Vidya Balan named part of Cannes Jury

Vidya Balan is gung ho with the news that she has been made part of the nine-member jury of the 66th Cannes Film Festival that would be headed by Steven Spielberg. The others who will be part of the prestigious jury are, along with Life of Pi director Ang Lee, Oscar-winning actress Nicole Kidman, Oscar-winner Christophe Waltz, Japanese director Naomi Kawase, Scottish director Lynne Ramsay, French actor-director Daniel Auteuil and Romanian director Cristian Mungiu. The jury will award the coveted Palme d'Or prize to one of the 19 films in competition at this year's festival that will run from 15 to 26 May. Here, it may be noted that Shekhar Kapur and Sharmila Tagore have earlier been part of the Cannes jury. Cannes has invited India this year to celebrate 100 years of country's cinema. This year, four Indian films have been selected in different non-competition categories at Cannes. They are Bombay Talkies, Ugly, Dabba and Monsoon Shootout. Apart from Balan, ex-Children Film Society chairperson Nandita Das is also a part of a separate jury for short films.