THE Cannes International Film Festival has named five women and four men to make up the 2021 competition jury.

Actors Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Song Kang-ho and Tahar Rahim, directors Mati Diop, Jessica Hausner and Kleber Mendonça Filho, and singer/songwriter Mylène Farmer will join Cannes Jury President Spike Lee in judging the 24 films of the 2021 Cannes competition.

The 2021 jury is one of the most diverse in Cannes history, with members from seven nations, from Brazil to South Korea. Most, however, share a history with the austere French festival.

Diop, Hausner, and Filho all screened films in Cannes competition in 2019, with Diop’s directorial debut “Atlantique” taking the runner-up Grand Jury prize, Filho’s neo-Western “Bacurau” winning the jury award, and Emily Beecham, star of Hausner’s sci-fi dramedy “Little Joe” taking the Palme for best actress. That year’s Palme d’Or winner for best film, “Parasite,” featured South Korean superstar Song.

French actors Laurent and Rahim are Cannes regulars, the former having appeared in such competition titles as “Days of Glory” (2006) and “Inglourious Basterds” (2009), the latter in 2009 Grand Jury winner “The Prophet” and 2013 competition title “The Past.”

Quebec-born Farmer occasionally acts and does voice work in French films, but she is best-known as a phenomenally successful recording artist, with some 21 No. 1 singles on the French charts and over 30 million records sold in France to date.

Lee has brought several films to the Cannes Croisette, most recently “BlacKkKlansman,” which took the Grand Jury prize in 2018. The U.S. director was picked to head the 2020 Cannes Jury before last year’s festival was canceled due to the pandemic.

The 2021 festival was pushed back from its usual May dates and will now run July 6-17. The Cannes jury awards the festival’s Palme d’Or honors.

(SD-Agencies)