Norwegian director Dag Johan Haugerud, who won the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear earlier this year for Dreams, has been named the jury president for Giornate Degli Autori, the independent section within the Venice Film Festival promoted by the Italian filmmaker associations ANAC and 100autori.
The decision marks a “homecoming” of sorts for the filmmaker after Barn (Beware of Children), which had its world premiere in competition at the Giornate degli Autori in 2019, was Haugerud’s international debut.
“I’m thrilled and excited to be entrusted with the honorable assignment of presiding over this year’s jury of Giornate degli Autori”, said Haugerud. “Giornate is close to my heart, with its passionate and selective programming, and the fact that it’s cherry-picking only 10 films with special care for innovation, originality and independence.”
He added: “Art, literature and cinema are more important than ever, they represent an opportunity for both intellectual and political reflection and – if you’re lucky – an expansion of the senses. In that way, cinema has the ability to make changes, both on an individual level and for society as a whole.”
Said artistic director Gaia Furrer: “Welcoming him back to Giornate six years after the memorable premiere of Beware of Children, we marvel at the evolution of a filmmaker whose Sex, Dreams, Love trilogy received recognition by winning a Golden Bear Award at the Berlinale. His cinema is timeless and yet profoundly of our time, rooted in a deep philosophical interest for everything that makes us human – our aspirations, vulnerability and shortcomings”
Haugerud’s distinctive style is one of tender complexity, which is the best answer to mending the frayed edges of the age we live in”.
