Cannes Film Festival names Ruben Ostlund jury president

WASHINGTON: Director Ruben Ostlund will head this year's competition jury for the Cannes International Film Festival, organizers announced on Tuesday.

The Swedish director's 'Triangle of Sadness' is a capitalist satire starring Woody Harrelson, Harris Dickinson, Dolly De Leon and the late Charlbi Dean. It won Cannes' Palme d'Or for best film last year, reported The Hollywood Reporter, a US-based media company.

'Triangle of Sadness' has become Ostlund's most commercially successful film, with a box office of USD 24 million and counting.

After sweeping the European Film Awards, winning best film, best director and best screenwriter honours for Ostlund, as well as the best actor honour for co-star Zlatko Buric, 'Triangle of Sadness' picked up three Oscar nominations, for Best Film, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay.

"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," Ostlund said in a statement.

"Nowhere in the film world is the anticipation as strong as when the curtain rises on the films in competition at the festival. 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," he said.

Ostlund said, "The cinema has a unique aspect: There, we watch together, and it demands more of 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 the individual screens."

Cannes said that by naming Ostlund jury president, it was paying tribute "to films that are uncompromising and forthright and which constantly demand that viewers challenge themselves and that art continue to invent itself."

Ostlund is the first Swedish Cannes jury president since Ingrid Bergman in 1973.

Ostlund is also the third two-time Palme d'Or winner to head up the jury, following Francis Ford Coppola and Emir Kusturica, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"As president, I will remind my colleagues in the jury about the social function of the cinema. A good movie relates to the collective experience, stimulates us to think and makes us want to discuss what we have seen - So let's watch together," said Ostlund. Cannes will announce this year's competition lineup in mid-April.