Cannes Film Festival jury member Demi Moore has spoken out about the importance of being able to express political opinions without pushback.
Asked if she has concerns about political statements being detrimental to the films she’s talking about at the festival Moore said, “I would hope not. I think part of art is about expression, so if we start censoring ourselves then I think we shut down the very core of our creativity which is I think where we can discover truth and answers.”
Moore was speaking at the jury press conference on Day 1 of the Cannes Film Festival, in the wake of 2017 jury president Pedro Almodóvar’s recent comments regarding the state of democracy and free speech in the U.S.
Almodóvar, who is at Cannes this year with his film Bitter Christmas, told the LA Times this week, “People are obviously very frightened. The U.S. is not a democracy right now. Some people say it’s maybe an imperfect democracy, but I really don’t think the U.S. is a democracy right now.”
During the jury press conference, Moore also addressed the issue of AI and its use in Hollywood.
“AI is here, and so to fight it is to, in a sense, to fight something that is a battle that we will lose. So to find ways in which we can work with it, I think, is a more valuable path,” she said. “Are we doing enough to protect ourselves? I don’t know. My inclination would be to say probably not.”
She also noted that there are positive aspects to AI and that it cannot replace human creativity. “There’s beautiful aspects of being able to utilize it,” she said, “but the truth is, there really isn’t anything to fear, because what it can never replace is what true art comes from, which is not the physical. It comes from the soul. It comes from the spirit of each and every one of us sitting here, to each and every one of us that creates every day, and that they can never recreate.”
Cannes Jury Members, L to R: Demi Moore, Isaach de Bankolé, Laura Wandel, Stellan Skarsgård, Chloé Zhao, jury president Park Chan-wook, Tessa Thompson and Diego Céspedes.
Amy Sussman/Getty Images
When asked how she felt when she got the invitation to be on the jury, Moore said, “My first thought is ‘Me?’ I had such a beautiful experience here a few years ago, and one, just to be surrounded by cinema and the love of cinema ,and the joy of diving in and being surrounded by those who share that, just felt like a joy, and who can complain about the beautiful view of this incredible place? I feel tremendously honored and super excited. I feel like a little kid playing a grown up.”
Regarding the issue of speaking out with political opinions, Cannes festival head Thierry Fremeux also spoke out at the opening press conference on Monday, following pushback on Berlin jury president Wim Winders at Berlin earlier this year. Frémeux said, “I would like to pay tribute to Wim Wenders because I think he was subjected to criticisms that weren’t really justified. I understood what he wanted to say, but I think people didn’t want to understand what he was saying,” he said. “He wanted to say that the politics should be on the screen. That’s what we say at Cannes… the festival considers that political questions are primarily those of the artists’ voices and the voices of the artists whose work is being shown.”
Alongside Moore on the jury at Cannes this year are Isaach de Bankolé, Laura Wandel, Stellan Skarsgård, Chloé Zhao, Tessa Thompson and Diego Céspedes, with Park Chan-wook serving as jury president.
Moore was last in Cannes in 2024 with Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance and her first appearance at the fest was in 1997, when she attended in support of then-husband Bruce Willis’ film The Fifth Element.
