Oscar-winning New Zealand director Jane Campion will head the jury for the Cannes Film Festival in May, organisers have announced.
Campion won an Oscar for best screenplay for her 1993 film The Piano and is still the only woman ever to win the top Cannes prize, the Palme d'Or, for the same film.
She succeeds US director Steven Spielberg who headed the jury last year.
"Since I first went to Cannes with my short films in 1986 I have had the opportunity to see the festival from many sides and my admiration for this queen of film festivals has only grown larger," she said in a statement.
Campion was born in Wellington and originally studied to be an anthropologist. She started making short films in the 1980s and won the top Cannes prize for a short feature in 1986. Her first feature film was Sweetie (1989) followed by An Angel at My Table (1990) and The Piano.
