Vicky Krieps, Claes Bang, Emma Mackey, Gilles Lellouche, Kaouther Ben Hania, Andrew Haigh, Ramata-Toulaye Sy and Saïd Hamich Benlarbi will sit on the jury of the 23rd Marrakech International Film Festival under its president, Marion Cotillard. The festival announced the eight names on Thursday 12 November, a month after it named Cotillard.
The nine jurors will give the Étoile d’Or to one of 14 first and second features, the only films eligible for Marrakech’s competition, and announce the winners at the closing ceremony on 28 November. The festival opens on 20 November, with screenings at the Palais des Congrès, the Cinéma Le Colisée and the Musée Yves Saint Laurent Marrakech. Its competition leans heavily on films the festival helped to develop: six of the 14 were backed by its own industry programme, the Atlas Workshops.
Key facts
- Jury: Marion Cotillard (president), Vicky Krieps, Claes Bang, Emma Mackey, Gilles Lellouche, Kaouther Ben Hania, Andrew Haigh, Ramata-Toulaye Sy, Saïd Hamich Benlarbi
- Prize: the Étoile d’Or, for one of 14 first or second features
- Dates: 20 to 28 November 2026; winners on the closing night
- Selection: 76 films from 39 countries across all sections, 10 of them world premieres
- Recent winners: Promised Sky (2025), Happy Holidays (2024), The Mother of All Lies (2023)
Who is on the jury
Four of the jurors are European actors. Krieps, from Luxembourg, won a performance award at Cannes for Corsage. Bang, from Denmark, broke through in Ruben Östlund’s Palme d’Or winner The Square. Mackey, who is French and British, made her name in Sex Education and is next in Greta Gerwig’s Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew. Lellouche, an actor and the director of Beating Hearts, will no longer take part in the festival’s talks programme, Deadline reported.
Three of the filmmakers know the competition’s territory first-hand. The Tunisian director Ben Hania was nominated for Oscars for Four Daughters and The Voice of Hind Rajab. The French-Senegalese director Sy competed at Cannes in 2023 with her debut, Banel & Adama. The Moroccan director and producer Benlarbi competed in Marrakech in 2024 with his second feature, Across the Sea; Screen lists Laïla Marrakchi’s Strawberries, Morocco’s Oscar entry, among his recent credits. Strawberries recently sold to the US and plays in the festival’s gala section. Haigh, the British director of 45 Years and All of Us Strangers, completes the jury; his new film, A Long Winter, plays in the Horizons section.
The 14 films in competition
- Alkebulan, Yassine Marco Marroccu (Morocco, Hungary, Qatar), world premiere
- Ben’imana, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo (Rwanda, Gabon, France, Norway)
- Cairo Shadows (Les Chiffonniers du Caire / Fi zelal al Qahera), Rani Massalha and Salem Massalha (France, Belgium, Tunisia, Egypt), world premiere
- Chronicles from the Siege (Chroniques des années de siège), Abdallah Al-Khatib (Algeria, France, Palestine)
- Congo Boy, Rafiki Fariala (Central African Republic, France, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy)
- A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra (Mia mera sti zoi tis Tzo: Kefalaio Faidra), Jacqueline Lentzou (Greece, Germany, France)
- Eklipse, Manuel Wetscher (Austria, Italy)
- Furies, Rami Kodeih (Lebanon, Brazil)
- House of the Wind (La Maison du vent), Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu (Cameroon, France, Belgium, Benin, Saudi Arabia, Qatar)
- Marie Madeleine, Gessica Généus (France, Haiti, Belgium, Luxembourg, Canada)
- Our Share of Sand, Shalini Adnani (United Kingdom, India, Greece)
- Sad Girlz (Chicas tristes), Fernanda Tovar (Mexico, Spain, France)
- Waves of Silence, Farzad Samsami (Norway, Morocco, Sweden), world premiere
- The World Before (Cheot segye), Yoon Dan-bi (South Korea, Japan, France)
By FilmBunch’s count from the festival’s selection list, six of the 14 competition films (Alkebulan, Ben’imana, Cairo Shadows, Chronicles from the Siege, Congo Boy and Furies) were supported by the Atlas Workshops, Marrakech’s industry and talent programme, and eight were made in or co-produced with African or Arab countries. Three are world premieres.
Our reading
Marrakech’s competition is partly a showcase for its own development work: six of the 14 films came through the Atlas Workshops, and three of the nine jurors are directors from Africa and the Arab world. For the producers and sales agents behind those titles, an Étoile d’Or is a credential to carry into the first markets of 2027, when a first or second feature needs every reason a buyer can find to take a risk on it.
The calendar matters too. Marrakech closes a run of regional festivals that began with the Cairo International Film Festival and Nigeria’s AFRIFF, where Uganda’s Slum Bomber won the top prize this month. The next evidence is the 28 November prize list and whatever sales follow it.
Sources
- Marrakech International Film Festival jury statement, as reported by Deadline (12 November 2026)
- Screen International, Vicky Krieps, Claes Bang, Emma Mackey, Andrew Haigh join Marrakech film festival jury (12 November 2026)
- Variety, Claes Bang, Emma Mackey, Vicky Krieps and more join Marion Cotillard in Marrakech jury (12 November 2026)
- Marrakech International Film Festival, official selection release (2 November 2026)
- Marrakech International Film Festival, Marion Cotillard to preside over the jury (13 October 2026, French)