Mad Max director George Miller to preside over Cannes film festival

“Throughout his career, George Miller has constantly experimented with a variety of genres, brilliantly reconciling mass audience expectations and the highest artistic standards”, they said in a statement. The critically-acclaimed film is now nominated for 10 Academy Awards, including a best director for Miller and for best picture.

Miller has said the road movies were inspired by his own childhood in the rural, car-obsessed region of Queensland in Australia, where he grew up as the son of Greek immigrants.

“To spend time in passionate discourse with fellow members of the jury”.

The Cannes Film Festival runs from May 11th to 22nd.

Fury Road director is set to preside over the panel of judges which will select winners of awards at the cinema event, including the prestigious Palme d’Or prize.

Miller was one of a quartet of talented and commercially successful Australian film-makers to have emerged in the 1980s, led by Peter Weir (“Picnic At Hanging Rock”, “The Truman Show”), Bruce Beresford (“Driving Miss Daisy”) and Phillip Noyce (“Patriot Games”).

Overall, Miller’s films defy easy categorisation.

He directed additional “Mad Max” movies in 1981 and 1985, and his fourth sequel released in 2015 was another commercial and critical hit. He previously won an Oscar for best animated feature for “Happy Feet” (2006), and received nominations for producing and writing “Babe” (1995) and for writing “Lorenzo’s Oil” (1992). Members of Miller’s jury will be announced later this year.

Last year, the festival’s organisers also departed from the norm when they appointed maverick double act The Coen Brothers as co-presidents.