Saturday, May 16, 2009

China's Shu Qi among Cannes jury



Source: China Daily



Chinese film star Shu Qi will have a say in deciding this year's winner of the world's biggest film festival.

The Taiwan-born actress is part of the eight-member jury panel that was announced on Thursday by the 62nd Cannes International Film Festival.

French actress Isabelle Huppert, a two-time best actress award winner at Cannes, will lead the panel. Other jury members include Italian actress, director and screenwriter Asia Argento; Nuri Bilge Ceylan, a Turkish director, screenwriter and actor; Lee Chang-dong, a director from South Korea; American director James Gray; British writer Hanif Kureishi; and Robin Wright Penn, an American actress.

The jury will decide the winner for the coveted Golden Palm, the top prize of the Cannes festival.

This will not be Shu Qi's first appearance in Cannes. She was there in 2005, when her film "Three Times", directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, was nominated for that year's Golden Palm.

Besides Shu Qi, actress Zhang Ziyi is another Chinese judge at this year's festival. Zhang is among the five-member jury that will select the winner of the award for best short film.


Not sure what bugs me more about this. Is it that an unknown, talentless hoochie is on the jury as an important festival like Cannes? How does Cannes even know her? She's been in nothing important.

Or the fact that she's "China's Shu Qi". China's? She's born in Taiwan and made her name in Hk films. There's nothing "China" about her. Unless she's defected TO China.