Cannes jury promises to keep open mind

Tim Burton, who is the head of jury at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, said he and the nine other members will look at the competing films with openness and compassion.

The panel of judges, including filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, Kate Beckinsale and Benicio Del Toro, will sit to through 19 movies before announcing the winner.

The flamboyant director, known for his visually compelling, big-budget productions like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Alice In Wonderland, said the jury will savour the beauty of cinema instead of looking for politically sensitive films.

"We've all been involved in it and we all know what that's all about. We all like to be surprised, so there are no preconceptions, we don't want to have a 'certain kind of thing' that we're looking for," Burton said during a press conference.

"The goal is to not have any preconceptions, I think we've all been judged, so I think we're coming into this with a certain spirit and openness and hopefully compassion for any filmmaker," Burton added.

The 51-year-old director, whose Alice in Wonderland, screened recently in India, felt that it was imperative to promote all kinds of cinema.

Kapur was introduced as 'Royalty' because of his movies on Elizabeth. His 1994 Bandit Queen was shown at Cannes, and the Indian actor-director is still well known here largely because of that. The jury came in for early criticism when one of the journalists wanted to know why it was so overwhelmingly Euro-American.

As the Festival gets under way, there could be more questions on the composition of the jury, but as Burton added that he and the others were ready to be judged themselves.

"I think we're all very sensitive to being called judges. I think that's what the great thing about this group is, we want to view every film with a generosity. Also because we're judges, we'll be judged as judges," Burton said.

The 11-day-long cinematica extravagenza opened on Wednesday with Ridley Scott's epic film Robin Hood.

Image: Director Tim Burton, Jury President of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, holds a film clapper in Cannes on Thursday. Photograph: Eric Gaillard/Reuters