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Africa Features in Acclaimed Cannes Festival Jury


Undated File footage of Zambian-Welsh film director and screenwriter Rungano Nyoni, who is serving as a member of the jury for the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Undated File footage of Zambian-Welsh film director and screenwriter Rungano Nyoni, who is serving as a member of the jury for the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.

CANNES, FRANCE — The jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival, which opens Tuesday, is headed by last year's Palme d'Or winner, "Triangle of Sadness," director Ruben Ostlund.

His team of eight members, most aged under 50, includes U.S. stars Paul Dano and Brie Larson and will decide on the prizes for the 21 films in competition to be announced on May 27.

Zambia-born Rungano Nyoni, who grew up in Wales, caused a sensation with her first feature about a little girl accused of witchcraft, "I'm Not a Witch" in 2018.

Morocco's Maryam Touzani was celebrated last year at Cannes for "The Blue Caftan" about homosexuality, which followed her critically acclaimed "Adam" in 2019 centered around an unwed and pregnant country girl.

The celebrated actor Dano, who appeared most recently in Steven Spielberg's "The Fabelmans," made his directorial debut in acclaimed drama "Wildlife" in 2018.
Best-known as Captain Marvel and outspoken in the #MeToo movement, 33-year-old Larson, this year's youngest jury member, won an Oscar for her role as a mother locked up with her young son in "Room" in 2016.

Two French stars join Ostlund's jury: actor Denis Menochet, whose breakout role came in 2009 with Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," and violent gore director Julia Ducournau, who won the Palme d'Or in 2021 for "Titane."

Argentinian director Damian Szifron's second feature "To Catch a Killer" about a deranged gunman on the loose in Baltimore came out this year.

At 61 years old, Afghan writer and director Atiq Rahimi is this year's oldest member of the jury. A previous winner of France's prestigious Goncourt literary award, his films include two adaptations of his own novels.

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