The Cannes film festival announced the 2021 made up of mostly women, including Franco-Senegalese director Mati Diop. The announcement of the jury is the last major step before the festival opens on 6 July.
Presided by American director Spike Lee, the nine-person jury will choose the successor to Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, which won the Palme d’or at the last festival in 2019.
The Festival on Thursday revealed the jury made up of people from “seven nationalities, coming from five continents”.
The five women include Diop, whose first film, Atlantics, won the Grand Prix in 2019; French actress-turned-director Mélanie Laurent; American actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is working on directing her first film; and Austrian director Jessica Hausner, whose first film in English, Little Joe, was selected in competition in 2019.
They are joined by French singer, and occasional actor, Mylène Farmer, along with South Korean actor Song Kang-ho, who played a leading role in Parasite; French movie star Tahar Rahim; and Brazilian director Kleber Mendonça Filho, who co-directed Bacurau with Juliano Dornelles, which was awarded the Jury Prize in 2019.
They will watch the 24 films in competition in the festival that had been delayed because of the Covid pandemic. The last film to be shown has not yet been revealed.
The French actress Doria Tillier has been chosen as the MC for the opening ceremony on 6 July, where actress Jodie Foster will be presented with an Honorary Palme d'Or award.
A second Honorary Palme d'or award has also been added and will be presented to 81 year-old Italian director Marco Bellocchio for his contribution to cinema.
He will present his latest film on 16 July, a documentary Marx can Wait, based on how his family coped with the suicide of his brother at the age of 29.
