MUMBAI: Veteran Indian actress and chairperson of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in India, Sharmila Tagore will be on the Jury of the Competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2009.

The Competition segment will be presided over by French actress Isabelle Huppert. The other members of the jury are Asia Argento (Italy), Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey), Lee Chang-Dong (South Korea), James Gray (US), Hanif Kureishi (UK), Shu Qi (Taiwan) and Robin Wright Penn (US).

Tagore made her acting debut as a child artist in 1959 in the film Apu, directed by Satyajit Ray with whom she would shoot for other films, among which the Goddess, in competition at Cannes.

On the other hand, the Jury Un Certain regard 2009 will be presided by the Italian director and screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino, who awarded the Jury Prize in 2008 for il Divo. He will be accompanied by actress Julie Gayet, director of the Toronto Festival Canada Piers Handling, journalist and festival programmer India Uma Da Cunha and journalist Göteborg Festival Sweden Marit Kapla.

The opening film of Un Certain Regard, programmed for 14 May in the Salle Debussy, will be Nobody Knows About The Persian Cats, directed by the Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi.

The 2009 Camera d’or Jury will be presided by the French actor Roschdy Zem, who directed in 2006 his first film Bad Faith. He will be accompanied by cinematographer Diane Baratier, Federation of Film Technicians’ Olivier Chiavassa, director Sandrine Ray, Critics’ Syndicate Charles Tesson and Edouard Waintrop (Fribourg Film Festival, Switzerland).

The Camera d’or, created in 1978, is attributed to the best first film chosen in the Official Selection, the Critics’ Week or the Director’s Fortnight.

This year, 20 first films will compete for this prize, which will be presented on stage during the closing ceremony on 24 May.