Kelvin Harrison Jr. is heading to the south of France. The Golden Globes and the Artemis Rising Foundation announced that Harrison Jr. will join the jury and present the second annual Golden Globes Documentary Prize for Impactful Storytelling at the 79th Cannes Film Festival.
The award presentation will take place at an invitation-only event on Monday, May 18, at the Plage des Palmes in Cannes, with the winner receiving a €10,000 cash prize.
The prize, now in its second year, is designed to honor a filmmaker whose work demonstrates exceptional storytelling and a meaningful contribution to documentary filmmaking, particularly in addressing urgent global and social issues.
The finalists are drawn from filmmakers with a documentary either in the Official Selection of the 79th Cannes Film Festival, side events, or special screenings, each demonstrating a sustained commitment to the form.
“I’m honored to support this important prize and to celebrate the extraordinary documentary filmmakers whose work shines a light on urgent stories around the world,” Harrison Jr. said in a statement.
The Golden Globes and Artemis Rising Foundation described Harrison Jr. as representing “a new generation of talent deeply committed to storytelling with cultural and social relevance.”
His current and upcoming work makes that framing concrete: he voiced Taka in Mufasa: The Lion King, is set to portray Jean-Michel Basquiat in Samo Lives, and will star in The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, coming to theaters this fall.
The full jury for the prize at Cannes 2026 includes Golden Globes president Helen Hoehne, producer and Artemis Rising Foundation founder Regina K. Scully, producer and Impact Partners co-founder Geralyn White Dreyfous, and founder and CEO of Think-Film Impact Production, Danielle Turkov Wilson.
The finalists under consideration are a notable group: Steven Soderbergh, Pegah Ahangarani, Ron Howard, Christophe Dimitri Réveille, David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas, Gessica Genéus, Diego Luna, Alexander Murphy, and Leah Nelson.
Last year, in its inaugural edition at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, the prize went to Eugene Jarecki for The Six Billion Dollar Man, with a jury that included Tessa Thompson.
The winner will be announced on May 18 in Cannes.
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