Mélanie Thierry © picture : Sabine Villiard

Mélanie Thierry © picture : Sabine Villiard 

The French actress Mélanie Thierry will be the President of the 2021 Camera d’or that will award a first feature film selected at the Festival de Cannes.

« Nothing is as fragile or as miraculous as a first movie. This testifies to the courage and the faith of all the directors who, after such a long period of seclusion, succeeded in providing us with a window on the outside world. It is a huge honor and a wonderful joy for me to be the President of the Camera d’or Jury. These are trying and uncertain times; the cinema is above all arts the most fitted one to help us understanding them. I hope that we will give this award to a first film which shall stand through the passing of time, a film directed by one of tomorrow’s greatest filmmakers ».

As  tradition, she will be surrounded by representatives of the industry (press, industry, filmmakers associations) as well as a guest artist.

For the FICAM (Fédération des industries du Cinéma, de l'Audiovisuel et du Multimédia) : Audrey ABIVEN, CEO of Tri Tracks (post-synchronization for feature films company).

For the AFC (Association française des directeurs de la photographie cinématographique) : Laurent DAILLAND, director of photography.

For the SRF (Société des Réalisateurs de Films) : Romain COGITORE, director, screenwriter and photographer.

For the SFCC (Syndicat français de la critique de films) : Pierre-Simon GUTMAN, film critic, deputy chief edito of L’Avant-Seine Cinéma.

Guest: Eric CARAVACA, actor and director.

List of the 31 films competing for the Camera d’or

Official Selection

C.B. Yi - Moneyboys
Gessica Généus - Freda
Valdimar Jóhannsson - Lamb
Yohan Manca - Mes frères et moi (La Traviata, my Brothers and I)
Teodora Ana Mihai - La Civil
Na Jiazuo - Gaey Wa’r (Streetwise)
Laura Wandel - Un monde (Playground)
Noémie Merlant - Mi iubita mon amour
Maxime Roy - Les Héroïques (The Heroics)
Wen Shipei - Are You Lonesome Tonight?

Semaine de la Critique

Khadar Ayderus Ahmed - The Gravedigger’s Wife
Omar El Zohairy - Feathers
Elie Grappe - Olga
Julie Lecoustre & Emmanuel Marre - Rien à foutre
Simón Mesa Soto - Amparo
Clara Roquet - Libertad
Laura Samani - Piccolo Corpo
Constance Meyer - Robuste
Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet - Les Amours d’Anaïs
Sandrine Kiberlain - Une jeune fille qui va bien
Vincent Le Port - Bruno Reidal

Quinzaine des Réalisateurs

Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović - Murina
Nathalie Álvares Mesen - Clara Sola
Luàna Bajrami - Luaneshat e Kodrës (The Hill Where Lionesses Roar)
Vincent Cardona - Les Magnétiques (Magnetic Beats)
Ely Dagher - The Sea Ahead
Payal Kapadia - A Night of Knowing Nothing
Panah Panahi - Jadde Khaki (Hit the Road)
Yassine Qnia - De bas étage (A Brighter Tomorrow)
Alessio Rigo de Righi & Matteo Zoppis - Re Granchio (The Legend of King Crab)
Saul Williams & Anisia Uzeyman - Neptune Frost

About the Camera d’or

The Camera d’or, created in 1978, is awarded to the best first feature presented at the Official Selection, la Semaine de la Critique or the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs. Aiming to support young creatives, this award acts as a career booster for filmakers, granting them a spotlight and a door to an international exposure. In the past, it was given to Jim Jarmusch, Mira Nair, Jaco Van Dormael, Naomi Kawase, Bahman Ghobadi, Steve McQueen. In 2016, Houda Benyamina won it for Divines, in 2017, Léonor Serraille for Jeune femme, in 2018 Lukas Dhont for Girl and in 2019, César Diaz for Nuestras Madres. The Camera d’or 2021 is to be awarded by the President of the Jury during the award ceremony on Saturday, July 17th.

About Mélanie Thierry

In a career spanning 20 years, Mélanie Thierry – an actress who defies easy categorization – has established herself as one of the best of her generation. She was first noticed on the silver screen in La Légende du pianiste sur l'océan (La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano) by Giuseppe Tornatore in 1998, then  in theatre, when Jacques Weber chose her for the impressive role of a young schizophrenic in Le Vieux Juif blonde by Amanda Sthers. As of 2006, she turned her hand to more projects, such as Pardonnez-moi directed by Maïwenn and Bertrand Tavernier's The Princess of Montpensier, in competition in Cannes, One for the Road by Philippe Godeau, which granted her a César for Best Female Newcomer. Starting 2011, several filmmakers directed her : André Téchiné in Unforgivable, Stéphane Cazes in Ombline, Stéphanie di Giusto in La Danseuse (The Dancer), presented at the Festival de Cannes in the Un Certain Regard la section in 2016. Her career took her to the United States where she played opposite Christoph Waltz in The Zero Theorem by Terry Gilliam and Benicio del Toro in A Perfect Day. In 2017, she joined Albert Dupontel for See You Up There – a huge popular and critical success –, then Emmanuel Finkiel, after A Decent Man, for Memoir of War where she played Marguerite Duras, picking up a nomination for the César for Best Actress along the way. In 2020, Spike Lee offered her one of the main roles in Da 5 Bloods, produced by Netflix. She appears on ARTE in the series No Man's Land by Danis Tanović and En Thérapie by Éric Toledano & Olivier Nakache. In 2021, she stars in Tralala by Arnaud & Jean-Marie Larrieu, presented at the Festival de Cannes.