Ruben Östlund is the president of the Cannes Film Festival jury

After winning the Palme d’Or for his last two films, Ruben Östlund chooses this year’s winner of the Cannes main prize. The Swedish director of The Triangle of Sorrow and The Square has been appointed president of the jury of the 76th Cannes Film Festival, it was announced on Tuesday.

“I am happy, proud and humbled to be entrusted with the role of president of the jury at the Festival de Cannes for this year’s competition,” Östlund said in a statement announcing his appointment. “Nowhere in the film world is the anticipation as strong as when the curtain goes up on the films in the Competition at the festival. It is an honor to be a part of this together with the gourmet audience at Cannes. I am honest when I say that film culture is at its most important period. Cinema has a unique aspect. There we watch together and it demands more of what is shown and increases the intensity of the experience. It reflects us in a different way than when we roll dopamine in front of individual screens.”

“As president, I will remind my colleagues in the jury about the social function of cinema,” continued Östlund. “A good film is connected to the collective experience, stimulates thought and prompts discussion of what is seen. So let’s watch it together!”

Östlund is a favorite of the prestigious French film festival, first competing in the Un Certain Regard category for his 2008 sophomore film “Involuntary”. In 2014, he won the jury prize for the film “Vis maior”, and his next films, 2017’s “The Square” and last year’s “Triangle of Sadness” competed in the festival’s main competition. Both films won the Palme d’Or, and “The Square” won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. At this year’s Oscars, “Triangle of Sadness” was nominated for best film, and Östlund was nominated for best screenplay and best director. Ingrid Bergman is the first Swedish jury president at Cannes since 1976, and the third two-time Palme Prize winner to head the jury after Francis Ford Coppola and Emir Kusturica.

The other members of the Cannes jury have not yet been announced; Last year’s jury, chaired by “Titane” and “Both Sides of the Blade” actor Vincent Lindon, included Rebecca Hall, Asghar Farhadi, Jeff Nichols, Noomi Rapace, Joachim Trier, Jasmine Trinca, Deepika Padukone and Ladj Ly.

This year’s festival runs from May 16 to May 27. Early titles are slated to include Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Pedro Almodóvar’s gay cowboy film “Strange Way of Life.”

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