Veteran filmmaker Steven Spielberg on Wednesday praised the Cannes Film Festival as a “breath of fresh air” compared with the Oscars, which he likened to a political campaign.
“There’s always campaigning for the Oscar election, and there’s no campaigning here, and that is a breath of fresh air for me,” the director, who heads the jury at this year’s festival, said on its opening day.
The director of Jaws, Schindler’s List and Lincoln was asked whether he would take a carrot or a stick approach to achieving consensus between his fellow jurors, who include Australian actress Nicole Kidman and Hong Kong director Ang Lee.
“I’m going to have to look at the Sidney Lumet film Twelve Angry Men again as a tutorial to prepare myself for the final day of deliberation,” he joked.
