The Jury members of the 79th Festival de Cannes have been revealed today.
They will be joining South Korean director, screenwriter and producer Park Chan-wook, who will chair the group, as previously announced.
They are American actress and producer Demi Moore, Irish-Ethiopian actress and producer Ruth Negga, Belgian director and screenwriter Laura Wandel, Chinese director and screenwriter Chloé Zhao, Chilean director and screenwriter Diego Céspedes, Ivorian-American actor Isaach De Bankolé, Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty, and Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård.
The Jury Members: Cannes Backgrounds…
Demi Moore was in Cannes in 2024, as protagonist of The Substance by Coralie Fargeat (Best Screenplay Award). Her performance earned her Golden Globe, SAG, and Critics Choice wins, along with BAFTA and Academy Award nominations.
Ruth Negga received an Academy Award nomination for her masterful performance in Jeff Nichols’ Loving which was in the 2016 Competition in the Festival de Cannes) earning her several nominations.
Also Laura Wandel was in Competition in Cannes the short films category in 2014 with Foreign Body. She returned to Cannes in 2021 with her first feature film, Playground, which was part of the Un Certain Regard section and won the FIPRESCI Award. The film was also shortlisted for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film and won seven Awards at the Magritte du Cinéma. She then directed Adam’s Sake (2025), starring Léa Drucker, which was developed at La Résidence of the Festival de Cannes and selected to open the Semaine de la Critique.
Paul Laverty has worked with Ken Loach and producer Rebecca O’Brien for 30 years and wrote for Loach 14 films, 11 of which selected for the Competition of the Festival de Cannes, which they won in 2006 (The Wind that shakes the Barleyl) and 2016 (I, Daniel Blake).
Winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize at the 2025 Festival de Cannes for his debut feature, The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, developed at La Cinef, Diego Céspedes is one of the most distinctive emerging voices in Latin American cinema, crafting intimate and politically resonant stories around desire, identity and chosen families. The Summer of the Electric Lion (2018) won the Cinéfondation First Prize at Cannes, while The Melting Creatures (2022) premiered at the Semaine de la Critique.
The Ivorian-American actor Isaach De Bankolé,soon to be seen in the highly anticipated Dune: Part Three by Denis Villeneuve, starred, among others, in Claire Denis’ Chocolat, (Competition, Festival de Cannes 1988), and Jim Jarmush Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (Competition, Festival de Cannes 1999).
The Jury Members: 2025 Academy Award nominees and winners
In 2025, Chloe Zhao received a number of awards for Hamnet (including Best Motion Picture – Drama at the Golden Globes and Outstanding British Film at the BAFTAs) and became only the second woman to be nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Director. She launched the production company Book of Shadows in 2023 and Kodansha Studios in 2025.
Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård was also nominated for the Academy Award-winning film, Sentimental Value directed by Joachim Trier (Grand Prix, 2025 Festival de Cannes). He was on the Croisette also with Breaking the Waves (Grand Prix, 1996 Festival de Cannes) and Melancholia (2011).
The Jury will have the honor of awarding the Palme d’or to one of the 22 films in Competition, after Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, presented by Juliette Binoche’s Jury, in 2025. The winners will be announced on Saturday, May 23 at the Closing Ceremony, broadcast live by France Télévisions in France and by Brut.
