French-Algerian actor Tahar Rahim picked for Cannes Film Festival's top prize jury

French-Algerian actor Tahar Rahim will sit on a panel for the top prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Rahim, 39, will be one of nine people on the star-studded jury for the Palme d’Or, along with director Spike Lee and actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, according to a statement published on Thursday on the festival's official website.

Rahim was born to parents from Oran, Algeria in Belfort, north-eastern France.

His breakout performance was in 'A Prophet' in 2009, which won the film festival's Grand Prix – second only to the Palme d’Or in its prestige. He stars in The Mauritanian, a film released earlier this year, as a Guantanamo Bay prisoner held without charge for years. 

In 2015, Rahim was a judge on Cannes' Un Certain Regard ("A Certain Gaze") panel for unusual films.

The festival did not take place last year because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Usually a May affair, it takes place from July 6 to 17 this year.

'Casablanca Beats', a film by French-Moroccan director Nabil Ayouch is one of the 24 films up for the Palme d'Or.

Three Arab filmmakers are on panels elsewhere at the festival. Russia-born Algerian Mounia Meddour will be a juror on the Cinefondation panel for film school entries, while Kaouther Ben Hania, from Tunisia, and Sameh Alaa, from Egypt, will join the six-member short films jury.