Cate Blanchett to head Cannes Film Festival Jury

TIL Desk Bollywood/ Actress Cate Blanchett will lead the jury of the 71st Cannes Film Festival. Filmmakers Ava DuVernay and Denis Villeneuve and actors Kristen Stewart and Lea Seydoux are also a part of it. The jury will include five men and four women from seven nationalities and five continents.

Also serving on the jury are Chinese actor Chang Chen, French director Robert Guediguian, Burundian singer Khadja Nin and Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev. While some have criticised the relatively low number of women directors in official competition, Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux said that he has been conscious of the gender balance in the jury.

“For the last four years, I’ve become much more concerned about the presence of women at the festival. I’ve been having discussions with intelligent women like Jessica Chastain and have listened to their advice about ways to improve certain things,” he said. “We’ve started paying more attention to the gender ratio on our selection committees, for instance. Right now, two out of the three committees have as many women as men,” he added.