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Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o (right) and a guest attend the 3rd Annual Academy Museum Gala at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.--AFP photos
Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o (right) and a guest attend the 3rd Annual Academy Museum Gala at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles.--AFP photos

Lupita Nyong’o named first black Berlinale jury chief

Kenyan-Mexican actor Lupita Nyong’o will in February head up the jury at Berlin’s international film festival, Europe’s first major cinema showcase of the year, organizers said Monday. The Berlinale, as the event is known, told AFP that Nyong’o, 40, would be the first black person in its 74-year history to lead the panel selecting the winners of the Golden and Silver Bear top prizes. Festival chiefs Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian said they were “happy and proud” that Nyong’o, who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in “12 Years a Slave”, had accepted the post.

“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,” they said in a statement. Nyong’o was born to Kenyan parents in Mexico City and then grew up in Kenya before studying film and theatre in the United States, initially working on various film productions there.

Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o arrives for the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.
Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o arrives for the 26th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles.

In 2009 she wrote, produced and directed “In My Genes”, about Kenya’s albino population. Her first major acting breakthrough came when she was cast as Patsey in the hard-hitting Steve McQueen biopic. Her other screen successes include playing the warrior Nakia in the Marvel superhero film “Black Panther” and its sequel, Jordan Peele horror film “Us” and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”.

Nyong’o is also active on the Broadway stage and wrote the New York Times bestselling children’s book “Sulwe” in 2020. The Berlinale, which will run February 15-25, ranks with Cannes and Venice among Europe’s top three film festivals and serves as an early annual launchpad for the industry.

French director Nicolas Philibert won the Golden Bear for best film this year for “On the Adamant”, a documentary about a floating day-care centre for people with psychiatric problems. The festival is due on Tuesday to announce a new director to replace Rissenbeek and Chatrian after its 74th edition.—AFP

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