Pedro Almodóvar to lead Cannes jury

Pedro Almodovar will chair this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Photo © El Deseo D.A S.L.U, Nico Bustos

The organisers of the Cannes Film Festival have announced that the acclaimed Spanish writer and director Pedro Almodóvar will preside over the main competition Jury this May.

Arguably one of the most distinctive modern-day film-makers, Almodóvar had one of the most enviable track records with both critics and awards bodies. With his flamboyant style, as colourful in emotions as it is in palette, he’s twice been nominated for the Best Foreign Language Oscar, winning it with All About My Mother 1999. And he’s one of the few foreign language film-makers to cross over into the other categories, winning the Best Original Screenplay for Talk to Her in 2003.

Five of his twenty films have been in competition in Cannes over the years, including The Skin I Live In, Broken Embraces and last year’s Julieta. Volver won him the Cannes Screenplay prize and he was named Best Director for All About My Mother. A sixth film, Bad Education, featured as the opening film of the festival in 2004.

“I am very happy to be able to celebrate the Festival de Cannes 70th anniversary from such a privileged position,” he said in a statement. “I am grateful, honoured and a bit overwhelmed.”

This year’s Festival will run from 17th-28th May.