Thomas_Vinterberg_Portrait_© Anders Overgaard

Source: © Anders Overgaard

Thomas Vinterberg

Thomas Vinterberg will chair the jury of the 21st Marrakech International Film Festival in Morocco, which runs from November 29 to December 7.

The jury will award its top prize the Étoile d’Or to one of the 14 first and second features in the festival’s international competition.

A leading light of European auteur cinema, Vinterberg broke out in 1998 when The Celebration (Festen) tied with The Class for the Cannes jury prize.

In 2021, he became the first Danish filmmaker to earn a best director Oscar nomination for Another Round, which won the best international feature award as well as corresponding honours from Bafta, the Cesars and the European Film Awards.

Vinterberg said the Marrakech role was “a great privilege and an honour”, adding: “In this rapidly changing and increasingly divided world, festivals such as Marrakech provide a much-needed window into a wide variety of cultures. Films can describe what cannot be explained. Make us understand the unacceptable. And there is indeed a lot to understand right now.”