The Most Educated Juror at Cannes 2026

A Vatican philosophy student turned Glasgow solicitor. A Bond villain with a Master’s in physics. Inside the surprising academic credentials of the 28 people deciding this year’s Palme d’Or.

The Cannes Film Festival opened on 12 May and closes on 23 May with the Palme d’Or. Between now and then, 4 juries totalling 28 people will spend their days in dark rooms deciding who has made the best films of the year.

It is also, by a comfortable margin, the most credentialed room in show business right now.

A close audit of the 2026 jurors across the Main Competition, Un Certain Regard, La Cinef and Short Films, and Caméra d’Or turns up: at least 7 postgraduate degrees from named universities (one for every 4 jurors), 2 qualified professionals (a lawyer and a licensed pilot), 1 Fulbright Scholar, 2 honorary doctorates awarded 23 years apart, at least 17 nationalities across the four panels – and, depending on how you count, 1 former trainee priest.

So who is the most educated jury member of Cannes 2026? Two contenders separate themselves from the field – and the answer depends on how you measure it.

The Four Juries: Who Is Actually Judging What at Cannes 2026

Before the deep dive, the cast list. Cannes 2026 fields four separate juries – each with its own president, its own brief and its own corner of the festival to assess.

Main Competition Jury (9 members, decides the Palme d’Or)

• Park Chan-wook (President) – South Korea
• Paul Laverty – UK
• Isaach De Bankolé – Côte d’Ivoire / France
• Chloé Zhao – China / US
• Ruth Negga – Ireland
• Stellan Skarsgård – Sweden
• Demi Moore – US
• Diego Céspedes – Chile
• Laura Wandel – Belgium

Un Certain Regard Jury (5 members)

• Leïla Bekhti (President) – France
• Laura Samani – Italy
• Thomas Cailley – France
• Khaled Mouzanar – Lebanon
• Angèle Diabang – Senegal

La Cinef & Short Films Jury (5 members)

• Carla Simón (President) – Spain
• Magnus von Horn – Sweden / Poland
• Park Ji-min – South Korea / France
• Ali Asgari – Iran
• Salim Kechiouche – France

Caméra d’Or Jury (5 members, best first feature)

• Monia Chokri (President) – Canada
• Michel Benjamin – France
• Cedric Coppola – France
• Marine Francen – France
• Christophe Massie – France

Meet Paul Laverty: Trainee Priest. Glasgow Solicitor. Fulbright Scholar. Two-Time Palme d’Or Winner.

If you tally degrees, licences and scholarships, the winner is Paul Laverty, the British screenwriter on Park Chan-wook’s main jury. 

By the numbers: 5 separately earned credentials from 5 named institutions across 4 countries (Italy, Scotland, the US, and an honorary doctorate back in Scotland).

Laverty’s CV reads like 3 biographies stitched together. He took a BA in Philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome – the Vatican’s flagship theological institution – having trained for the Catholic priesthood.

He then changed direction, returned to Scotland, and earned an LLB in Law from Strathclyde Law School in Glasgow. He qualified as a Scottish solicitor and practised law. In 1984 he won a Fulbright scholarship to the United States. In 2003 Strathclyde awarded him an honorary doctorate – 19 years after the Fulbright, and the 1st of only 2 honorary doctorates held by anyone on this year’s juries.

Between the priesthood and the screenwriting, he also spent years doing human-rights work in Sandinista-era Nicaragua. He has since written every Ken Loach screenplay since 1996 – 30 consecutive years of collaboration, across roughly 15 films – including the 2 Palme d’Or winners The Wind That Shakes the Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016). The 2 Palmes are exactly 10 years apart.

It is, on paper, the most varied CV at the festival.

Yes, the Bond Villain Judging the Palme d’Or Has a Master’s in Physics

If your metric is the highest academic level reached, the answer is Isaach De Bankolé – the Ivorian-French actor best known to global audiences as the terrorist financier Steven Obanno in Casino Royale. His credential count: 3 qualifications in 3 different disciplines (science, aviation, drama).

De Bankolé holds a Master’s degree in Physics and Mathematics from the Université de Paris. After completing it, he trained as a pilot – he holds a private pilot’s licence – before enrolling at Cours Simon, the Paris drama school, where he picked up the acting diploma that launched his screen career.

A maths Master’s outranks Laverty’s 2 bachelor’s degrees on the academic ladder. A pilot’s licence is the kind of thing that goes well in a magazine profile. The Bond-villain-with-a-physics-degree image is its own reward.

The Receipts: Every Cannes 2026 Juror, Ranked by Degree

The most credentialed jurors at Cannes 2026, ranked:

Rank	Name	Jury	Credentials	Count
1	Paul Laverty	Main Competition	BA Philosophy (Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome) + LLB Law (Strathclyde, Glasgow) + qualified Scottish solicitor + Fulbright Scholar (1984) + Honorary PhD, Strathclyde (2003)	5
2	Isaach De Bankolé	Main Competition	MA Physics & Mathematics, Université de Paris + aviation school (private pilot’s licence) + diploma from Cours Simon drama school	3
3	Chloé Zhao	Main Competition	BA Political Science (film minor), Mount Holyoke College (2005) + MFA Film, NYU Tisch	2
4	Carla Simón	La Cinef & Short Films President	BA Audiovisual Communication, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona + exchange year, University of California + MA Filmmaking, London Film School (2014)	2 + 1 exchange
5	Magnus von Horn	La Cinef & Short Films	MA Film Directing, Łódź Film School (2013); currently teaches there	1 (postgrad)

A second tier – solid undergraduate degrees from named universities – includes Park Chan-wook himself.

Name	Jury	Education
Park Chan-wook	Main Competition President	BA Philosophy + Journalism (double major), Sogang University (1986)
Ruth Negga	Main Competition	BA Acting Studies (with distinction), Samuel Beckett Centre, Trinity College Dublin (2002); Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of Limerick (Feb 2026)
Park Ji-min	La Cinef & Short Films	Baccalaureate + studies at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs (ENSAD), Paris
Monia Chokri	Caméra d’Or President	Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal (2005)
Laura Wandel	Main Competition	Institut des Arts de Diffusion (IAD), Louvain-la-Neuve (2007)
Stellan Skarsgård	Main Competition	Royal Dramatic Theatre, Stockholm (apprenticeship/ensemble, 1972–88) – 16 years

The Main Jury, By the Numbers

Zoom in on the 9 main jurors – the people actually voting on the Palme – and the numbers are striking:

• 5 of 9 (56%) hold at least 1 earned degree from a named university
• 3 of 9 (33%) hold an earned postgraduate degree (Laverty’s LLB + solicitor qualification, De Bankolé’s MA, Zhao’s MFA)
• 2 of 9 (22%) hold an honorary doctorate
• 2 of 9 (22%) are qualified professionals outside film (1 lawyer, 1 pilot)
• 2 of 9 (22%) studied philosophy as undergraduates
• 1 of 9 (11%) never finished high school
• The 9 jurors trained in at least 6 countries: South Korea, Italy, Scotland, France, the US, Ireland, Sweden, Belgium

The Hidden Pattern: Why Cannes Keeps Crowning Philosophy Majors

A pattern emerges once the data is laid out. Several of the most decorated names at this year’s festival studied philosophy or literature before they ever picked up a camera.

Park Chan-wook, the main jury president, double-majored in Philosophy and Journalism at Sogang University in Seoul, graduating in 1986 – exactly 40 years ago. Paweł Pawlikowski, whose new film is in competition, took a degree in Literature and Philosophy at Queen Mary University of London before starting (but never finishing) a doctorate on German literature at Oxford. Laverty, as noted, was a Gregorian philosopher. Add Asghar Farhadi – BA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Tehran, MA in Stage Direction from Tarbiat Modares – and you have a competition slate that reads like a graduate seminar. Across just those 4 names: 6 humanities degrees and 1 abandoned doctorate, against 0 STEM credentials.

Add De Bankolé as the lone STEM outlier (1 of roughly 28) and you have the unfashionable defence of the liberal arts degree, made by a roomful of Palme d’Or winners.

And Then There’s Demi: The Lone Dropout in the Most Credentialed Room at Cannes

In a roomful of degrees, 1 main-jury seat out of 9 (11%) is occupied by a high-school dropout. Demi Moore left Fairfax High School in Los Angeles at age 16 – 2 years before the legal minimum for a US bachelor’s degree – and never went to college. She is, on the strength of 40+ years’ work and an Oscar-nominated turn in The Substance, undisputedly qualified to judge the Palme.

Quick Note

This piece counts degrees, certificates, scholarships and licences from named institutions. It is not a ranking of intelligence, taste, or fitness for the role. Stellan Skarsgård never went to university – he apprenticed at the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm for 16 years from 1972 – and is, by any sensible measure, one of the most cultivated film actors of his generation.

Conservatoire training in acting, directing or composition is its own form of higher education, and one that at least 4 jurors hold instead of, or alongside, a university degree.

The Verdict: One Wins on Paperwork. The Other Wins the Internet.

If the question is asked the way Cannes itself answers questions – with a single jury delivering a single verdict – Paul Laverty takes the Palme, with 5 credentials to De Bankolé’s 3.

 2 earned degrees from named universities, 1 qualifying professional licence, 1 Fulbright, 1 honorary doctorate, and a working life that ran from training for the priesthood in Rome, through legal practice in Glasgow, through Sandinista-era Nicaragua, to 2 Palmes d’Or with Ken Loach across a 30-year collaboration. On a count of paperwork, nobody else in any of the 4 juries is close.

But De Bankolé wins the better story. “Physics Master’s, pilot’s licence, Cours Simon, Bond villain, Palme d’Or juror” – 5 nouns, 1 sentence – sells itself. Laverty’s life is the better essay; De Bankolé’s is the better tweet.

The deeper finding is this. When the Palme d’Or is announced on Saturday 23 May, the 9 people deciding it will include 1 Vatican-trained philosopher, 1 physics graduate, 1 Sogang philosophy major who made Oldboy, 1 Mount Holyoke and NYU Tisch alumna who won Best Director for Nomadland, and – over in the competition slate they’re judging – 1 literature-and-philosophy student who made Cold War. Cannes’ reputation as the most serious room in cinema is, this year, an academic fact as much as a critical one.

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Sources: festival-cannes.com, Wikipedia, Britannica, Encyclopedia.com, official communications from Mount Holyoke College, NYU Tisch School of the Arts, Trinity College Dublin, the University of Limerick, Strathclyde Law School, Sogang University, London Film School and the Pontifical Gregorian University, plus coverage in Deadline, Variety, The Guardian, The New York Times and the Korea Herald. Honorary doctorates have been distinguished from earned degrees throughout.