U.S. director Alexander Payne has been announced as the president of the main competition jury at this year’s Venice Film Festival, organizers revealed on Monday.
Payne’s acclaimed films, including the comedies The Holdovers, Sideways, and The Descendants, have garnered a total of 24 Oscar nominations, including four for Best Picture and three for Best Director.
He has twice won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay.
“It is an immense honor and a joy to serve on the jury at Venice. While I share a filmmaker’s inherent reservations about comparing films against each other, I deeply respect the Venice Film Festival’s nearly century-long tradition of emphatically celebrating cinema as an art form,” Payne expressed in a statement.
The 82nd edition of the Venice Film Festival, which takes place on the Lido island in the lagoon city, will run from August 27th to September 6th. The films selected for the competition will be announced in July.
Payne’s 2017 comedy, Downsizing, had the honor of opening the festival in 2017.
