Steven Spielberg to lead Cannes jury this year

With the 'Lincoln' director in charge, the film festival will likely get an American tweak.


Steven Spielberg has finally found space on his busy schedule to head the jury for the Cannes Film Festival, according to the Associated Press.

He will replace Italian Nanni Moretti and with Spielberg in the post, the festival is likely to have an American edge.

Previous presidents include Tennessee Williams, Ingrid Bergman, Roman Polanski and Francis Ford Coppola.

"When this year I was told 'E.T., phone home,' I understood and immediately replied: 'At last!'" Gilles Jacob, the festival's president, said in a statement posted Thursday on the festival's website.

The 66th Cannes festival will be held May 15-26.

"It is an honor and a privilege to preside over the jury of a festival that proves, again and again, that cinema is the language of the world," Spielberg said in a statement from festival organizers. "The most prestigious of its kind, the festival has always established the motion picture as a cross cultural and generational medium."