Nadine Labaki at a press conference at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. (Credit: AFP)
With two weeks to go before the 77th Cannes Film Festival kicks off from May 14 to 25, the committee announced on Monday the composition of its jury, which includes Lebanese director Nadine Labaki.
A return to her roots for the director, who has been selected in various categories for her three feature films: Caramel in 2007, Et maintenant on va où? in 2011 and Capharnaum in 2018.
The festival, in a bid to feminize its audience, again this year chose five women and four men to decide the fate of the coveted Palme d'Or. The jury is under the leadership of the youngest female jury president since Sophia Loren in 1966, with 40-year-old director and screenwriter Greta Gerwig, a leading figure in American auteur cinema and last summer's box-office queen with Barbie, taking the helm
The panel includes France's Omar Sy and Eva Green, the very Scorsesian Lily Gladstone and Spain's Juan Antonio Bayona.
Labaki made her mark in 2018 by presenting Capharnaum on the Croisette and winning the Jury Prize, before going on to be nominated for the Golden Globes, Cesars and Oscars.
Five years after chairing the Un Certain Regard jury, a parallel competition rewarding auteur films, the filmmaker, who began her career in Beirut directing a number of award-winning commercials and music videos, took up a residency at the Cannes Film Festival's Cinefondation in 2004 to write and develop Caramel, her first film, which she presented three years later at the Directors' Fortnight.
Francis Ford Coppola, Jacques Audiard, Michel Hazanavicius and David Cronenberg will all be vying to succeed Justine Triet, who won last year's award for Anatomy of a Fall. On the red carpet, Catherine Deneuve, Adam Driver and Michelle Pfeiffer are expected for the most Hollywood edition since 2016. Actress Camille Cottin will present the opening and closing ceremonies, while George Lucas, creator of the Star Wars saga, will be presented with an honorary Palme d'Or.
With a full jury, 22 films in competition and over a hundred feature films announced, the world's biggest film festival is now ready to get underway.
This article originally appeared in French in L'Orient-Le Jour.