Kidman, Lee join Spielberg on Cannes festival jury

PARIS - Agence France-Presse

Combination picture created on April 24, 2013 shows the president of (from top L) 66th Cannes film festival president Steven Spielberg and memebers of the jury, Australian actress and producer Nicole Kidman, Taiwanese director, producer and scriptwriter Ang Lee, (from center L) Austrian actor Christopher Waltz, French actor and director Daniel Auteuil, Indian actress Vidya Balan, (from bottom L) Japanese director Naomi Kawase, Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu.

Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman and director Ang Lee will join Steven Spielberg next month on the Cannes film festival jury, organisers said on Wednesday.
 
Australian Kidman won the best actress Academy Award for her portrayal of author Virginia Woolf in "The Hours" while Taiwan-born Lee was named best director earlier this year for his fantasy epic "Life of Pi".
 
Lee, who has spent almost his entire professional career abroad, also won a best director Oscar for the gay cowboy drama "Brokeback Mountain", while his kung fu epic "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" won best foreign language film.
 
The other jury members named were: Indian actress Vidya Balan; Japanese director Naomi Kawase; Lynne Ramsay, Scottish director of "We Need to Talk About Kevin"; French actor/director Daniel Auteuil; Romanian director Cristian Mungiu; and actor Christoph Waltz.
 
Waltz picked up this year's best supporting actor Oscar for his role in the Quentin Tarantino-directed "Django Unchained", having won the same award in 2010 for his performance as the Nazi officer in Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds".
 
The jury, headed by Spielberg, will award the coveted Palme d'Or to one of the 19 films in competition at the May 15-26 festival.