French actress Leïla Bekhti will preside over the Un Certain Regard jury at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, giving one of the event’s key discovery sections a president with long ties to the Croisette and a career that moves easily between art-house drama and mainstream French hits.
Festival organizers announced the appointment on April 17, then later unveiled the full five-member jury, which includes Senegalese producer Angèle Diabang, Lebanese composer Khaled Mouzanar, Italian director Laura Samani and French filmmaker Thomas Cailley.
Bekhti said in the festival’s statement that serving as jury president would place her “in the most precious seat of all: that of the audience,” framing the task as both “a responsibility and a joy.”
The choice keeps Cannes tied closely to French screen talent in one of its most important sidebars, a section built to spotlight younger filmmakers, first features and auteur work that sits outside the main competition. Last year’s prize went to Diego Céspedes for The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, a debut that later became one of the section’s strongest calling cards.
The appointment also lands after Cannes revealed a 2026 Un Certain Regard lineup of 15 films, including four first features and new work from filmmakers such as Jane Schoenbrun, Jordan Firstman and Yukiko Sode. That slate gives Bekhti and her jury a section with a familiar Cannes mandate: find the breakout title before the rest of the market catches up.
Festival materials describe Un Certain Regard as a home for young cinema, new discoveries and singular voices, and that mission has often turned the section into a launchpad for directors who later move into the main competition.
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Bekhti arrives with her own Cannes history. The festival notes that she first drew major public attention through Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet, which won the Grand Prix in 2009, and that she has returned to the event with titles including Paris, je t’aime, The Source, Sink or Swim and The Restless.
That record gives the selection a president who knows the mechanics of Cannes from inside the machine: the market pressure, the press glare and the speed with which a premiere can change a filmmaker’s standing.
This year’s festival runs from May 12 to May 23, with Park Chan-wook heading the main competition jury. In that setting, Bekhti’s role may draw less attention than the Palme d’Or race, yet Un Certain Regard often shapes the next wave of festival cinema long before awards season catches up.
