Julianne Moore to serve as president of the jury at 79th Venice Film Festival

She will be joined by French director Audrey Diwan, author Kazuo Ishiguro and Iranian actress Leila Hatami

Julianne Moore follows South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho, who was jury president last year. Reuters

Julianne Moore has been selected to serve as president of the jury for this year’s Venice International Film Festival.

She will be joined by French director Audrey Diwan, whose film Happening won the festival’s Golden Lion prize last year, author Kazuo Ishiguro of Never Let Me Go fame and Iranian actress Leila Hatami, who is best known for her performance in the Academy Award-winning film A Separation. Also on the jury are Italian director Leonardo Di Costanzo, Argentinian filmmaker Mariano Cohn and Spanish film director and screenwriter Rodrigo Sorogoyen.

Together they will choose the winners of the festival’s main prizes, including the Golden Lion for best film and the Silver Lion for best director, which often set the tone for the upcoming awards season.

Last year, Jane Campion was awarded the Silver Lion for her film The Power of the Dog, and went on to win the Oscar for Best Director. It was the seventh time in the past decade that the director of a film first shown at the Venice festival went on to receive the same accolade at the Academy Awards.

This year’s contenders are set to be announced later this month, with the 79th Venice International Film Festival running from August 31 to September 10 at Venice Lido.

Moore is an Academy Award, Bafta and Emmy winning actress, and was the first American woman to win top acting prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival Berlin, for The Hours in 2002, the Venice International Film Festival, for Far From Heaven in 2002, and the Cannes Festival, for Maps to the Stars in 2014. She follows in the footsteps of South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon Ho, who served as jury president for the 2021 Venice festival.