Nadine Labaki named as jury member for Cannes Film Festival 2024

Oscar-nominated Lebanese filmmaker joins prestigious panel selecting winners

Lebanese director Nadine Labaki will be among the stellar jury reviewing the 22 films taking part in the main competition at Cannes. EPA

Nadine Labaki has been selected as a jury member for the 77th Cannes Film Festival, six years after she became the first Arab woman to win a major prize at the event.

The Oscar-nominated Lebanese filmmaker will be joined by directors Kore-era Hirokazu and Juan Antonio Bayona, respectively known for Shoplifters and Society of the Snow. Killers of the Flower Moon actress Lily Gladstone and Casino Royale star Eva Greene will also be part of the jury, as will Turkish Winter Sleep screenwriter Ebru Ceylan, Italian Nostalgia actor Pierfrancisco Favino and French Lupin actor Omar Sy.

The jury will be headed by Barbie filmmaker Greta Gerwig. The group will review 22 films in main competition of the festival, which begins on May 14. These include The Shrouds by David Cronenberg; Megalopolis by Francis Ford Coppola; Kinds of Kindness by Yorgos Lanthimos; Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard; The Most Precious of Cargoes by Michel Hazanavicius; Parthenope by Paolo Sorrentino; Anora by Sean Baker; and The Apprentice by Ali Abbasi.

The jury will select the winners across several categories, including the prestigious Palme d’Or for the best film. The winners will be announced on the closing day of the festival, May 25.

Labaki has long been a prominent figure in Middle Eastern cinema, renowned for Caramel and Where do We Go Now? She gained international recognition in 2018 after she won the Jury Prize for Capernaum.

In 2019, she became the first Lebanese female filmmaker to be nominated for an Oscar as Capernaum was listed for Best Foreign Language Film. She was also part of the jury at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival.

Labaki is also an actress, and has starred in the Netflix film Perfect Strangers, as well as Costa Brava, Lebanon.