Venice Film Festival Jury: Johnnie To, Kaouther Ben Hania, Shahrbanoo Sadat and More Join President Maggie Gyllenhaal

The main jury roster for this year’s Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, with Hong Kong filmmaking giant Johnnie To, Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania and Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat among those joining previously announced competition president Maggie Gyllenhaal.

To will be returning as a Venice juror after previously being on the same jury in 2008. Four of his films have premiered on the Lido: “Throw Down” (2004); “Exiled” (2006); “Mad Detective” (2007), which he co-directed with Ka-Fai Wai; and “Life Without Principle” (2011). Ben Hania was in Venice last year with “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which premiered to more than 20 minutes of thunderous applause and then won the Silver Lion.

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Sadat’s “No Good Men” — which mixes romance, politics and humor in ways that Afghan cinema has never done before — opened this year’s Berlin Film Festival. The Afghan filmmaker’s previous two films, 2016’s ”Wolf and Sheep” and 2019’s ”The Orphanage,” both premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.

Rounding off the Venice competition jury roster are French director and screenwriter Xavier Giannoli, who has competed for Venice’s Golden Lion three times over the last decade with “Superstar” (2012), “Marguerite” (2015) and Honoré de Balzac adaptation “Lost Illusions” (2021); British composer and artist Daniel Blumberg, who won an Oscar for “The Brutalist” score; and U.S.-based Italian film academic Francesco Casetti, who is Sterling Professor of Humanities and Film and Media Studies at Yale.

In addition to awarding the Golden Lion for best film, the competition jury will also be responsible for handing out the Silver Lion grand jury prize, Silver Lion for best director, Coppa Volpi for best actress, Coppa Volpi for best actor, special jury prize, best screenplay and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for new young actor or actress.

The 83nd edition of Venice will run Sept. 2-12. The lineup will be announced on July 23.