Chinese actress and producer Fan Bingbing will sit on the Cannes jury when the festival kicks off next month, organizers said.
Organizers announced on Tuesday that the eight jury members will serve under Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, who will serve as jury president at the 70th Cannes Film Festival.
Fan, born in 1981, rose to fame in 1998 with the mega-hit TV series "My Fair Princess." Since then, she has starred in many films, most notably "Lost in Beijing" (2007), "Buddha Mountain" (2011), and "Double Xposure" (2012). In 2016, she starred in "I Am not Madame Bovary" and received the San Sebastian Film Festival Best Actress Award as well as the 11th Asian Film Best Actress Award. Fan is also selected for the 2017 TIME 100.
"I'm grateful for the recognition from Cannes in choosing me to be a juror," Fan said in a statement after her jury status was made public, "The film festival is the greatest sacred palace of film art, and I'm honored to be one of the jurors of its 70th edition. I do have pressure on me, but this is also a precious opportunity to learn, and to see the best films of the world for a year. I will seriously fulfill my job as a juror."
One of Fan's films has previously been entered into the Cannes' competition: 2010's "Chongqing Blues."
Other filmmakers who join the jury panel are: two-time Oscar nominee Will Smith from the United States; veteran Cannes regulars Park Chan-wook from South Korea; Paolo Sorrentino from Italy; German director Maren Ade; French filmmaker Agnès Jaoui; French composer Gabriel Yared; and the American actress Jessica Chastain.
The Cannes film festival runs from May 17 - 28. Four women and four men will thus help Pedro Almodóvar select from among the films in Competition. The winners will be announced on May 28 at the closing ceremony, following which the Palme d'or will be awarded in the presence of the winning team.