Palme winner Ruben Ostlund to head Cannes jury

PARIS

Swedish director Ruben Ostlund, a two-time winner of the Palme d’Or, will be jury president at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May, organizers have announced.

Ostlund, 48, won the festival’s top prize last year for “Triangle of Sadness,” which left audiences squirming over its biting exploration of class divisions on a cruise ship, and extended display of extreme sea sickness.

The film, which stars Woody Harrelson as a drunken Marxist captain, has also earned him three nominations at next month’s Oscars - for best picture, best director and best original screenplay.

Ostlund also won the Palme five years earlier for “The Square,” with a similarly cringe-inducing look at the art world.

In a statement, Ostlund said he was “happy, proud and humbled to be entrusted with the honor” of leading the jury, which comes exactly 50 years after fellow Swede Ingrid Bergman had the role.

It is the third time a two-time Palme winner has led the jury in Cannes, following Francis Ford Coppola and Emir Kusturica, and the first time it has gone to someone the year after they won.

Ostlund has become known for his scathing insights into the embarrassing foibles of Western middle classes.

He first gained international attention with 2014’s “Force Majeure.” It won the runner-up Jury Prize in the secondary Un Certain Regard section at Cannes.

Three years later, he went straight to the top, winning the Palme d’Or for “The Square,” set in Sweden.