Iñárritu winning Best Director at Cannes in 2006.Now that Oscar season is winding down, tuxes/jewels returned, post-mortems wrapping up, we must start looking forward. The first big post Oscar event of the film year, that's not a film opening that is, is of course the Cannes Film Festival (May 14th-25th). They've now announced this year's jury president. It's none other than four-time Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman, Babel, The Revenant, Amores Perros) continuing Oscar's obsessive “¡Viva México!” theme, with five of the last six directing Oscars going to Mexican filmmakers.
Iñárritu succeeds Cate Blanchett, 2018's Jury President. Though its common for film directors to preside, he's the first Mexican ever chosen to preside (the last Mexican on the jury was Gael García Bernal in 2014). He previously won Best Director at Cannes for Babel (2006) and also brought Amores Perros (2000) and Biutiful (2010) to the festival.
But who will his jury be? Last year's jury had more women than men which is unusual for Cannes (it's only happened 3 times in history) and there's no topping that jury for sheer collective style. But it'll be exciting to see who joins Iñárritu, nonetheless.
Here are the 12 most recent presidents and the Palme D'or winner they selected
* = then Oscar nominated for Best Picture / † = then Oscar nominated for Foreign Film
- 2018 Cate Blanchett (Australia) / Shoplifters† (Japan)
- 2017 Pedro Almodóvar (Spain) / The Square† (Sweden)
- 2016 George Miller (Australia) / I, Daniel Blake (UK)
- 2015 Joel & Ethan Coen (US) / Dheepan (France)
- 2014 Jane Campion (New Zealand) / Winter Sleep (Turkey)
- 2013 Steven Spielberg (US) / Blue is the Warmest Color (France)
- 2012 Nanni Moretti (Italy) / Amour*† (Austria)
- 2011 Robert De Niro (US) / The Tree of Life* (US)
- 2010 Tim Burton (US) / Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Thailand)
- 2009 Isabelle Huppert (France) / The White Ribbon† (Austria)
- 2008 Sean Penn (US) / The Class† (France)
- 2007 Stephen Frears (UK) / 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days (Romania)