Los Angeles (E! Online) - Call him a Cannes man walking.
Fresh off his award-baiting Into the Wild, Sean Penn has agreed to join a new expedition: heading up the jury at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.
Organizers for the 61st edition, scheduled to run from May 14 to May 25, broke the news Thursday on the fests official Website.
In the last few years, Penn said in a statement, it seems there has been a rejuvenation of cinema building worldwide; increasingly thoughtful, provocative, moving and imaginative films by talented filmmakers: that a new generation of filmmaking may have begun.
The Cannes Film Festival has long been the epicenter in the discovery of those new waves of filmmakers from all over the world. I very much look forward to participating in this years festival as president of the jury.
Over his three-decade Hollywood career, Penn has been nominated for four Best Actor Academy Awards, finally winning for his performance as an ex-con seeking retribution for his daughters death in 2003s Mystic River.
He has been making the awards show rounds this season for his latest directorial effort, an elegiac adaptation of Jon Krakauers nonfiction bestseller Into the Wild.
The movie--which chronicles the life Chris McCandless, an idealistic college grad who cuts up his credit cards and hitchhikes to Alaska to live off the wilderness--has received Best Picture and Acting awards and nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the Chicago Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review and the Screen Actors Guild. Its also up for two Golden Globes, for Original Score and Original Song.
British helmer Stephen Frears (The Queen) presided over the Cannes jury last year, which bestowed the Palm dOr to Cristian Mungius abortion drama, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.
Penn, meanwhile, just wrapped a short film that will be featured in 8, a collection of eight shorts shot by famous filmmakers--among them Jane Campion, Gus Van Sant, Win Wenders and Gasper No--focusing on the major challenges the world faces today. The film is expected to be a player on the festival circuit.
On the acting side, Penn has completed work on the immigrant drama Crossing Over, which costars Harrison Ford and Ashley Judd. Next up will be a small role in Terrence Malicks Tree of Life and the lead in Gus Van Sants Milk, a biopic of San Franciscos slain 1970s gay-rights crusading politician Harvey Milk.
The Cannes news comes just a week after it was announced that Penn and actress-wife Robin Wright Penn have decided to seek a divorce after 11 years of marriage. The couple has two teenage children.
