An Iranian in the Jury of the 69th Cannes Film Festival

Katayoun Shahabi, an international distributor of Iranian cinema, will be among the jury members of the competitive section of the 69th Cannes Film Festival. This year, eight filmmakers, including four men and four women from around the world, will form the jury of the Cannes Film Festival's competitive section, chaired by George Miller, the Australian director of Mad Max. Katayoun Shahabi, a private sector international distributor of Iranian cinema, Arnaud Desplechin, a French director and writer, Kristen Dunst, an American actress, Valeria Golino, an Italian actress, director, writer, and producer, Mads Mikkelsen, a Danish actor, Laszlo Nemes, an Oscar-winning Hungarian director, Vanessa Paradis, a French actress and singer, and Donald Sutherland, a Canadian actor, are this year's main jury members. According to the Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA), throughout the history of the Cannes Film Festival, nine Iranian filmmakers have been part of various juries, comprising two men and seven women. Five jury positions have been held by Iranian male filmmakers and nine by Iranian female filmmakers, totaling 14 jury positions awarded to Iranian filmmakers in Cannes history. Abbas Kiarostami, Samira Makhmalbaf, Bahman Ghobadi, Marjane Satrapi, Niki Karimi, and Leila Hatami are among the Iranian filmmakers who have served on the juries of Cannes in previous years. According to Fars News Agency, Katayoun Shahabi, representing Iran among this year's jury members, holds a PhD in French literature and began her cinema career in the early 1980s at the Farabi Cinema Foundation. Since 2001, she has been active as the CEO of Shahrzad International Media, focusing on exporting cultural cinema products outside Iran and distributing these works globally. In 2012, she also established the French company Nouri Pictures in Paris, which has distributed films such as Tales, Wednesday 19 Ordibehesht, and Nahid. This year, two feature films from Iranian cinema will be showcased at the Cannes Film Festival. Asghar Farhadi will compete with his new film 'The Salesman' among 20 other filmmakers. 'The Salesman' is Farhadi's seventh feature film, starring Taraneh Alidoosti, Shahab Hosseini, Mina Sadati, and Babak Karimi. 'Inversion' directed by Behnam Behzadi will also be screened in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival, featuring actors Ali Mosaffa and Sahar Dolatshahi.