Cannes’ 2026 Un Certain Regard jury will include the Senegalese producer and director Angele Diabang. She will be joined by Italian director Laura Samani, Lebanon composer Khaled Mouzanar, and French director Thomas Cailley in a jury led by French actress Leïla Bekhti as President.
Last year, Diabang was responsible for bringing an adaptation of Mariama Bâ’s popular novel So Long a Letter to the big screen. The film was screened at the Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland among other venues. In 2019, her short A Tune of Kora won an award at FESPACO.
In a bio published on the Cannes website, the festival highlights her work on documentaries, stating that the filmmaker “has been developing a body of work focused on social issues, women’s journeys, and human rights through her production company Karoninka, founded in 2006”.
As part of her work on the jury, Diabang will assess the merit of the 15 films announced by the festival’s director, Thierry Fremaux. Those 15 projects include 3 films from African filmmakers: Rafiki Fariala from the Congo, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo from Rwanda, and Morocco’s Laïla Marrakchi.
Speaking about her role as jury president, Bekhti said, “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”.
