The jury

Isabelle Huppert, First Lady of Cannes

President of the jury at the 62nd Festival

"I've had a long relationship with Cannes and this next meeting will definitely seal my love for the festival and thus for global cinema," 

Huppert was born in 1953 and, after enrolling at the Drama Academy of Versailles, followed by further drama studies at the Conservatory of Versailles, the French actress was discovered in 1974 while appearing alongside Gerard Depardieu and Patrick Dewaere in Les Valseuses (Going Places).

Two years later, she became a French sensation for her performance in Le Juge et l'assassin (The Judge and The Assassin) by Bertrand Tavernier.  Professional success followed quickly for the knowledgeable cinema-enthusiast who would go on to act under the direction of Claude Chabrol (Violette Nozière, 1978), Maurice Pialat (Loulou), Jean-Luc Godard (Sauve qui peut) (Every Man for Himself), Michael Cimino (La Porte du Paradis) (Heaven's Gate) and even Mauro Bolognini (La Dame aux camélias) (Lady of the Camelias) in the 1980s.

Huppert has appeared on the Croisette more than 25 times. She won the Best Actress prize twice: in 1978 for her role in Violette Nozière by Chabrol and in 2001 for her role in La Pianiste (The Piano Player) by Michel Haneke, who has submitted his entry, Le Ruban blanc (The White Ribbon), this year. She has had seventeen films in the official selection and also presented the Jury Prize to Roberto Benigni for La Vita e bella (Life is Beautiful) in 1988. She currently appears in Benoît Jacquot's last film Villa Amalia.

Members of the jury

Asia Argento (actress, director, scriptwriter - Italy)

Daughter of the director Dario Argento, she began her career at the age of seven in one of her father's horror films. A director herself, she recently starred in Sofia Coppola's Marie-Antoinette.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan (director, scriptwriter, actor - Turkey)

A Cannes favourite, having won both the jury prize with Uzak and best director last year for Three Monkeys, Istanbul-based Ceylan is one of the most interesting directors in the world, making small, intimate films about life's big subjects, using his family and friends in the leading roles.

Lee Chang-Dong (director, scriptwriter, author - South Korea)

Lee Chang Dong came to international fame when his film Oasis won the critic's prize at Venice. His last film Secret Sunshine was another big critical success and won Jeon Do-Yeon the prize for best actress at Cannes.

James Gray (director, scriptwriter - USA)

James Gray was raised in New York City and made his first film at the age of 24, which earned him the Venice Film Festival's prestigious Silver Lion Award. His third film, We Own the Night, played in competition at Cannes in 2007, receiving widely divergent reviews.

Hanif Kureishi (author, scriptwriter - United Kingdom)

Never a man afraid to speak his mind, or shy away from controversy, the writer Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Launderette and the Bhudda of Suburbia) is sure to bring plenty of spark to the jury's deliberations. No stranger to Cannes, an adaptation of his novel, 'Intimacy', created a minor scandal eight years ago at Berlin while another of his works, 'The Mother', won Roger Michell the Director's Fortnight prize two years later.

Shu Qi (actress - Taiwan)

First brought to notice by the Hong Kong director Andrew Lau, who cast her as the lead in five of his films, she wooed critics in Hou Hsiao Hsien's Millenium Mambo.

Robin Wright Penn (actress - USA)

Born in Texas, she became an American soap opera darling before finding international stardom in the Princess Bride and Forrest Gump. She changed her name upon marrying the actor Sean Penn in 1998 and went on to earn several Screen Actors Guild awards.

Sharmilla Tagore III (actress - India)

Sharmilla is a Bengali actress who appeared in numerous Bengali classics before making the jump to Hindi cinema, where she became a Bollywood sex symbol. She is married to the Indian cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan, and is the mother of Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan.