The just-announced competition jury for Cannes ’21 (7.6 thru 7.17): Jury President Spike Lee + actors Maggie Gyllenhaal, Mélanie Laurent, Song Kang-ho (Parasite chauffeur guy) and Tahar Rahim, plus actor-director Mati Diop + Austrian director Jessica Hausner and Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacarau). Singer/songwriter Mylène Farmer is also on the team.

Update: This nine-member jury promises to be one of the most miraculous, heart-stopping, ultra-restorational and soul-tingly in the 74 year-old history of the Cannes Film Festival. I love these members…all of them! Perfect! Glorious! I’m so excited that I’m almost having an anxiety attack. Somebody hand me a small brown paper bag,

The four-men, five-women composition seems reflective of what the usual progressive suspects would probably prefer. Rest assured that once the festival kicks off there’ll be incidents and accidents, hints and allegations.

Who’s predicting an Annette win besides myself? Perhaps an acting trophy for Adam Driver or Marion Cotillard? And don’t forget the anticipation factor favoring Wes Anderson‘s The French Dispatch.

The Cote d’Azur gathering will have fewer top dog journalist-critics in attendance — that’s for sure.