To Clint or Not to Clint

Since Cannes began, many have wondered whether friendships will play a part in the decision-making, the same way they wondered when Brad Pitt won Best Actor in Venice for Jesse James when Alejandro González Iñárritu was on the jury that year (Babel director). To that end, Penn told the AP:

The topic was recently covered in an AP story:

Having Eastwood in competition puts Sean Penn, head of the Cannes jury, in the odd position of judging the work of a man who shepherded him to an Oscar. Penn won the best-actor prize for Eastwood’s “Mystic¬†River.”

As Cannes opened May 14, Penn said it was “an emotional impossibility, I believe, for any of us to give in to something as petty as to favor a film because a friend of ours is in it. I also want to make it clear that this person will not be biased against. And that if Clint Eastwood’s done a film that deserves awarding, we’re going to … award¬†it.”

“Mystic River” and three previous Eastwood films ‚Äî “Pale Rider,” “Bird” and “White Hunter, Black Heart” ‚Äî all played in competition at Cannes. While “Bird” won the lead-actor prize and a technical award at Cannes, Eastwood has never received the festival’s top¬†award.

It does seem that the Penn/Eastwood thing would work more against the film than for it. Penn would never want to be perceived as someone who would give an award to a film because of a good friendship. Both Eastwood and Steven Soderbergh are going to enter this year’s race as directors who have a lot of friends, a lot of actor friends specifically. Either way, the Palme is notoriously difficult to predict.