Mad Max creator George Miller to head 2016 Cannes film festival jury

Populist director behind hit films Happy Feet, Babe, and The Witches of Eastwick, as well as dystopian road movies that made his name, hailed as a cinematic pioneer by festival organisers

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George Miller (right) gives Charlize Theron direction on the set of Mad Max: Fury Road.

Published: 1:03pm, 2 Feb 2016Updated: 1:02pm, 2 Feb 2016

Mad Max creator George Miller will head the jury at this year’s Cannes film festival, its organisers said on Tuesday. He'll be the first Australian to preside over the world’s top film event.

Miller, 70, who also directed The Witches of Eastwick, and launched the career of Hollywood star Mel Gibson and a whole genre of “outback gothic” films with the Mad Max series in 1979, reacted to the news in typically flamboyant fashion.

“What an unmitigated delight,” he said. “Such an honour. I’ll be there with bells on!”

Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road. Cannes festival organisers said (2015) by Australian director George Miller. [ONLINE]

Choosing the unapologetically populist Miller, who also wrote and directed Babe, the world’s first blockbuster about a talking pig, may ruffle the sensibilities of Cannes’ arthouse diehards. He returned to the animal kingdom with the animated 2006 hit about tap-dancing penguins, Happy Feet.

But the organisers were at pains to point to his credentials as a cinematic pioneer.

“Throughout his career, George Miller has constantly experimented with a variety of genres, brilliantly reconciling mass audience expectations and the highest artistic standards,” the organisers said. Mad Max broke the mould, they said, as “an ultra-violent, futuristic film that brought the action film genre a touch of class with its masterly combination of road movie, western and science fiction elements”.