The 79th Cannes Film Festival has unveiled its main competition jury, featuring a high-profile lineup including actors Demi Moore, Ruth Negga, Stellan Skarsgaard, and Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao. The prestigious event is scheduled to take place on the French Riviera from May 12 to 23.
This eight-member panel, presided over by acclaimed South Korean director Park Chan-wook, is tasked with judging the 22 films selected for the In Competition slate.
Rounding out the diverse jury are veteran screenwriter Paul Laverty, actor Isaach De Bankole, Chilean filmmaker Diego Cespedes, and Belgian director Laura Wandel.
Moore recently earned Golden Globe, SAG and Critics Choice wins for her performance in Coralie Fargeat’s body-horror film "The Substance", which won the Best Screenplay award at Cannes 2024.
Negga received an Academy Award nomination for Jeff Nichols' "Loving", which competed at Cannes in 2016, and has since earned Emmy and Tony nominations for her stage and television work.
Skarsgaard starred in Joachim Trier's "Sentimental Value", which won the Grand Prix at the 2025 festival, and was himself nominated for the prize.
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Zhao, who won Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director for "Nomadland" (2021), received a second Best Director nomination this year for "Hamnet", making her only the second woman in Oscar history to earn two such nominations.
She first came to Cannes with her debut feature "Songs My Brothers Taught Me" in 2015.
Cespedes won the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 2025 festival for his debut feature "The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo", while Wandel's first feature "Playground" won the FIPRESCI Award at Cannes 2021 in the Un Certain Regard section.
Laverty, a longtime collaborator of British director Ken Loach, wrote the screenplays for two Palme d'Or winners, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" (2006) and "I, Daniel Blake" (2016). He has written 14 films for Loach, 11 of which have played in Cannes competition.
Park Chan-wook, the celebrated South Korean filmmaker behind "Oldboy", "The Handmaiden" and "Decision to Leave", was announced as jury president in February.
Park is the first Korean filmmaker to head the Cannes jury, having previously won the Grand Prix for "Oldboy" in 2004, the Jury Prize for "Thirst" in 2009 and the best director award for "Decision to Leave" in 2022.
The jury will announce the Palme d'Or and other winners at the closing ceremony on May 23 at the Grand Theatre Lumiere.
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