He might be “retired.” He might think the world is ending. Hell, he might even believe that “art is useless,” but nothing is going to stop Xavier Dolan from presiding over a festival jury.
The 34-year-old Canadian filmmaker has been chosen as Jury President to oversee the Un Certain Regard competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. A veteran of the Croisette, Dolan won the Jury Prize at Cannes with 2014’s “Mommy” and the Grand Prix for 2016’s “It’s Only the End of the World.”
Here’s Dolan’s statement about the news:
I am humbled and delighted to return to Cannes as president of the Un Certain Regard Jury. Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of talented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and professional journeys. I see, in this responsibility I’m assigned, the opportunity to focus with the members of the Un Certain Regard Jury on an essential aspect of the art of film — stories told truthfully.
As mentioned, Dolan recently stated that he was retired from directing. It turns out that he’s “afraid of a civil war caused by intolerance" and that this has depressed him greatly. Art is “useless” to him, he said, and “dedicating oneself to the cinema, a waste of time..."