Paris - AFP
Andrea Arnold of Britain, director of "Red Road" and "Wuthering Heights", will head this year's Critics' Week jury at the Cannes Film Festival, organisers said. Arnold, 52, received the festival's Jury Prize in 2006 and 2009. The Critics' Week section, designed to showcase new talent, will run May 15-23 and its jury will be made up of four international journalists. They will pick one of seven feature films to succeed last year's "Salvo" by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza for the honour. The prize has provided breakthrough recognition for the likes of Mexico's Guillermo del Toro and his compatriot Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Gaspar Noe of Argentina and Jeff Nichols of the United States. After Arnold's "Wasp" won an Oscar for best short film in 2003 she scooped up the two jury prizes in Cannes for her first two feature-length films, "Red Road" (2006) and "Fish Tank" (2009). Her "Wuthering Heights" was screened at the Venice Film Festival in 2011. Australian director Jane Campion ("The Piano Lesson") will head the jury of Cannes' main competition.