DUBAI: French-Lebanese filmmaker Audrey Diwan and Iranian actress Leila Hatami have been announced as members of the jury at the 79th Venice International Film Festival, held from Aug. 31 to Sep. 10.
Oscar-winning American actress Julianne Moore will preside over the jury, made up of three women and four men. Moore won the Venice acting award, the Coppa Volpi, in 2002 for “Far From Heaven,” directed by Todd Haynes.
Italian director Leonardo Di Costanzo, Nobel Prize-winning author Kazuo Ishiguro, Argentine director and screenwriter Mariano Cohn and Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen complete the international jury, which assigns the festival’s main competition awards, including the Golden Lion.
While filmmaker Diwan won the Golden Lion last year with her film “Happening,” Hatami is best known to Western audiences for her role in Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation.”