Tim Burton to Lead this Year’s Cannes Jury

By our guest blogger, Lita Robinson

Eccentric auteur Tim Burton will be heading up the jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first director whose career began in animation to receive this honor.

The Hollywood reporter quoted Burton as saying the appointment was “a dream come true.” Festival president Gilles Jacob expressed the hope that Burton’s “sweet madness and gothic humor” would invigorate this year’s proceedings. Burton is no stranger to Cannes, however; his unorthodox biopic “Ed Wood” screened at the festival in 1995, and he was a member of the feature-film jury in 1997 (he also served on the short-film jury in 2006).

The festival will run May 12 - 23 this year, falling neatly into Burton’s schedule: his latest, a 3-D “Alice in Wonderland,” is released March 5, 2010, and his exhibition of visual art currently on view at MoMA concludes April 26, 2010.