation” at the Critics’ Week last year. He is currently shooting Stéphane Streker’s “Enfant Terrible”.

Since the release of her very first track, “Muscles”, in 2012, Bonnie Banane has offered the audience an independent and dissimilar variation on R&B, collaborating with various producers and artists such as Water Mecca, Myth Syzer, Flavien Berger and Varnish La Piscine (“Le Regard qui tue”). At the crossroads between simple and deep house, drama and humour, Bonnie Banane crafts hybrid tunes which celebrate contrasts and showcase her quest for unprecedented combinations. She also starred in several films, among which “House of Tolerance” (Bertrand Bonello) and “Marguerite & Julien” (Valérie Donzelli).