The director and main actress of the film Gett, the Divorce Trial of Viviane Amsalem, opening film in our last edition, will return to Cannes as President of the Jury of Semaine de la Critique.
Ronit Elkabetz is one of the most outstanding personalities that the Israeli cinema has given. Celebrated actress, screenwriter and director, she made her debut in The Appointed by Daniel Wachsmann (1989).
She would mostly play powerful roles. For Late Marriage by Dover Kosashvili (2001), she won her second Israeli Ofir for Best Actress (she won her first Ofir with Sh'chur by Shmuel Hasfari, back in 1994). Or by Keren Yedaya (2004) won the Caméra d'or in Cannes, whereas with her role in The Band's Visit by Eran Kolirin (2007) she won yet another Ofir award for Best Actress.
In France, she worked with André Téchiné (The Girl on the Train, 2009), Pascal Elbé (Turk's Head, 2010) and Brigitte Sy (Free Hands, 2010). In parallel, she has directed three feature films in collaboration with her brother Shlomi: To Take a Wife (2004), winner of the Audience Award at the Venice Film Festival, Shiva (2008) and Gett: the Divorce Trial of Viviane Amsalem, which was selected at the Directors' Fortnight in 2014, and opened the fifth edition of World Cinema Amsterdam.
Take a look at the photos of last year's opening ceremony.