Marrakech Unveils 2026 Jury With Claes Bang, Kaouther Ben Hania & Vicky Krieps

The Marrakech Film Festival has unveiled the eight cinema personalities who will be joining its 2026 jury presided over by previously announced Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard.

They are Claes Bang, Vicky Krieps, Emma Mackey, Gilles Lellouche, Kaouther Ben Hania, Andrew Haigh, Ramata-Toulaye Sy and Saïd Hamich Benlarbi.

Together they will decide the winner of the festival’s main competition aimed at first and second films, which will be feted with its Étoile d’Or prize.

In its 23rd edition, the competition aims to discover new voices, give them international visibility, and help them connect with audiences.

Recent winners have included Erige Sehiri’s Promised Sky (2025), Scandar Copti’s Happy Holidays (2024), and Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother of all Lies (2023).

Danish actor Bang arrives fresh from his role as Heinrich Himmler’s masseur in post-World War Two intrigue I Is Another, with his best known known credits including Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner The Square.

Luxembourg’s Vicky Krieps made her mark on the international scene opposite Daniel Day-Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread before receiving an award at Cannes for her performance in Corsage.

Franco-British actor Mackey was discovered in the series Sex Education and went on to star in Death on the Nile and Barbie, will soon be seen in Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew.

France’s Lellouche is known for his roles in Little White Lies, The Stronghold, and All Your Faces, as well as his directorial credits Sink or Swim and Beating Hearts. He will no longer participate in the previously announced talks program.

The jury also includes three filmmakers whose films have crossed borders while retaining their unique character.

Tunisian director Ben Hania, whose Four Daughters and The Voice of Hind Rajab were both nominated for Oscars, has turned the boundary between documentary and fiction cinema into a realm of creativity.

UK filmmaker Haigh is gearing up for the release of his latest feature The Long Winter, having previously won acclaim for 45 and All of Us Strangers, explores romantic intimacy and the weight of the past with rare sensitivity.

Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Sy made waves with first feature Banel & Adama tells a tale of the power of unconditional love with fairy-tale overtones, which premiered in Cannes.

Moroccan director and producer Benlarbi, meanwhile, is familiar with the Marrakech competition from the inside, having competed in 2024 with second feature film Across the Sea.

“From France to Morocco, from Denmark to Tunisia, from the United Kingdom to Senegal via Luxembourg, this jury paints a true picture of contemporary cinema,” the festival said in its statement unveiling the jury.

“Behind the diversity of the jurors’ origins lie as many ways of making films and of immersing ourselves in them. It is from this exchange of experiences and sensibilities that the jury’s deliberations will emerge as they work to arrive at the heralding of a new voice in world cinema,” the festival said in its statement unveiling the jury.

The festival runs from November 20 to 28 with the competition winners unveiled at the closing ceremony on the final night.