Pierre Lescure to be new chairman of Cannes Film Festival

French journalist Pierre Lescure Pierre Lescure, the former boss of French pay-TV operator Canal+, will be named the new chairman of the Cannes Film Festival, his rival for the job Jerome Clement told AFP Thursday. "I was informed before Christmas that it will be Mr Lescure," said Clement, who is the former boss of French-German television channel Arte.
Both Lescure and the festival committee have declined comment ahead of Tuesday's announcement on who would succeed current chairman Gilles Jacob, 84.
Jacob, who has been chairman since 2001, will see through the 67th Cannes film festival which runs from May 14-25 in the southern France resort town before handing over to his successor.
Lescure, a former journalist, launched Canal+ in 1984 and turned it into an international label that is known on both sides of the Atlantic.
In 2000, he oversaw Canal+'s purchase of Universal Studios.
Source: AFP