Actor-director Sean Penn will head the jury at the 61st annual Festival de Cannes set to take place from May 14-25, organizers announced Thursday.

American actor and director Sean Penn follows in the footsteps of British director Stephen Frears, whose work includes “High Fidelity” and “Dirty Pretty Things,” in leading the jury at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Frears lead the jury last year and the Palme D’Or went to Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, for “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” the story of a female student who struggles to obtain an illegal abortion during the country’s restrictive Communist era.

In accepting the invitation from the event’s Gilles Jacob and Thierry Fremaux, 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 year's festival as president of the jury,” Penn added.

Penn’s own “Into the Wild,” released in the U. S. on Oct. 19, is already looking at possible wins in the forthcoming award ceremonies. The film is based on the 1996 non-fiction book of the same name by Jon Krakauer and stars Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt and Jena Malone.

Penn’s history with the Cannes Film Festival does not begin here; he has previously won the best male performance prize at the 1997 festival for Nick Cassavetes' “She's So Lovely,” in which he starred alongside wife Robin Wright Penn.

He also presented his first film as writer, director and producer, “The Indian Runner” at the 1991 edition of the event.

Penn received an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Clint Eastwood’s “Mystic River.”