French actress Leïla Bekhti is set to preside over the Un Certain Regard jury at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Bekhti — a Cannes regular who broke out in Jacques Audiard’s “A Prophet” and won the Cesar award for most promising actress in 2011 for “All that Glitters” — will be joined on the jury by Senegalese producer and director Angèle Diabang, Italian director and screenwriter Laura Samani, French director Thomas Cailley and Lebanese composer Khaled Mouzanar.
“Receiving this honor from the Cannes Film Festival is a source of immense joy for me. I feel a deep sense of gratitude,” said Bekhti, who other notable performances include “Paris, je t’aime,” “The Source,” “Sink or Swim” and “The Restless.” “For the first time, I will find myself in this unique position: watching, listening, sharing, celebrating. Making films has taught me that movies are places of encounter—with others, with oneself, with the world. Discovering them alongside a jury, living this timeless experience, is both a responsibility and a joy.”
Bekhti added: “I look forward to these exchanged perspectives, these dialogues, and these doubts as well, which make up the richness of this living art. And, ultimately, I will be there in the most precious seat of all: that of the audience.”
This year’s Un Certain Regard competition is opening with “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” helmed by Jane Schoenbrun and starring Hannah Einbinder (“Hacks”) and Gillian Anderson (“Sex Education”) and also includes Jordan Firstman’s directorial debut “Club Kid” featuring himself, Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva and Eldar Isgandarov. Other films in the 12-strong lineup include Laïla Marrakchi’s “Strawberries,” Sandra Wollner’s “Everytime,” “Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep| from Rakan Mayasi and Abhinash Bikram Shah’s “Elephants in the Fog.”
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