The Cannes Film Festival won't say which films are being judged until mid-April, but they have released information about who'll be doing the judging. Serbian director Emir Kusturica, a two-time winner of the Palme d'Or, will head the jury in the festival's Un Certain Regard section, festival organizers announced on Friday.
Previously, the festival announced that Robert De Niro will serve as president of the main Cannes jury, which will bestow the festival's marquee prize, the Palme d'Or. Director Michel Gondry will preside over the short film jury.
Kusturica served as president of the main competition jury in 2005, when the top prize went to "L'enfant" by directors Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (whose upcoming film "Set Me Free" is expected to show at Cannes).
Cannes' Un Certain Regard section consists of about 20 films from around the world, and often (but not always) focuses on younger filmmakers and more daring work than the films that compete for the Palme d'Or. Last year, Hong Sang-soo's "Hahaha" won the Un Certain Regard prize over a field that also included Derek Cianfrance's "Blue Valentine," Xavier Dolan's "Heartbeats" and Jean-luc Godard's "Film Socialisme." The jury that decided that award was headed by French director Claire Denis.
The controversial Oscar nominee "Dogtooth" won Un Certain Regard the previous year.
Kusturica has twice won the Palme d'Or himself, for "When Father Was Away on Business" in 1985 (a unanimous choice) and "Underground" in 1995.
The filmmaker was to have directed Johnny Depp and Salma Hayek in a film about the Mexican revolutionary Pancho Villa, but Depp dropped out of the project earlier this year.
