American actress Kristen Stewart will in February head the jury at Berlin's international film festival, Europe's first major cinema showcase of the year, organisers said last Friday.

The Berlinale, as the event is known, said Stewart, 32, would be the youngest person in its 73-year history to lead the panel selecting the winners of the Golden and Silver Bear top prizes.
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Festival chiefs Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian called the star of Spencer (2021) and The Twilight Saga (2008 to 2012) "one of the most talented and multi-faceted actors of her generation".

"Young, shining and with an impressive body of work behind her, Kristen Stewart is the perfect bridge between US and Europe," they said in a statement.

Considered one of Hollywood's major young talent, Stewart began her career as a child actress, starring alongside American actress Jodie Foster in director David Fincher's Panic Room (2002).

The five-part Twilight movies made Stewart and English actor Robert Pattinson global superstars. Both have harnessed their box-office bankability to pursue projects with independent directors on each side of the Atlantic.

In 2015, Stewart became the first American to win France's Cesar film award, for her role alongside French actress Juliette Binoche in Clouds Of Sils Maria (2014).

Two years later, Stewart marked her directorial and screenwriting debut with the short film Come Swim (2017) and, in 2018, served on the main jury at the Cannes film festival.

She was nominated in 2022 for an Academy Award as best actress for her turn as Princess Diana in Chilean film-maker Pablo Larrain's drama Spencer.

The Berlinale, which will run from Feb 16 to 26, ranks with Cannes and Venice among Europe's top three film festivals and serves as an early annual launchpad for the industry.

Spanish director Carla Simon won the Golden Bear for best film in 2022 for Alcarras, a Catalan drama about peach farmers.

Organisers announced in November that three-time Oscar winner Steven Spielberg, 75, would attend the event to pick up an Honorary Golden Bear prize for lifetime achievement.