Vanessa Paradis, Jury President

There were 1,001 rea­sons to invite Vanes­sa Par­adis to pre­side over the jury of the 46^th Deauville Amer­i­can Film Fes­ti­val: her ear­ly and endur­ing rise to fame, her var­ied realms of expres­sion — song, cin­e­ma, fash­ion — her devel­op­ment into a gen­er­ous, respon­si­ble and engaged woman, her mul­ti-faceted inter­na­tion­al career… Her tal­ent and celebri­ty have seduced audi­ences every­where, includ­ing beyond our bor­ders. But above all, we wished to hon­or an atyp­i­cal and auda­cious artist.

A singing child prodi­gy, she made her stun­ning film debut in Jean-Claude Brisseau’s White Wed­ding, for which she received the Most Promis­ing Actress César and the Romy Schnei­der Prize. Her daz­zling intro­duc­tion didn’t stop there, far from it. Some 30 direc­tors have called upon her since (Patrice Lecon­te, Yann Gon­za­lez, Jean-Marc Val­lée, John Tur­tur­ro, Jean Beck­er, Sharunas Bar­tas, Samuel Benchetrit…). On the music side, with 7 albums and 3 Vic­toire de la Musique awards, in French as well as Eng­lish, Vanes­sa Par­adis has inspired the great­est com­posers: from Serge Gains­bourg to Matthieu Che­did by way of Alain Bashung, Éti­enne Roda-Gil, Lenny Kravitz and so many others…

As a mem­ber of the Cannes Film Fes­ti­val jury in 2015, she sharp­ened her cin­e­mat­ic gaze under jury pres­i­dent George Miller… A pre­mo­ni­tion for Deauville? Vanes­sa Par­adis has that unique gift of the great­est actors, to blend into the uni­verse of those artists who direct her, always with humil­i­ty and a sin­gu­lar voice.

Images of her singing the refrain of “The Whirl­wind of Life” live in front of Jeanne More­au at the 48^th Cannes Film Fes­ti­val open­ing cer­e­mo­ny were a feast for our eyes and memories.

© Mar­cel Hart­mann / H&K

The fes­ti­val is over­joyed to have such a beau­ti­ful president.

Bruno Barde
Fes­ti­val Director