Isabelle Huppert President of the Venezia 81 international jury

French actress Isabelle Huppert (Elle, The Piano Teacher, La Cérémonie) will be the president of the International Jury of the Competition at the 81^st Venice International Film Festival (August 28 - September 7, 2024), which will assign the Golden Lion for Best Film, as well as other official awards.

The decision was made by the Board of Directors of the Biennale di Venezia, who confirmed the recommendation of the Director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera.

In accepting the proposal, Isabelle Huppert said: “There is a long and beautiful history between the Festival and I. Becoming a privileged spectator is an honor. More than ever, cinema is a promise. The promise to escape, to disrupt, to surprise, to take a good look at the world, united in the differences of our tastes and ideas”.

Alberto Barbera commented: “Isabelle Huppert is an immense actress, demanding, curious and of great generosity. The muse of numerous great filmmakers, she has never shirked the invitation of young or not-so-famous directors who have seen in her the ideal interpreter of their stories. Her enormous willingness to constantly put herself on the line, a sign of her uncommon intelligence, together with her ability to look at cinema beyond geographic and mental boundaries, make her an ideal President of the Jury in a festival open to the entire world such as the Venice Film Festival. We are very grateful to her for accepting the position, aware of the many commitments in film and theater that she will face in the coming months”.

On the final night (September 7, 2024) of the upcoming 81^st Venice Film Festival, the International Jury of Venezia 81, chaired by Isabelle Huppert and composed of no more then nine international celebrities in the spheres of film and culture from different countries, will assign the following official prizes among the feature-length films in the Competition:

• Golden Lion for Best Film
• Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize
• Silver Lion – Award for Best Director
• Coppa Volpi for Best Actor
• Coppa Volpi for Best Actress
• Award for Best Screenplay
• Special Jury Prize
• Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress

Isabelle Huppert developed an interest in acting as a teenager and entered the Versailles Conservatory. She won the Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1978 for Violette by Claude Chabrol. She worked with Chabrol in seven other films and won the Coppa Volpi for best actress at the Venice Film Festival twice with Story of Women (1988) and La Cérémonie (1995), for which she also obtained her first César Award. In 2001 she won her second  Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for The Piano Teacher by Michael Haneke. In 2005 Huppert was honoured by the Venice Film Festival with a Special Golden Lion for the Overall Work for Gabrielle by Patrice Chéreau. In 2017 she gained her first Academy Award nomination for Elle by Paul Verhoeven, for which she also won a Golden Globe and an Indipendent Spirit Award. In 2022 she was appointed as the recipient of the Honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.