He was the first Thai film-maker to win an award at Cannes, now he's the first Thai to sit on the jury. Nothing can stop Apichatpong Weeraseth-akul from reaching the peak

Internationally renowned director Apichatpong Weerasetha-kul will be the first Thai national to join other big-screen greats as a judge in the Cannes film festival jury.

The avant-garde director was also the first Thai to win the Cannes Jury Prize in 2004 for "Sud Pralad" ("Tropical Malady").

Hollywood actor and director Sean Penn will chair the jury, which will include the likes of actress Natalie Portman and Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron. They will be judging some 20 films by renowned film-makers, including Clint Eastwood, Walter Selles, Atom Egoyan and Wim Wender.

The Cannes film festival this year runs from May 13 to 25.

"Cannes is a kind of surreal film festival with a lot of formal procedures. It is a pretentious event but very charming to get involved in," Apichatpong says.

However, he doesn't think that he has been given a position in the jury to represent the Kingdom as such.

"This invitation will make me grow personally, but won't necessarily bring fame to the country. I was proud to represent Thailand when my film 'Sud Pralad' won the Cannes Jury Prize, but now that I have seen the lack of government support for the film industry, I don't have any reason to feel that way any more," he says.

Though he has been continuously welcomed in prominent film festivals, Thai bureaucrats and the local censorship board have refused to allow the general release of his films. Last week, Apichatpong's controversial "Sang Satawat" ("Syndromes and a Century"), which was selected to compete in the Venice International Film Festival, was released in Thailand with certain scenes blacked out.

"This is a good opportunity for me to learn how juries work in different continents," says the director, who has been a regular jury member in festivals like Pusan, South Korea. However, Cannes is the biggest festival he has ever been involved in.

"It's also a good opportunity for me to keep myself up-to-date. Sometimes living peacefully for far too long is not good," he says. "But I'm not too excited. Jury duty is like fighting for what we love. It should be fun to learn about different opinions and it will be an exciting reunion of members of the film-making family."