Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu Named Cannes Film Festival Jury President

Four-time Oscar-winning filmmaker Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu has landed one of cinema’s most honorable roles.

The 55-year-old, who won the Best Director Oscar Award two years running for Birdman and The Revenant, has been named the 2019 Cannes Film Festival jury president. Iñárritu’s new status also marks “the first time that the [festival] jury is to be chaired by a Latin American filmmaker.”

Iñárritu has been connected to Cannes Film Festival for nearly 20 years, with it even launching his career with Amores Perros winning the Critics’ Week sidebar back in 2000. Two years ago, he presented his Special Achievement Academy Award-winning virtual reality installation Carne y Arena (Flesh and Sand), which centered around the strength of migrants, among the festival’s Official 2017 Selection. 

“Cannes is a festival that has been important to me since the beginning of my career. I am humbled and thrilled to return this year with the immense honor of presiding over the Jury,” Iñárritu said in a press statement. “Cinema runs through the veins of the planet and this festival has been its heart. We on the jury will have the privilege to witness the new and excellent work of fellow filmmakers from all over the planet. This is a true delight and a responsibility, that we will assume with passion and devotion.”

President of the festival Pierre Lescure and artistic director Thierry Frémaux have described Iñárritu as “not only a daring film-maker and a director who is full of surprises [but] also a man of conviction, an artist of his time.”

Last year, Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett presided over the jury, which awarded the Palme d’Or to Hirokazu Kore-eda‘s Shoplifters. During her time on the jury, Blanchett not only led the jury, but she led a parade of 82 women up the steps of the Palais to protest gender inequality and led the signing of the festival’s 5050 by 2020 parity pledge. 

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This year, the 72nd Cannes Film Festival will run from May 14-25.