Oscar Winner Chloé Zhao Set for Venice Film Festival Jury

Multiple Oscar-winning Chinese-American director Chloé Zhao, whose “Nomadland” launched from the Venice Film Festival last year, is set to return to the Lido as a member of the upcoming fest’s main jury, which will comprise four women and three men.

As previously announced, “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho, another recent multiple Oscar winner, will preside over the jury of the event’s upcoming edition.

They will be serving jury duty on the Lido alongside French actor Virginie Efira, who most recently starred in Paul Verhoeven’s “Benedetta”; the U.K.’s Cynthia Erivo, who plays Aretha Franklin in the third season of National Geographic’s “Genius” series; and Canadian actor and producer Sarah Gadon who made a splash in Venice in 2011 with her role in David Cronenberg’s “A Dangerous Method” and more recently appeared in Xavier Dolan’s “The Death and Life of John F. Donovan.”

Italian director Saverio Costanzo (“My Brilliant Friend”) and Romanian helmer Alexander Nanau, whose Oscar-nominated doc “Collective” premiered in Venice in 2019, round off the jury that will be presenting the Golden Lion.

Venice fest organizers on Wednesday also announced that Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić (“Quo Vadis, Aida?”) will preside over the jury of the Orizzonti (Horizons) section, which is dedicated to more cutting edge works.

The five-member Horizons jury also comprises Norwegian director Mona Fastvold, whose “The World to Come” launched from Venice last year; Iranian director Shahram Mokri, whose “Fish/Cat” won the 2013 Orizzonti Special Prize for innovative content; Italian novelist Nadia Terranova, and Josh Siegel who is the curator of the film department at the MoMA in New York.

Finally, the members of the jury for the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film – Lion of the Future are: Britain-based Italian producer and director Uberto Pasolini (“The Full Monty”), who will serve as president; Austrian film critic, academic and festival director Martin Schweighofer; and Argentinian visual artist and film director Amalia Ulman, whose feature debut “El Planeta” launched earlier his year from Sundance.

They will award a $100,000 cash prize donated by Italy’s Filmauro, to be divided equally between the director and the producer of the best first work across all festival sections.

The 78th edition of Venice will run Sept. 1-11. The lineup will be announced on July 26.

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