French actress Leïla Bekhti will head Cannes’ Un Certain Regard jury, the festival announced on Friday. The 79th festival will take place May 12-23, 2026. The Un Certain Regard selection focuses on burgeoning auteurs.
“For my first time as Jury President, I will find myself in the unique position of watching, listening, sharing, and celebrating,” Bekhti said in a statement. “Working in cinema 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. I look forward to the exchanged perspectives, the dialogues, and the 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.”
Bekhti, who first broke out in Jacques Audiard’s 2009 Cannes Grand Prix winner, “A Prophet,” will be joined on the jury by Senegalese producer Angèle Diabang, Lebanese composer Khaled Mouzanar, Italian director Laura Samani and French director Thomas Cailley.
In 2011, Bekhti won the César Award for Most Promising Actress for “All That Glitters,” directed by Hervé Mimran and Géraldine Nakache. Her other notable credits include “Paris, je t’aime,” Radu Mihaileanu’s “The Source,” Gilles Lellouche’s “Sink or Swim” and Joachim Lafosse’s “The Restless,” Lucie Borleteau’s “Perfect Nanny” and Ken Scott’s “Once Upon My Mother.” Next up is Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Changer l’eau des fleurs.”
Last year, British filmmaker Molly Manning Walker was president of the Un Certain Regard jury, which awarded Chile’s Diego Céspedes with its prize for his debut film, “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.”
