The Cannes Film Festival has appointed Swedish filmmaker and two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Ostlund as the jury president for its upcoming 76th edition.
Ostlund will head the jury exactly 50 years after fellow citizen, actress Ingrid Bergman, who served in the role in 1973.
“I am happy, proud, and humbled to be trusted with the honour of jury president for this year's Competition at the Festival de Cannes. Nowhere in the film world is the anticipation as strong as when the curtain rises on the films in Competition at the festival,” the filmmaker said in a statement shared on the festival's website.
"It is a privilege to be part of it, together with the Cannes audience of connoisseurs. I am sincere when I say that cinema culture is in its most important period ever. The cinema has a unique aspect – there, we watch together, and it demands more on what is shown and increases the intensity of the experience. It makes us reflect in a different way than when we dopamine scroll in front of individual screens," he added.
Ostlund is a regular at the Cannes Film Festival. Five of his six features have had world premieres at the movie gala. He went on to win the Palme d’Or for art world-set social satire "The Square '' and his critique of the ultra-wealthy "Triangle of Sadness", in 2017 and 2022 respectively.
"Triangle of Sadness" is nominated in the Best Picture, Original Screenplay and Best Director categories in this year's Academy Awards.
“By inviting Ruben Ostlund to preside over the Jury, the Festival de Cannes wishes to pay a tribute to films that are uncompromising and forthright and which constantly demand that viewers challenge themselves and that art continues to invent itself,” said the festival in the statement.
Ostlund is the third two-time winner of the Palme d’Or to be the President of the Jury, following Francis Ford Coppola and Emir Kusturica.
The festival’s Official Selection will be announced in April.
