Oscar Winner Lupita Nyong’o Named 2024 Berlin Festival Jury President

Scott Roxborough
·2 min read
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Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o will be president of the international jury of the 74th Berlin International Film Festival, the Berlinale unveiled on Monday.

The star of 12 Years a Slave, Us and the Black Panther franchise will head up the jury that picks the Gold and Silver Bear winners of the 2024 Berlinale, which runs February 15-25, 2024.

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“Lupita Nyong’o embodies what we like in cinema: versatility in embracing different projects, addressing different audiences, and consistency to one idea that is quite recognizable in her characters, as diverse as they may look. We are happy and proud she has accepted our invitation to be the jury president of the 74th Berlinale,” said Berlinale co-directors Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian in a statement.

Added Nyong’o: “I am deeply honored to serve as the President of the International Jury of the Berlin International Film Festival. I look forward to celebrating and recognizing the outstanding work of filmmakers from around the world.”

The daughter of Kenyan parents was born in Mexico City and grew up in Kenya. Nyong’o studied Film and Theatre Studies at Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts, but produced her first film, In My Genes, which she also wrote and directed, in Kenya in 2009. Her international acting breakthrough came with 12 Years a Slave, which won her the best supporting Oscar in 2014.

Other major roles have included playing Adelaide Wilson/Red in Jordan Peele’s horror drama Us, the warrior Nakia in Marvel’s Black Panther franchise. She will next be seen in the horror franchise spinoff series A Quiet Place: Day One. In addition to her film career, Nyong’o is active on the Broadway stage and wrote the best-selling children’s book Sulwe in 2020. Nyong’o is currently preparing a podcast focussing on nonfictional storytelling from the African diaspora and she is developing a series based on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Americanah. She was an executive producer on Mohamed Kordofani’s Sudanese film Goodbye Julia, Sudan’s official submission for the 2024 Oscars in the best international feature category.

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