CANNES 2023 Interview
Ruben Östlund • Cannes Competition jury president

by Jan Lumholdt, cineuropa
30/05/2023

“Now that I’ve been to the other side, I know better than ever how hard it is to speculate on someone else’s taste”

CANNES 2023: After fulfilling his duties as Cannes Competition jury president, the 2022 Palme d’Or winner shared some thoughts on this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

After fulfilling his duties as the chair of the competition jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Ruben Östlund, who won the Palme d’Or in 2022 with Triangle of Sadness, shared some thoughts on this once-in-a-lifetime experience.


Ruben Östlund • Cannes Competition jury president

Cineuropa: Let’s make it easy on ourselves and just repeat the same question from last year: how does it feel?
Ruben Östlund: Right now, I feel a certain emptiness, just getting back after two weeks of something that one probably experiences once in a lifetime. But I’ll soon be knocked off my presidential perch – I have a one-year-and-eight-month-old son who will see to that.

Can you talk a little about the set-up? How much were you instructed and how much of an instructor were you expected to be yourself?
I had a dinner with Thierry Frémaux on the first day, and he gave me some tips, based on previous editions. Then I decided that after having seen three films, we would meet and deliberate, which would be once a day, and then we had the big discussion on the last weekend. Pretty normal, I guess. We talked only when everyone was present, so there wouldn’t be any small formations or individual lobby attempts. And we avoided reading any reviews or looking at any grids with star ratings. The collective gathering was the be-all and end-all.

If you want a bit of info from the other side, you’ll be interested to know that many journalists attempted to get inside your head in order to guess which films might stand the best chance. You’re probably far from the only jury head to get such scrutiny – ”He makes this or that kind of movie, so he will like this or that.” How right would you expect we were?
As I haven’t read anything, I have little idea of the speculations out there, but I will say that my experience in the theatre space is that once inside, whatever your prior expectations, the situation is so relentless that everything you expected can disappear in a moment – which really took me by surprise. What did they expect me to like?

To name two, Club Zero and The Zone of Interest. And then there were others that felt somewhat un-Ruben, possibly The Pot-Au-Feu – which still got a nice award.
[Laughs] Well, I can’t comment on our talks, but I fully understand that people like to guess. But now that I’ve been to the other side, I know better than ever how hard it is to speculate on someone else’s taste.

Did you consider the possible problem that, say, one film would be loved by some while being seen as too sentimental by others, and another movie would seem very unpleasant to some while others thought it was a masterpiece, which would then grant neither of them a top position? And maybe you would finally choose a third film that everyone was okay with but which no one loved, or which they even hated?
I did. The first thing I told the jury was to avoid any consensus. Strong personal opinion was encouraged and put in the forefront. I can’t elaborate any deeper, but I know the problem well. At the end of the day, I’m happy and proud about the choices, as they represent the festival and they show a progressive forward movement. Anatomy of a Fall is an extremely well-directed film, Justine Triet knows the craft inside and out, and she touched upon a truth about dynamics within the relationship of this creative couple. It was also interesting that the film does an about-face on gender roles: the woman is usually one-sidedly good, but here, she’s just… human, very far from just good or one-sided.

How is work going with your next project?
Very well, thank you. Shooting starts next autumn, and at the moment, I’m writing. Casting will start soon. I’m having great fun, and I hope to show it in 2026, at Cannes.

Are there any people you’ve met at Cannes these last two weeks, or whom you also watched on screen, that you’ve felt like working with in the future?
There are. But sadly, I won’t tell you, because then the agents will read about it and start negotiating and raising prices. But there were many good encounters, and as jury president, you get access to anyone, in any place. It may well happen that some of these meetings will lead to a future collaboration, yes.