Other members of the esteemed Venezia 81 jury include James Gray, Agnieszka Holland, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Giuseppe Tornatore, Julia von Heinz and Zhang Ziyi.

On Wednesday, the Venice Film Festival announced its complete Competition Jury. Back in May, the festival announced the great Isabelle Huppert as jury president for the upcoming Venezia 81 Competition. As someone who has had the pleasure of interviewing La Huppert on a couple of occasions, I can’t think of anyone more qualified to preside over a group of her peers — and tell them exactly what she thinks!

The 81st Venice International Film Festival will take place this year from the 28th August to the 7th of September, and will once again be directed by Alberto Barbera. The jury will consist of a total of nine international film personalities, who will award the Golden Lion for Best Film and the other official awards.

Along with  Huppert, the International Jury of the Venezia 81 Competition will also include the American director and screenwriter James Gray; British director and screenwriter Andrew Haigh; Polish director, screenwriter and producer Agnieszka Holland; Brazilian director and screenwriter Kleber Mendonça Filho; Mauritanian director, screenwriter and producer Abderrahmane Sissako; Italian director and screenwriter Giuseppe Tornatore; German director and screenwriter Julia von Heinz; and Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi.

The Golden Lion for Best Film and other official awards will be announced during the closing ceremony of the 81stVenice International Film Festival on Saturday, September 7 on the stage of the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema at the Venice Lido. Contenders will be announced on July 23rd during the official line up press conference. Rumored to participate are Julian Schnabel, with his latest Hand of Dante featuring an all star cast which includes Oscar Isaac, Jason Momoa and Al Pacino, but also the Lady Gaga, Joaquin Phoenix starrer Joker: Folie à Deux. The previous installment of the series, Joker, also directed by Todd Phillips, did sweep up the Golden Lion when it premiered on the Lido in 2019, so fingers crossed Warner Bros. choses wisely this time around too.

French star Isabelle Huppert is known to audiences for her unorthodox approach to roles. Jumping between a police translator who begins to don a hijab in order to traffic drugs — in the 2020 title Mama Weed — to the glamorous countess at the end of the 2023 Oscar nominated donkey tale with a message EO, but also featured as the snooty Dior atelier manager Claudine Colbert in the charming Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (2022), Huppert is unafraid and unapologetic about who she is, and the characters she plays. She is a gem to interview, always ready to throw the questions back at the interviewer, as I learned on a few occasions. I loved this interview in particular, from last year’s Marrakech International Film Festival, where she was promoting Sidonie in Japan, a film anyone who believes in love and magic should watch. Even if its own star at first admitted otherwise.

James Gray is an American director and screenwriter who made his directorial debut in 1994 with Little Odessa, which received the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival. In 2000, Gray wrote and directed The Yards, his second feature and his first with Joaquin Phoenix, who would become a frequent collaborator, going on to star in his next three films: We Own the Night (2007), Two Lovers (2008) and The Immigrant (2013), all of which screened in competition at Cannes. The Lost City of Z had its world premiere at the New York Film Festival in 2016. Gray’s following film, Ad Astra, starring Brad Pitt, screened in competition at Venice in 2019 and received one nomination at the Academy Awards. Gray’s last movie, Armageddon Time, was in competition at Cannes in 2022.

Andrew Haigh is a British filmmaker whose critically acclaimed All of Us Strangers received various nominations at the BAFTA, Gotham Awards and Independent Spirit Awards. The LA Film Critics Association awarded Haigh with Best Screenplay for the film. Haigh’s previous feature films include A24’s Lean on Pete, in competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2017, IFC’s Sundance Selects’ 45 Years (2015), which received a Best Actress nomination at the Academy Awards for Charlotte Rampling,  and breakout hit, Weekend (2011). Haigh served as an executive producer as well as the lead writer-director on the HBO show Looking (2014-2016). He also wrote and directed all five episodes of the 2012 limited series The North Water for BBC & AMC.

Agnieszka Holland is a Polish director, screenwriter and producer. With Provincial Actors (1978) she won the International Critics Prize at Cannes. She received an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film for Angry Harvest in 1985. She then directed To Kill a Priest (1988) and Europa Europa (1990), for which she won a Golden Globe and earned her second Oscar nomination for best screenplay. In 2011 she directed In Darkness, for which she received her third Oscar nomination. Her film Spoor won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale in 2016. Holland directed episodes of the lauded series The Wire, The Killing, Cold Case and Treme. Most recently she directed the mini-series Burning Bush (2013). She also directed the pilots of both The First and 1983 TV series. Her latest film The Green Border won the Special Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival in 2023.

Kleber Mendonça Filho is the Brazilian screenwriter, director and film programmer who in the 1990’s began making his own short films. For Crítico, his debut feature documentary, he gave 70 directors and critics a chance to speak their minds. Neighbouring Sounds premiered in Rotterdam in 2012 and Brazil selected it as its entry for an Oscar. In 2016, Aquarius, starring Sonia Braga, was in competition at Cannes. The film was nominated for a César and an Independent Spirit Award. In 2019, Bacurau, co-directed and co-written with Juliano Dornelles, won the Jury Prize at Cannes. Pictures of Ghosts, his most recent work, premiered in Cannes in 2023. He is currently shooting a new film, The Secret Agent.

Abderrahmane Sissako is the director, screenwriter and producer from Mauritania. In 1995, he made Le chameau et les bâtons flottants. In 1997 he directed Sabriya, an episode from the television series Africa Dreaming. Life on Earth (1998) marked the director’s return to his native country. In 2002 he directed in Mauritania the film Waiting for Happiness, presented at Cannes and winner of the FIPRESCI Prize. He returned to Cannes in 2006 with Bamako and again in 2014, in competition, with Timbuktu. The first Mauritanian film to be nominated for an Oscar, Timbuktu won seven César awards. His latest, Black Tea, world premiered at this year’s Berlinale and is a study in understated beauty that I urge everyone to watch!

Giuseppe Tornatore career is cause for pride and joy in all Italians. The Sicilian filmmaker made his debut in 1985 with Il Camorrista for which he also wrote the screenplay together with Massimo De Rita. In 1989 he captured the attention of international cinema with Cinema Paradiso, a film for which he wrote the subject and script and which won him an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film. All the films he made after, from A Pure Formality to Malena, from The Star Maker to The Unknown Woman, from Everybody's Fine to The Legend of 1900, from Baaria to The Best Offer, to Ennio — the documentary dedicated to Ennio Morricone — have been distributed around the world, winning acknowledgments and acclaim.

Julia von Heinz is a German director and screenwriter. In 2007, she won the German Film Award for Best Children's and Youth Film with her debut Nothing Else Matters. Her film And Tomorrow the Entire World was in competition at Venice in 2020, represented Germany for the Oscars and was nominated as Best Film at the 2021 German Film Awards. As part of the omnibus film Isolation, her short doc Two Fathers premiered at the 2021 Giornate degli Autori. Her controversial TV series Eldorado Kadewe won numerous awards and was acquired by the BBC. Her latest film Treasure premiered at Berlinale and Tribeca in 2024. She teaches directing at the University of Television and Film in Munich.

Zhang Ziyi is a Chinese actress and director. She made her début in Zhang Yimou’s The Road Home (1999). Her performance in Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) brought her further acclaim. She starred in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) by Rob Marshall, for which she earned a nomination for BAFTA and Golden Globes. Her role in The Grandmaster (2013) by Wong Kar-wai won her 12 awards for Best Actress in China. She has starred in features including Zhang Yimou’s Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004); Wong Kar-wai’s 2046 (2004); and Seijun Suzuki’s The Princess Raccoon (2005). Her directorial debut, Poem (2021), was released in China to critical acclaim. Her latest film is Peter Chan’s She’s Got No Name which will be released in the fall of 2024.

The Jury of Venezia 81 will award the following official prizes to the feature films in Competition, with no joint awards allowed: Golden Lion for Best Film, Silver Lion - Grand Jury Prize, Silver Lion for Best Director, Coppa Volpi for Best Actress, Coppa Volpi for Best Actor, Special Jury Prize, Award for Best Screenplay, and “Marcello Mastroianni” Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress.

For more information, check out the Venice Film Festival website.