Chaired by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, the jury for the 79th Cannes Film Festival was unveiled Monday by the organizers. Hollywood star Demi Moore and Oscar-winning Chinese director Chloé Zhao will be present on the red carpet.
Published on: 05/04/2026 - 7:00 p.m. Modified on: 05/04/2026 - 7:15 p.m.
They will have the difficult task of choosing the next Palme d’Or. Hollywood star Demi Moore, Oscar-winning Chinese director Chloé Zhao ("Nomadland", "Hamnet") and Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgard are part of the jury for the 79th Cannes Film Festival, chaired by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, organizers announced Monday, May 4.
The jury, which also includes Ken Loach's favorite screenwriter, Paul Laverty, and the Ivorian-American actor Isaach de Bankolé, will have to award the Palme d'Or for the 2026 festival, which begins on May 12. In 2025, the award was given to “A Simple Accident”, by dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi.
Belgian director and screenwriter Laura Wandel, Chilean filmmaker Diego Céspedes and Irish-Ethiopian producer Ruth Negga complete this nine-member jury which will have to decide between 22 films in competition and award numerous other prizes (acting, screenplay, etc.) at the end of the Cannes fortnight.
Glamorous headliner of this jury, Demi Moore returns to the Croisette where she caused a sensation in 2024 with “The Substance”, by Frenchwoman Coralie Fargeat, which won the screenplay prize and marked the return of the star of the 1990s (“Ghost”, “Indecent Proposal”).
Committed filmmakers
Alongside him, producer and filmmaker Chloé Zhao has established herself as a rising star of cinema since “Nomadland”, which earned her the Oscar for best film and best direction in 2021.
The Chinese filmmaker, who tried her hand at a superhero film with “The Eternals” in 2021, returned in 2025 to a more intimate register with “Hamnet”, about the mourning of William Shakespeare and his wife Agnes after the death of their young son.
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With the Scotsman Paul Laverty, the jury includes a very committed screenwriter who has collaborated for thirty years with the British director Ken Loach for whom he wrote two Palme d'Or-winning films, "The Wind Rises" (2006) about an Irish revolt in the 20th century, and the social drama "I, Daniel Blake" in 2016.
He will notably rub shoulders with Diego Céspedes, another committed filmmaker, winner of the Un Certain Regard prize at Cannes in 2025 for his first film, "The Mysterious Gaze of the Pink Flamingo", about the fight of transg women in the Chilean desert.
In 2025, the Cannes jury was chaired by French star Juliette Binoche.
With AFP
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