PARIS - Organizers of the Cannes Film Festival say American actor and director Sean Penn will head the awards jury this year.
The festival's 61st edition is scheduled for May 14-25.
British director Stephen Frears led the jury last year that awarded top prize to Romanian director Cristian Mungiu for `4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,' a harrowing portrait of an illegal abortion in Communist-era Romania.
Penn won a best actor Oscar for `Mystic River' for his role as an ex-hoodlum who reverts to his criminal ways as he seeks revenge for his daughter's death.
He directed `Into The Wild,' considered a front-runner for major awards this year, about a young idealist whose journey to Alaska ends in tragedy. He also starred as a death row inmate in 1995's `Dead Man Walking.'
"In the last few years, it seems there has been a rejuvenation of cinema building worldwide; increasingly thoughtful, provocative, moving, and imaginative films by talented filmmakers: that a new generation of filmmaking may have begun," Penn said in a statement.
"The Cannes Film Festival has long been the epicenter in the discovery of those new waves of filmmakers from all over the world. I very much look forward to participating in this year's festival as president of the jury," Penn said.
