Cannes Jurors Juliette Binoche, Jeremy Strong on Trump’s Shadow Over the Fest: “He’s Trying to Save His Ass”
Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, and Cannes jury president Juliette Binoche have been instantly pressed on all issues Trump at the competition’s first press convention on Tuesday.
They have been joined by Alba Rohrwacher, auteur administrators Hong Sangsoo, Payal Kapadia, and Carlos Reygadas, French Moroccan author Leïla Slimani, and Congolese documentarist Dieudo Hamadi.
In fact, the dialog swiftly moved to the looming shadow of President Donald Trump whose spate of tariffs has upended the international economic system. He has, in current days, turned his consideration to Hollywood: a one hundred pc film tariff on worldwide movies placing the worry of god into each producer flocking to the Croisette.
“I’m undecided I’m succesful to reply that as a result of it requires an evaluation of the business and cinema in the world,” Binoche stated when requested how the proposed tariffs threaten the worldwide movie business. “I perceive President Trump is attempting to shield… he was attempting to shield his nation, however for us, we have now a really sturdy neighborhood of filming on our continent, in Europe. So I don’t know what to say, actually, about that. I feel we are able to see that he’s combating, and he’s attempting in many various methods save America and save his ass.”
“The Apprentice actually underlines the stakes,” stated Succession star Strong, who additionally scored an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of ferocious lawyer-slash-Trump mentor Roy Cohn in Ali Abbasi’s movie that debuted in Cannes final 12 months. “Roy Cohn, I see primarily as the progenitor of faux information and various information, and we’re dwelling in the aftermath of what I feel he created.”
He continued: “I feel that this time the place fact is beneath assault, the place fact is turning into an more and more endangered factor, that the position of tales, of cinema, of artwork and right here, particularly at this temple of movie, the position of movie is more and more crucial as a result of it could possibly fight these forces in the entropy of fact, and may talk truths, particular person truths, human truths, societal truths, and affirm and have a good time our shared humanity. So I might say that what I’m right here doing this 12 months is, in a approach, a counterbalance to what Roy Cohn was doing final 12 months.”
When Binoche was requested about the open letter penned by over 350 filmmakers and business members — together with Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon and Javier Bardem — condemning Cannes’ passivity on the battle in Gaza, Binoche baffled the press together with her response on why she was not a signatory: “You’ll perhaps perceive it just a little later.” She refused to say any extra.
Earlier in the convention, when the jurors have been requested about the letter, all however Slimani declined to reply.
Elsewhere, Berry revealed that she is unable to put on her chosen costume for Tuesday’s opening evening occasion following Cannes’ strict rule change banning nudity and “voluminous outfits” on the pink carpet. “I had an incredible costume… to put on tonight, and I can’t put on as a result of the practice is just too large. So I, after all, am going to comply with the guidelines. had to make a pivot, however the nudity half, I do suppose might be additionally a superb rule.”
The X-Males star stated she doesn’t imagine James Bond needs to be re-cast as a lady following Amazon’s takeover of the franchise. Her rumored spin-off on Die One other Day‘s Jinx by no means got here to fruition, however Berry was nonetheless probed on 007: “In 2025 it’s good to say, ‘Oh, she needs to be a lady, however I don’t actually know if I feel that’s the proper factor to do. And no, I doubt there might be a Jinx spin-off. There was a time that that would have occurred, [and] in all probability ought to have occurred.”
The Cannes Movie Competition 2025 runs Might 13-24 and kicks off with Amélie Bonnin’s French romance Go away One Day.