Cannes films not up to scratch, says Jury president
The president of the jury at this year's Cannes film festival, Emir Kusturica, said last night that the quality of the competition fell short of what was expected from the annual cinema marathon.
The Sarajevo-born director, who himself has won the main Palme d'Or prize twice, said he was disappointed with the overall standard of the 21 films in the official selection as the festival came to a close after 11 days.
Mr Kusturica said: "We had a selection where I think the average wasn't very high. I felt that most of the films were a little bit less good than I expected."
He added that there were three films that could have won the Palme d'Or, which eventually went to the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for their film L'Enfant. It tells the tale of a young thief who sells his own child.
There was also disappointment with the amount of star quality on show at this year's festival, despite appearances by the likes of Tommy Lee Jones, Bill Murray, Morgan Freeman, Mickey Rourke, Hilary Swank, Penelope Cruz, Natalie Portman and George Lucas, whose new Star Wars film premiered at the festival although out of competition.
Some even complained that the film's opening ceremony was too French, with not enough emphasis on its international status.