Nicole Garcia heads Caméra d’or jury at Cannes

Actor, Director and Screenwriter Nicole Garcia will preside over the jury for this year’s Caméra d’or award for the best debut film at Cannes. In this opportunity to champion an up-and-coming director she joins the ranks of previous Jury Presidents Bong Joon-Ho, Gael García Bernal, Carlos Diegues and Agnès Varda, who have all in the past contributed their experience and passion for cinema to the deliberations.

“Presiding over the Caméra d’or is an honour, a joy and a mission,” announced Nicole Garcia. “I hope to be worthy of the honour, bask in the joy and do my best to deliver on the mission.”

Since 1978, the Caméra d’or has awarded the best debut film presented in the Official Selection (Competition, Out of Competition, or Un Certain Regard), Critics’ Week or Directors’ Fortnight. The award showcases young filmmakers, whose work has an international appeal. Among the past recipients of the award are Jim Jarmusch, Mira Nair, Jaco Van Dormael, Naomi Kawase, Bahman Ghobadi and Steve McQueen. Last year’s award was scooped up by Anthony Chen’s Singaporean film Ilo Ilo, which was presented as part of Directors’ Fortnight.

The Caméra d’Or 2014 will be presented by the jury President at the closing ceremony on Saturday May 24.

The 2014 official selection for Cannes was announced at a press conference on April 17 in Paris.

The opening film for the competition will be Olivier Dahan Grace De Monaco (GRACE OF MONACO), which will be followed by the 18 other films.

A list of shorts was released earlier last week. This year, the selection committee received 3,450 short films, representing 128 production countries. Nine films will compete in 2014 for the Short Film Palme d’or, to be awarded by Abbas Kiarostami, President of the Jury, at the Awards Ceremony.

For the first time, an Azeri and a Georgian film will take part in the Short Films Competition.