Nuri Bilge Ceylan to Head Shanghai Festival Jury
Nuri Bilge Ceylan, the Turkish director of “Three Monkeys” and”Once Upon a Time in Anatolia,” has been named president of the jury for the competition section at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival. He will head the panel that decides the festival’s Golden Goblet Awards.
“Ceylan has a unique film language. He depicts the journey of life with deep long lens and accurately expresses his philosophical thinking and reveals the truth of life to audiences silently in poetic words and literary narration,” said the Shanghai festival in a statement. It also described him as a national treasure.
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Originally an electrical engineer, Ceylan has had six of his films selected for the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival. There he has collected awards including best film, best director and jury prize. His “Winter Sleep” was the Palme d’Or winner in 2014.
Previous jury presidents in Shanghai have included Luc Besson, Chen Kaige, Wong Kar-wai, Danny Boyle, John Woo, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Tom Hooper, Gong Li, Andrei Zvyagintsev, Emir Kusturica, Cristian Mungiu, and Jiang Wen.
The festival says that its competition section adheres to “the philosophy of being professional, international and people-benefiting, and with the positioning of rooting in Asia, focusing on Chinese and supporting young generation” and that it is “a platform for the exchange of Chinese and foreign film cultures.” The festival this year runs June 15-24.
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