Two-time Palme winner Ruben Ostlund to head Cannes jury

Swedish director Ruben Ostlund, a two-time winner of the Palme d’Or, will be jury president at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May, organisers announced Tuesday.

Ostlund, 48, won the festival’s top prize last year for “Triangle of Sadness”, which left audiences squirming over its biting exploration of class divisions on a cruise ship, and extended display of extreme sea sickness.

The film, which stars Woody Harrelson as a drunken Marxist captain, has also earned him three nominations at next month’s Oscars -- for best picture, best director and best original screenplay.

Ostlund also won the Palme five years earlier for “The Square”, with a similarly cringe-inducing look at the art world.

In a statement, Ostlund said he was “happy, proud and humbled to be entrusted with the honour” of leading the jury, which comes exactly 50 years after fellow Swede Ingrid Bergman had the role.

It is the third time a two-time Palme winner has led the jury in Cannes, following Francis Ford Coppola and Emir Kusturica, and the first time it has gone to someone the year after they won.

The selection of films is due to be announced next month, along with the other members of the jury.

Ostlund has become known for his scathing insights into the embarrassing foibles of Western middle classes.

He first gained international attention with 2014’s “Force Majeure” about a father on a ski trip who rescues his mobile phone before his children during an avalanche.

It won the runner-up Jury Prize in the secondary Un Certain Regard section at Cannes.

Three years later, he went straight to the top, winning the Palme d’Or for “The Square”, still set in Sweden but featuring US actor Elisabeth Moss and Britain’s Dominic West.

After his victory last year, Ostlund said his goal with audiences was “to entertain them, to (make them) ask themselves questions, to go out after the screening and have something to talk about.”