Kristen Stewart Talks About Weight of Berlin Fest Jury Presidency: “In Full Transparency, I’m Shaking”

Kristen Stewart said she was feeling the full weight of being jury president at the Berlin Film Festival at the opening jury press conference on Thursday.

“In all fairness, I’m kind of shaking. It’s not a weight that I don’t fully understand and feel, but I’m really strengthened by a beautiful, talented jury,” she said.

“I can’t wait to see who we all become at the end of this experience. Kind of what you want to do in a festival. I am ready to be changed by all films and to be changed by the people around us. I think that’s why we’re here.”

She was joined on stage by jury members Iranian-French actress Golshifteh Farahani, German director Valeska Griesbach, Romanian director Radu Jude, American casting director and producer Francine Meisler, Spanish director Carla Simon and iconic Hong Kong director and producer Johnny To.

Stewart was questioned on his criteria for an award-winning film. His answer suggests that the field is wide open under his jury.

“It’s an interesting thing, quote-unquote, to be in charge of deciding which is the best film. It is such a fleeting concept. It is quite obviously something that is quite subjective. We may find that we absolutely hate a movie, but that achievement is astounding. And to its credit, the ambition was fulfilled,” he said.

He said the important thing was to “mitigate some biases” and “open up something new” as a member of the jury.

“Whether you like it or not, this festival is particularly, historically, confrontational and political in a positive way. And I think it’s very important for us to deprogram and be completely open to innovation. I think that diversity and breadth of perspective is going to give us some new material that can be challenging and weird to adapt to but I think the point is to have a pick that jumps out. You know, if we can’t all agree, that’s probably because it’s pretty good. You know what I mean?”

The Individual buyers, spencer And Charlie’s Angels The actress, whose career spans both mainstream and independent cinema, is currently preparing an adaptation of Lydia Yuknavitch’s best-selling book, Water chronologyr, who will make his own feature-length directorial debut, and was recently announced for the role Sontag About the author Susan Sontag.

More to follow…