The 20th edition of the Marrakech Film Festival was relatively subdued, but Oscar winning Jessica Chastain was on a roll
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NewsTranscript
00:00Good evening, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News. I'm the entertainment editor.
00:04I'm on the red carpet of the Marrakesh, the 20th Marrakesh International Film Festival
00:10and we are expecting a galaxy of Hollywood stars such as Jessica Chastain,
00:14there's Alexander Skarsgård who are all part of the jury that's going to select the best film.
00:19Interestingly, Marrakesh is one of the few festivals where it gives the award,
00:24the Best Movie Award, to the first and the second film directors who make the second or the first film.
00:32So it's quite interesting and different that way.
00:34And it's also one of the few festivals which is accessible to the public,
00:38all the master classes are open to the public and it's got a bit of glitz and glamour as well.
00:43This year it's been slightly muted and I tell you why because there was an earthquake in September
00:50and the city is just sprinting back to normalcy and it's done very well
00:55and also because of the geopolitics that's around us.
00:57So therefore it's been very muted but we're expecting a lot of red carpet action as well.
01:02Very soon you're going to see Jessica Chastain speak about the Hollywood strikes,
01:06speak about her role as the president of the jury this year and lots more. Stay tuned.
01:12I'm glad that our leadership, the SAG leadership, has gotten to a deal that they think is fair and
01:18historic in its own right. We still are waiting to find out what the voters are going to choose,
01:24if they're going to ratify the contract. I've looked through it. I do think personally it
01:28is a good deal but of course I only have one vote and it's important to me what everyone
01:32else thinks as well and that's the beautiful thing about taking a vote is that everyone gets to have
01:37a say. I didn't choose to be so public about it. I think it just so happened because my film had an
01:47interim agreement because so many actors were nervous I think to speak out. I just ended up
01:57being one of the first and I think when you end up being one of the first in that case you really
02:01have a big spotlight on yourself. I did my homework. I spoke to the leadership at SAG
02:06and I asked them how can I best support this acting community because SAG is the most important
02:13community I've ever been a part of and I would never want to do anything against them
02:18and I only wanted to support them. So it was kind of like I became public by default.
02:23Like you wanted to have more women than men in your jury?
02:28Melita!
02:30Is it true and why were you saying that?
02:31Here's the thing. At one point we were talking about the jury and she said well,
02:36I didn't say it has to be more women than men but at one point she says well but then it'll be
02:42six and three and then I said well what's wrong with that and many times there's been six men and
02:48three women so what's the big I mean sometimes too there's been all men so what's the big deal
02:54of having six and three? I think it's kind of an incredible thing to do and it's I mean it
02:58really is historic that this is the jury that we have this year. I like to be part of anything that
03:06pushes the boundaries of what we thought was supposed to be or what the norm was. I like
03:12to kind of live in the future and I do see the future as a more equal community in terms of
03:19racial equality and gender equality and so forth so I'm very very happy. It wasn't a demand on my
03:25part but I was very happy to be the president of a jury that has six women in it.