Carlos Diegues To Chair Cannes Film Festival’s Camera D’Or Jury

After Bong Joon-Ho, Gael García Bernal, Roschdy Zem and Abbas Kiarostami, the demanding task of selecting the best new filmmaker this year falls to Carlos Diegues. The Caméra d’or, launched in 1978, is awarded to the best first film presented in the Official Selection (Competition, Out of Competition and Un Certain Regard), La Semaine de la Critique or Directors’ Fortnight – a total of 22 films in 2012. He will be accompanied in this task by Gloria Satta, journalist with Italy’s Il Messaggero, Rémy Chevrin, representing the French Association of Film Cinematographers, Hervé Icovic, on behalf of the Federation of of Cinema, Audiovisual and Multimedia Industries, Michel Andrieu, representing the Society of Film Directors and Francis Gavelle, for the French Union of Film Critics.

The Prize will be awarded by the President of the Jury, Carlos Diegues, at the Closing Ceremony on Sunday 27th May.

A native of the Northeast, Carlos Diegues studied law in Rio de Janeiro, whilst also running film clubs. He became a film critic and directed short films imbued with social realism. A pioneer of Cinéma Novo, in particular with Glauber Rocha, he sought to imprint Brazilian filmmaking on the national consciousness. His first feature films Ganga Zumba (1964) and The Big City (1966), spoke of his dream of a fairer world. He then went on to direct The Heirs (1969), Joanna Francesca (1973) with Jeanne Moreau and Xica da Silva (1976) which ushered in a period of great popularity for Brazilian cinema, reinforced by the success of Summer Showers (1978) an Official Selection at Cannes, as were Bye Bye Brasil (1980), Quilombo (1984) and Subway to the Stars (1987). His exploration of popular culture continued with Rio’s Love Song (1994) and Orfeu (1999). In 2006, he won the Best Film Award at the Montreal Festival, with The Greatest Love of All.