Actor Song Kang-ho is a jury member at this year's Cannes Film Festival slated for next month. He is shown here giving an interview at the festival on May 25, 2019. (Yonhap News)

By Yoon Hee Young

Actor Song Kang-ho will serve as a jury member at the 74th Cannes Film Festival slated for next month.

The festival on June 23 announced the appointment of nine actors and directors active in seven countries to the jury, with American director Spike Lee as president.

The jury will evaluate the 24 films in this year's competition section.

The actors on the jury are Song; Tahar Rahim of France from "The Kindness of Strangers" and "The Mauritanian"; Maggie Gyllenhaal of the U.S. from "The Kindergarten Teacher" and "Frank"; and Melanie Laurent of France from "Night Train to Lisbon" and "Now You See Me."

The other members are French Senegalese director Mati Diop, Canadian French singer Mylene Farmer, Austrian director Jessica Hausner and Brazilian director Kleber Mendonca Filho.

The festival said in a statement announcing Song's selection, "He played a lead role in Bong Joon-ho's masterpiece 'Parasite,' the first Korean film to win the Palme d'Or at the Festival de Cannes and later earning four Oscars, and played a key role in writing a new page in Korean cinematic history."

The actor is the fifth Korean to serve on the jury after directors Shin Sang-ok (1994), Lee Chang-dong (2009) and Park Chan-wook (2017) and actor Jeon Do-yeon (2014).

Song's latest film, "Emergency Declaration," a disaster-action thriller co-starring Lee Byung-hun, was also invited to the Out of Competition category at Cannes.

Usually held in May every year, the festival in the southern French city was rescheduled this year to July 6-17 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

hyyoon@korea.kr