The Coen brothers, the award-winning American directors of No Country for Old Men, Fargo and The Big Lebowski, are to head this year's Cannes Film Festival jury, the organisers announced Tuesday. Joel and Ethan Coen will be co-presidents of the panel of filmmakers and actors who will judge the 20-or-so films in the main competition of the festival, which will run May 13-24, according to a statement. – AFP
Get your tickets for the Emirates literature festival now
Tickets are now available for the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature. The annual event, which runs from March 3 to 7 at InterContinental Dubai Festival City, features a stellar line-up of big-selling authors and leading literary figures. Some of the 130 authors making their way to Dubai this year include veteran British crime author Alexander McCall Smith, Nigeria's Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and the return of British author David Nicholls. The writers will be involved in more than 200 sessions throughout the festival that include workshops, panel discussions and masterclasses. For ticket prices, visit www.emirateslitfest.com. – The National staff
Pahlaj Nihalani is India censor board's new chief
The veteran Indian filmmaker Pahlaj Nihalani has been chosen as the new chairperson of India’s Central Board of Film Certification. Other members appointed with immediate effect include Jeevitha Rajasekar, Mihir Bhuta, Syed Abdul Bari, Ramesh Patange, George Baker, Chandra Prakash Dwivedi, Vani Tripathi Tikoo and Ashoke Pandit. The board’s former chairperson Leela Samson resigned last week, citing “interference, coercion and corruption of panel members and officers of the organisation” appointed by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry. She was followed by 13 other members, who quit on the grounds that it was impossible to work “with even a modicum of efficacy or autonomy” given the “cavalier and dismissive manner” in which the CBFC is treated by the government. – IANS
Mick Jagger starts scholarship in honour of L’Wren Scott
Mick Jagger has established a scholarship in honour of his late girlfriend fashion designer L’Wren Scott. The scholarship will allow one master’s degree per student per year over a period of three years to attend the elite Central Saint Martins, the London-based college announced this weekend. Fabio Piras, the current course director of MA Fashion, says in a statement that he was “very grateful to receive this extremely generous scholarship package”. The grant covers tuition and some living expenses. – AP
Coronation Street star Anne Kirkbride dies at 60
The actress Anne Kirkbride, star of the British soap opera Coronation Street for more than 40 years, has died at the age of 60. The UK network ITV says Kirkbride died on Monday in a hospital in Manchester, north-west England, after a short illness. Kirkbride played the much-married Deirdre Barlow on the soap, set in the fictional working-class community of Weatherfield. Coronation Street has been chronicling its characters' lives since 1960, with an enduringly popular mix of social realism, melodrama and humour. Kirkbride's character was at the heart of some of the show's most dramatic storylines for decades. – AP