The Swedish director is currently riding high. Triangle of Sadness, a capitalism satire starring Woody Harrelson, Harris Dickinson, Dolly De Leon and the late Charlbi Dean, won Cannes’ Palme d’Or for best film last year, the director’s second, after his 2017 win for the art world satire The Square.

Buoyed by its Palme d’Or win, Triangle of Sadness has become Östlund’s most commercially successful film, with a box office of $24 million and counting.

After sweeping the European Film Awards, winning best film, best director and best screenwriter honors for Östlund, as well as the best actor honor for co-star Zlatko Buric, Triangle of Sadness picked up 3 Oscar nominations, Best Film, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay.

His second and third features, Involuntary (2008), and Play (2011), screened in the festival’s Un Certain Regard and Directors’ Fortnight sidebars, respectively.

Östlund’s breakout film, the 2014 dramedy Force Majeure, also premiered on the Côte d’Azur, winning the Un Certain Regard jury prize.

“I am happy, proud, and humbled to be trusted with the honor of Jury president for this year’s Competition at the Festival de Cannes,” Östlund said in a statement. “Nowhere in the film world is the anticipation as strong as when the curtain rises on the films in competition at the festival. It is a privilege to be part of it, together with the Cannes audience of connoisseurs. I am sincere when I say that cinema culture is in its most important period ever. The cinema has a unique aspect: There, we watch together, and it demands more on what is shown and increases the intensity of the experience. It makes us reflect in a different way than when we dopamine scroll in front of the individual screens.”

Cannes said that by naming Östlund jury president, it was paying tribute “to films that are uncompromising and forthright and which constantly demand that viewers challenge themselves and that art continue to invent itself.”

Östlund is the first Swedish Cannes jury president since Ingrid Bergman in 1973.

Two-Time Palme d’Or Winner

Östlund is also the third two-time Palme d’Or winner to head up the jury, following Francis Ford Coppola and Emir Kusturica.

Cannes will announce this year’s competition line up in April.

The 76th Cannes Film Festival runs May 16-27, 2023.