Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir, the three-time nominee for Palestine's Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards, has been announced as a jury member for the Un Certain Regard section of this year's Cannes Film Festival.
Un Certain Regard is widely viewed as the festival's second official competition, and, as the name implies (Un Certain Regard roughly translates as "A Certain Point of View") seeks to expose films which tell a story in a unique or non-traditional way. Previous prize winners have included Yorgos Lanthimos' Dogtooth and Wim Wenders' The Salt of the Earth.
Jacir herself is no stranger to Cannes. She debuted as a film maker at the festival with her 2003 short Like 20 Impossibles, which looked at film making in occupied Palestine and was the first Arab film ever to be selected in official competition at Cannes' Cinefondation section. Five years later, Jacir returned to Cannes with her debut feature Salt of the Sea (no relation to Wenders' Salt of the Earth), this time in competition in Un Certain Regard, the section she is now judging.
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Jacir was most recently seen in cinemas with her latest feature Wajib, which picked up the Muhr Arab award at last December's Dubai International Film Festival and is up for several awards at the Arab Cinema Centre Critics' Awards, due to be presented at Cannes on Saturday night.
Jacir is joined on the jury by president Benicio Del Toro, star of Traffic and Che, French actress Virginie LeDoyen, Russian director Kantemir Balegov, and Telluride Film Festival director Julie Huntsinger. Jacir said of the appointment: "Exactly 10 years after the premiere of Salt of the Sea, I am invited back as jury of my favourite and the most interesting section in the festival: Un Certain Regard. Truly, truly honoured."
