After the announcement of Park Chan-wook as the jury chair for the Official Competition (see the news) at the 79th Cannes Film Festival (12-23 May), the identity of the person presiding over the Un Certain Regard jury has now been unveiled: the honour will go to French actress Leïla Bekhti (who rose to fame in 2009 in A Prophet, was nominated for the César Award for Best Actress in 2012, 2022 and 2026 for The Source, The Restless and Once Upon My Mother, and got nods for Best Supporting Actress in 2019 and 2024 for Sink or Swim and All Your Faces).

She will be flanked by Italian filmmaker Laura Samani (who shot to fame in the 2021 Critics’ Week with Small Body and took part in Venice Orizzonti last year with A Year of School), French helmer Thomas Cailley (who first made a name for himself in the 2014 Directors’ Fortnight with Love at First Fight and who opened Un Certain Regard in 2023 with The Animal Kingdom), Senegalese producer and director Angèle Diabang (So Long a Letter) and Lebanese composer Khaled Mouzanar (Capernaum).

The jury will be tasked with weighing up the 15 features so far selected (with a few additions due to be announced imminently) for Un Certain Regard (see the article), which this year will be opened by Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma by the USA’s Jane Schoenbrun.