Frears to head jury for Cannes Film Festival

British film director Stephen Frears will lead the jury at the 60th Cannes Film Festival in May.

Frears -- whose latest movie is “The Queen,” starring Helen Mirren -- first came to public attention in 1985 with the offbeat film “My Beautiful Laundrette,” which was followed three years later by “Dangerous Liaisons.”

“Of course, it’s an honor, but it’s also a treat to be able to watch terrific films from all over the world in such heady surroundings,” Frears said in a statement. “God save Cannes, as well as the queen.”

Festival President Gilles Jacob called Frears a “great, inspired filmmaker, endowed with freedom of mind and love of making films.”

It wasn’t immediately known who else would serve on the jury, which decides the festival’s highest award -- the Palme d’Or -- and other honors.

Film stars and movie moguls will convene in the Riviera resort city May 16 to 27.

Hong Kong’s Wong Kar-wai, director of “In the Mood for Love,” presided over the 2006 festival jury, which awarded the Palme d’Or to Ken Loach’s “The Wind That Shakes the Barley.”