Cate Blanchett to head Venice Film Festival jury

ROME: Actress Cate Blanchett will chair the jury of the Venice Film Festival in September, organisers said on Thursday.

The award-winning Australian actress will become the president of the jury for the festival’s 77th season, slated for September 2 to September 12.

“Venice is one of the most appealing film festivals in the world — a celebration of this provocative and stimulating medium which is cinema in all its forms,” Blanchett said in a statement.

No stranger to festivals, the 50-year-old actress most recently headed the jury at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival, which has been criticised in the past for ignoring female directors in its prestigious lineup.

That year, she was among 82 women who ascended the famous red carpet steps of the Palais des Festivals in a march for gender equality.

Two of Blanchett’s films have premiered at Venice: 1998’s Elizabeth, a period drama about Queen Elizabeth I directed by Shekhar Kapur, and I’m Not There, by Todd Haynes, a 2007 biopic in which Blanchett plays Bob Dylan, for which she won a best actress award.