Quentin Tarantino will preside over the jury at the 57th CannesFilm Festival this May organizers announced Friday. The director follows in thefootsteps of Patrice Chereau, David Lynch, Liv Ullman and Luc Besson who have toppedthe jury respectively back to 2000.

Tarantino and Cannes have a long and warm history with thewunderkind's first film Reservoir Dogs having been selected for an official out of competition screening in 1992 and his smashhit Pulp Fictionhaving stormed the Croisette to take the Palme d'Or in 1994.

Volume 2 of Tarantino's latest opus Kill Bill is scheduled for a June 2004 release in France by TF1Miramax joint distribution venture TFM. Although nothing is official,conventional wisdom says that the film could have a special screening duringthe festival.

In a statement, Tarantinosaid: "For a filmmaker and a film lover there is no greater dream than toparticipate on a jury at Cannes. To be the president is at once a wonderfulhonor and a big responsibility. And for me it is the crowning achievement of anexistence entirely devoted to film, my favorite obsession."