Isabelle Huppert to lead Cannes jury

French actress Isabelle Huppert will head the jury of the 2009 Cannes Film Festival.

The 55-year-old film star who twice won the best actress award at Cannes will succeed Sean Penn as president of the jury panel in the festival's 62nd season.

Huppert has twice served as a Cannes jury member, and will become only the fourth woman to lead it in the festival's six decades.

She won best actress at Cannes in 1978 for her role as a teenage prostitute in Violette Nozière, and in 2001 for her work in The Piano Teacher.

"I have had a long relationship with Cannes and this next meeting will definitely seal my love for the festival and for global cinema," Huppert told Agence France-Presse.

Festival director Thierry Frémaux said Huppert's appointment was a tribute "to someone who has put her popularity to the service of artistic cinema, who has worked with young directors and admiring foreign filmmakers."

Huppert made her film début in 1972 in Faustine et le bel été, and gained wider recognition for her role in Les Valseuses in 1974. She is best known for her collaborations with director Claude Chabrol.

The three other women who led Cannes juries were:

• Actor Liv Ullmann.
• Actor Jeanne Moreau.
• The late writer Françoise Sagan.

The 2009 Cannes festival runs May 13-24.