With Jane Campion — the only female director ever to win the Palme d'Or — serving as jury president at this year's Cannes Film Festival, some were anticipating a greater female presence in the Competition. With two women showing up in the eventual lineup, the festival wasn't too generous on that score, but they've made up for it with female-dominated jury — with Oscar-winning director Sofia Coppola one of four women joining Campion on the nine-person panel. We run through the full group after the jump.
Carole Bouquet: A major name in her native France, Bouquet made an auspicious feature debut in Luis Bunuel's “That Obscure Object of Desire,” and flirted with international stardom by playing a Bond girl in 1981's “For Your Eyes Only.” Since then, she's remained chiefly in France, winning a Cesar for 1989 Cannes Grand Prix winner “Too Beautiful for You.” She'll next be seen playing Ruth Gordon's Oscar-winning role in NBC's miniseries adaptation of “Rosemary's Baby.” She also popped up in the 1989 anthology film “New York Stories,” in the segment co-written by…
Sofia Coppola: The American director of five features, including “Lost in Translation,” ensures Campion isn't the only female filmmaker on the jury — both are among the four-strong group of women to have been nominated for the Best Director Oscar. (Both, coincidentally, won in the Best Original Screenplay category.) Coppola's “Marie-Antoinette” was a famously divisive entrant in the 2006 Cannes Competition; her last feature “The Bling Ring” opened Un Certain Regard last year.
Willem Dafoe: The only other American on the jury is the Oscar-nominated star of “Platoon,” “The Last Temptation of Christ,” “The English Patient,” “Spider-Man,” “Antichrist”… well, you know the guy. He's had a busy year already, having popped up on the festival circuit with “Nymphomaniac,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “A Most Wanted Man,” with predicted summer hit “The Fault in Our Stars” coming right up.
Gael Garcia Bernal: The 35-year-old Mexican actor-director is a familiar face at Cannes: from “Amores Perros” to “The Motorcycle Diaries” to “No,” many of his key films have premiered on the Croisette. (He received the Chopard Trophy for “Male Revelation” at the 2003 fest.) His 2007 directorial debut, “Deficit,” premiered in Critics' Week at Cannes 2007. He has previously headed the Camera d'Or jury at the festival.
Leila Hatami: Iranian actress Hatami is best known to international audiences for her leading role in Asghar Farhadi's Oscar-winning “A Separation” — for which she shared the Best Actress prize at the Berlin Film Festival. Prior to that, her highest-profile role was in the 2002 film “The Deserted Station.”
Jeon Do-yeon: South Korean actress Jeon won Best Actress at Cannes in 2007 for her extraordinary performance as a tragedy-afflicted widow widow in Lee Chang-dong's “Secret Sunshine.” She has only appeared in four films since, though her leading role in 2010 thriller remake “The Housemaid” saw her return to the Cannes red carpet.
Jia Zhangke: A critics' favorite, the Chinese writer-director was his first Cannes award last year, winning Best Screenplay for his dark, challenging social tapestry “A Touch of Sin”; he has previously been in Competition with 2002's “Unknown Pleasures” and 2008's “24 City.” His most celebrated film to date, arguably, remains the elegiac drama “Still Life,” which won the Golden Lion at Venice in 2006, as well as an LA Critics' award.
Nicolas Winding Refn: The kinetic Danish genre stylist cultivated a niche following with such violent, visceral efforts as “Pusher” and “Bronson” before hitting big in 2011 with the Ryan Gosling fast-car thriller “Drive” — which won him Best Director at Cannes that year. He returned to the Competition last year with his less crowd-pleasing follow-up “Only God Forgives.”