The French actress, Audrey Tautou will host the opening and closing ceremonies of the 66th Festival de Cannes. Next month, on the 15th and 26th May, she will welcome the President, Steven Spielberg, and his Jury onto the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumi?re.

Audrey Tautou, who stars alongside Romain Duris in Michel Gondry’s Moon Indigo due to be released on 24th April, last climbed the red stairs in 2012 for Claude Miller’s posthumous film, Thér?se Desqueyroux.

It was Tonie Marshall who gave Tautou her breakthrough role in Venus Beauty Institute, earning her the César Award for Most Promising Actress in 2000. The actress rose to international fame the following year for her performance as the lead character in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s film, Amélie (2001).

Sought after by directors both in France and abroad ever since, she has starred in films directed by Cédric Klapisch (Pot Luck in 2001 and Russian Dolls in 2005), Alain Resnais (Not on the Lips, 2003), Stephen Frears (Dirty Pretty Things, 2002), and Amos Kollek (Happy End, 2002). In 2004, she teamed up with Jean-Pierre Jeunet again for A Very Long Engagement and in 2006, she starred in Ron Howard’s US mega-production, Da Vinci Code, which was screened at the opening of the Festival de Cannes.

Tautou played the role of a scheming adventuress in Pierre Salvatori’s Priceless (2006), before going on to star as Camille in the adaptation of Anna Gavalda’s best-seller, Ensemble, C'est Tout directed by Claude Berri (2007). She then slipped into the role of Coco Chanel in Anne Fontaine’s film, Coco Before Chanel in 2009. In 2011, she appeared in Jalil Lespert’s Headwinds and David Foenkinos’ adaptation of his own novel, Delicacy.

Audrey Tautou will take over from the actress, Bérénice Béjo, who hosted the Festival’s opening and closing ceremonies in 2012.