American director, screenwriter and producer Todd Haynes has been named President of the International Jury of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.
”Todd Haynes is a dazzlingly gifted writer and director with an impressive range; his body of work is at once stylistically versatile but also unmistakably his,” Berlinale Director Tricia Tuttle said in a Thursday statement. “Ever since his debut feature ‘Poison’ won the Teddy Award in 1991, the Berlinale has followed and loved his filmmaking, and we are overjoyed to have him join the festival as the President of the International Jury for our 75th edition.”
The Teddy Award is the festival’s queer-film prize. “Poison” also won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Haynes’ 2002 film “Far From Heaven” was nominated for four Oscars.
His other notable work includes “Safe” (1995), “Velvet Goldmine” (1998), the fictional Bob Dylan biopic “I’m Not There” (2007), which won the Grand Jury Prize in Venice, the mini-series “Mildred Pierce” (2011), “Carol” (2015), “Wonderstruck” (2017), “Dark Waters” (2019), “The Velvet Underground” (2021), and “May December” (2023).
Haynes’ near-40-year-long filmography has featured Julianne Moore, Cate Blanchett, Rooney Mara, Kate Winslet, Anne Hathaway, Natalie Portman, Mark Ruffalo, Christian Bale, Ewan McGregor, and more.
The Berlinale announcement dubbed Haynes “one of the most bold and distinctive filmmaking voices in US-American cinema, beloved for his great sensitivity in exploring the interior worlds of outsiders and women, and his fascinating investigations into gender and identity.”
More to come…
