Tom Hooper is headed to China. The celebrated U.K. director will lead the jury selecting the winner of the 2013 Golden Goblet Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival, which runs June 15-23.
Past jury presidents at the Shanghai festival include Luc Besson, Danny Boyle, Barry Levinson, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Wong Kar-wai, John Woo, and Chen Kaige.
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“I was most touched and honored to have been asked to serve as President of the Jury at this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival. I am delighted to accept this invitation and am very much looking forward to my stay in Shanghai and participating in this year’s Festival,” Hooper said.
The festival will also screen a selection of Hooper’s films in its “Tribute To Masters” section.
“I have great admiration for the Festival’s efforts to provide a platform for directors to realize their dreams as this is, of course, close to my heart. The Shanghai International Film Festival joins those great festivals around the world devoted to maintaining the integrity of the motion picture as a timeless artistic medium and I am privileged to be a part of it,” he added.
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Hooper, 40 years old, won the Best Director Oscar for The King’s Speech in 2011. His Les Miserables from 2012 earned over $435 million internationally, but was somewhat of a box-office disappointment in China.
