Good afternoon: This article contains the 2026 Cannes program lineup.
Normally, when you see lineups, it is a long list. What we have done is broken it up into categories:
Cover Story that breaks down the top films at the festival.
Cannes Industry News, which breaks out top distributors.
Cannes Actor Spotlight, highlighting the top talent at the festival.
Cannes Indie Filmmaker Spotlight, showcasing first and second-time filmmakers.
Cannes International News, showing the top international filmmakers at Cannes.
Enjoy!
Everyone is looking to Cannes this year.
Last year’s Cannes Official Selections garnered a strong 19 Oscar-nominations, including 2 Best Picture nominations (Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent), and one win for Best International Film (Sentimental Value). Although this was nowhere close to the previous year’s 31 Oscar nominations, including a Best Picture win for Palme d’Or winner Anora.
Perhaps the films will take a larger bite out of the worldwide box office? Last year’s official selection grossed $110.1M ($20.7M domestic). Again, down from last year’s by over 50% with Cannes 2024’s $250M ($57.4M domestic). For reference, the highest-grossing Palme d’Or film of all time is Parasite (2019) with $263M worldwide.
Here are the highest profile projects rolling into Cannes official selection this year, perhaps destined for awards/high box office returns:
Paper Tiger
Dir/Wri: James Gray
Cast: Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller, and Adam Driver
Prod Co: RT Features (Ad Astra, The Lighthouse)
Distributor: Neon (their 6th film at the festival)
Synopsis:
Two brothers pursue the American Dream but get entangled in a dangerous Russian mafia scheme that terrorizes their family, testing their bond as betrayal becomes possible.
The Man I Love
Dir/Wri: Ira Sachs
Co-Writer: Mauricio Zacharias
Cast: Rami Malek, Rebecca Hall, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach
Synopsis:
In 1980s NYC, an artist experiences a precious window between sickness and mortality - a time when beauty and love remain within reach.
The Unknown
Dir/Wri: Arthur Harari (Oscar + Palme d’or-winning co-writer of Anatomy of a Fall)
Cast: Léa Seydoux
Distributor: Neon
Synopsis:
Photographer David Zimmerman rarely leaves home until friends bring him to a wild party. He becomes fixated on a mysterious woman and follows her. By dawn, his life transforms-he awakens in her body.
Parallel Tales
Dir/Wri: Asghar Farhadi (2x Oscar winner for A Separation and The Salesman)
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel, Catherine Deneuve
Prod Co: Anonymous Content
Synopsis:
Showcases interconnected narratives exploring the November 2015 Paris attacks.
Hope
Dir: Na Hong-jin (The Chaser, The Yellow Sea)
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Hoyeon (Squid Game), and Taylor Russell
Genre: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi
Worldwide Sales Rep: UTA
Synopsis:
A mysterious discovery is made on the outskirts of the remote harbor town. The residents find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against something they have never encountered before
Fatherland
Dir: Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War - Best Director Award at Cannes)
Star: Sandra Hüller
Producer: Edward Berger (Conclave)
Distributor: Mubi
Synopsis:
Explores Thomas Mann’s post-war German life, his family’s stand against Nazi rule and their journey into exile.
Fjord
Dir/Wri: Cristian Mungiu (Palme d’Or winner for: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days)
Cast: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value)
Distributor: Neon
Synopsis:
An immigrant Romanian family living in Norway is subject to an investigation and faces the scrutiny of the local judicial system
The following film was not announced: James Gray’s Paper Tiger, starring Scarlett Johansson, Miles Teller, and Adam Driver (the filmmaker is dealing with a contract issue, and Cannes hopes to announce the film soon). And we’re still hopeful Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard will make it in.
Congrats to all the filmmakers.
THE CANNES INDUSTRY NEWS
Both indie and studio distributors were more tepid this year at Cannes. Notably, A24 and Focus Features don’t have a single film. And Apple is the only major studio with a project.
Here’s a breakdown:
Neon -7 films
5x Official Selection (Paper Tigers, Fjord, The Unknown, All of a Sudden directed by Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) and Sheep in the Box directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Palme d’Or winner: Shoplifters).
Kore-eda’s Sheep in the Box synopsis:
In the near future, a couple takes in a state-of-the-art humanoid into their home as their son.
Poster. Kore-eda’s cinema is flush with improvised families that make tiny, ruinous moral choices. This should be great.
Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden, synopsis:
Two scholars exchange letters about chance and risk. As the philosopher falls ill, their academic correspondence evolves into intimate discussions about mortality and a deeper connection forms between them.
Poster. If you’ve seen Drive My Car, you know where deep meandering conversations lead. Starring Virginie Efira (Benedetta).
1x Out of Competition (Her Private Hell, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and starring Sophie Thatcher and Charles Melton).
Synopsis:
A hypnotic, unhinged thriller with an original story promising plenty of glamour, sex, and violence.
1x Director’s Fornight - Once Upon A Time in Harlem is from New York’s own David Greaves, the son of the late great William Greaves (dir. Symbiopsychotaciplasm: Take One), and premiered at Sundance.
Neon has won 6 Palme d’Or awards in a row.
Mubi - 4 films
2x Official Selection - Fatherland and Minotaur directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan).
1x Out of Competition (Refn’s Her Private Hell for U.K., Ireland, Italy, Spain, and Latin America)
1x Un Certain Regard (opening film) - Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma - this is Jane Schoenbrun’s third feature. It stars Gillian Anderson, Hannah Einbinder, Zach Cherry, and Eva Victor.
Synopsis:
A queer director making a slasher franchise sequel becomes obsessed with casting the original film's 'final girl,' leading both women into psychological and sexual chaos.
Here is the trailer.
Sony Pictures Classics - 1 film
1x Official Selection - Bitter Christmas directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Synopsis:
A woman being abandoned by her partner during Christmas time.
Trailer. It’s bright, frenetic, colorful, dramatic, and blistering. Just like how we want our Almodóvar films.
Apple TV - 1 film
1x Cannes Première (out of competition) - Propeller One-Way Night Coach directed and written by John Travolta
Synopsis:
Based on Travolta's 1997 book. Follows young aviation enthusiast Jeff and his mother on a cross-country flight to Hollywood that transforms into a life-changing journey filled with unexpected moments.
Prime - 1 film
1x Cannes Première (out of competition) - Groundswell (doc) about climate change, species loss, and soil loss. with Narrators Demi Moore and Jason Momoa.
Arte France Cinéma - 2 films
2x Official Selection (A Woman’s Life, The Dreamed Adventure)
The Dreamed Adventure Synopsis:
A woman who agrees to a deal to help an old acquaintance. She follows the hero on his adventure and enters dangerous territory, where she is then confronted with her own desire.
Fifth Season (Severance) co-finances Ron Howard doc Avedon on famed photographer Richard Avedon. It will play in the Special Screenings section.
Bleecker Street has 1 film in the festival in Un Certain Regard, Victorian Psycho starring Maikia Monroe and Jason Isaacs. Releasing Sept 15.
Mk2, legendary sales agent and production company, has 5x films in competition: Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love, Minotaur (Sales Rep, Prod Co), Gentle Monster (Sales Rep), Nagi Notes, and The Birthday Party from Lea Mysius (co-writer on Emilia Pérez) - first look.
Thematically, a couple of films in competition explore the same experience or event from different perspectives. La Bola Negra (being gay), Parallel Tales (the 2015 Paris attacks) - cinematic unity is a great way to promote global unity.
CANNES ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Double Javier Bardem. Coming to the Croisette this year, we’re getting two Bardem performances. One starring role and one cameo.
Bardem stars in The Beloved (In Competition) by Rodrigo Sorogoyen (The Beasts).
Synopsis:
Acclaimed director reunites with estranged daughter, an unsuccessful actress, to shoot a film together, confronting their strained relationship and unresolved past issues that neither wants to address directly.
It’s not often anymore that we get a Bardem film that’s pure relationship drama. But this is where he excels, digging into that psychological itch to blow up every morsel of connection.
Apparently, he has a fun cameo in La Bola Negra from directors Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi. Also, In Competition, this film has a great lead cast of Glenn Close, Penélope Cruz, and Julio Torres.
Synopsis:
Explores what it means to be gay throughout different eras, focusing on "three existences" that are connected through themes of sexuality, desire, pain, and inheritance.
We’re hoping the focus will be on Close, Cruz, and Torres. That’s a great trio.
Palme d’Or winner Adèle Exarchopoulos (Blue is the Warmest Color) is back at Cannes, starring in Another Day (Garance).
Synopsis:
Garance (Exarchopoulos) is a young actress but not a star. She manages things as best she can, finding fuel and comfort in alcohol. As she embarks for an eight-year journey of life changes, she drinks more and more. Until death seems to loom.
Exarchopoulos has a beautiful ability to burn herself out on screen. We can feel a unique physical and emotional exhaustion permeating from her every pore. And that’s what makes her so watchable. This should be riveting.
StudioCanal just boarded as co-producer. They will also be the international sales rep.
She will also co-star in Mariage au goût d’orange, playing out of Competition in Cannes Premiére.
Double Léa Seydoux. The queen of arthouse indie cinema has two films in competition:
Gentle Monster, synopsis:
Renowned pianist relocates with her family to the countryside, where she uncovers a life-shattering truth that forces her to confront the complexities of love, trust, and deception.
The Unknown
Synopsis:
Photographer David Zimmerman rarely leaves home until friends bring him to a wild party. He becomes fixated on a mysterious woman and follows her. By dawn, his life transforms-he awakens in her body.
Seydoux is one of the most capable actresses of her generation. And we know she’ll give these characters the flair and the fire they deserve. While also digging into the deep well of despair that she demonstrates so beautifully in the final moments of The Beast (2023).
Anatomy of a Fall star Swann Arlaud is back with an In Competition film, A Man Of His Time (Notre Salut).
Synopsis:
In 1940, Henri Marre arrives in Vichy with his political manuscript, which he intends to publish to make a name for himself in the new regime and help save France – and himself – from collapse.
Arlaud’s gravitas, which can tip into vulnerability, should give this historical film flair. Charades has just acquired sales rights.
Mini Tidbits:
Double Marion Cotillard. She stars in Karma, playing out of competition. She plays Jeanne, who tries to rebuild her life with a man who knows nothing of her troubled past. But when her six-year-old godson disappears, Cotillard becomes the main suspect. She also stars in Roma Elastica, playing in the Midnight section. The story revolves around an actress who is going to shoot her latest film in Rome in the 1980s. The brilliant Noémie Merlant (Portrait of a Lady on Fire) also co-stars. It’s no secret Cotillard is best when things around her fall apart. And both these speak to that strength.
Weird Woody Harrelson is coming back to Cannes! Studiocanal’s Full Phil by director Quentin Dupieux (Rubber) is playing at the Midnight Section. Kristen Stewart and Emma Mackey (Barbie) also star. It’s an absurdist comedy set in Paris. Harrelson plays a wealthy American reconnecting with his daughter (Stewart) amid bizarre mishaps during their stay (First Look). Harrelson already co-starred in one Palme d’Or-winning film, Triangle of Sadness, as the drunkard, solipsistic yacht captain (clip).
Gael García Bernal returns to sci-fi. He stars in The End of It cenetering on a near-future world where aging can be cured and death is now optional. Claire (Rebecca Hall) a former provocative artist approaching her 250th birthday, decides she’s had enough – she wants to die. From writer/director Maria Martinez Bayona (debut film), BBC Film and Mediarpro (Midnight in Paris, The New Pope). Playing out of Competition in Cannes Premiére. García Bernal was last in Another End, with a similarly sci-fi premise.
CANNES INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
The director of A24’s Close (2023, trailer), Lukas Dhont's new film, Coward, is in the Official Selection.
Synopsis:
A Belgian soldier struggles with cowardice and heroism in WWI trenches.
Close was a study of how young friendship can dissolve with the social pressures of a wicked world. It was delicate, and then it was crippling. And it actually won the Grand Prix when it played at Cannes in 2022.
From the first look image above we can see he’s taking on similar themes about manhood and connection.
In his own words:
“A film about love and death, creation and destruction. A film about survival and how, sometimes, even in darkness, something beautiful manages to grow.”
No distributor as of yet.
Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, who directed Magnolia’s Anaïs in Love (2021) has her next film, A Woman's Life, premiering in Competition
Synopsis:
Gabrielle (Léa Drucker), a fifty-year-old surgeon, is questioning herself about love, desire, aging, all against the backdrop of a hospital crisis, when a novelist arrives to watch her work for a book she's writing.
That synopsis sounds heavy, but Bourgeois-Tacquet’s Anaïs in Love had a light breeziness to it that allowed the seedy undertones to seep in more easily (trailer). A similar tactic in A Woman’s Life will help make it less fatalistic.
Arte France Cinéma serves as the production company.
Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell is breezing into Cannes out of Competition. In Refn’s words, the film will have:
“A lot of glitter and lot of sex and violence.”
We love Refn, but sometimes his desire for bombastic, neon-drenched imagery comes at the expense of story (Neon Demon, Only God Forgives). But if he’s able to nail the edit in a way that keeps us aligned with following the main character into the dark (Drive, Bronson), we’ll buy a ticket.
Hell, we’ll do it anyway to see what he comes up with.
Andy Garcia (Ocean’s 11) is back in the director’s chair with Diamond, playing Out of Competition.
The cast he’s pulled together is sensational:
Brendan Fraser
Dustin Hoffman
Bill Murray
Vicky Krieps
Rosemarie DeWitt
Danny Huston
Synopsis:
Joe Diamond, a man haunted by his past, uses his exceptional wit and keen observation skills to uncover hidden truths and solve crimes in this contemporary noir tale.
Both Hoffman and Murray starred in Garcia’s sophomore directorial effort, The Lost City, which is, above all else, a Godfather Part II homage, gloriously drenched in a Cuban soundscape and visual splendor.
We look forward to seeing Garcia take another turn behind the camera. First look image.
Tidbits:
Steven Soderbergh’s John Lennon: The Last Interview doc is playing in Special Screenings. It centers on John Lennon’s final interview, recorded hours before his death in 1980. It marks Soderbergh’s return to documentary after 2010’s And Everything Is Going Fine.
Louis Clichy, a Pixar animator on Up, WALL-E, and Ratatouille, is making his first solo directing venture with Iron Boy, playing in Un Certain Regard. It follows a rigid and distant father whose young boy must wear an iron corset to keep himself upright. First look. This seems visually light and thematically heavy. A much-welcome reprise from his previous films: he co-directed France’s very popular animated films Astérix: The Mansions of the Gods (2014) and Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion (2018).
Sean Baker’s long-time producer Alex Coco (Anora, The Florida Project) is producing Club Kid, playing at Un Certain Regard. It follows a washed-up New York party promoter who is forced to turn his life around when an unexpected visitor arrives. The directorial feature debut Jordan Firstman, who starred in Sebastian Silva's Rotting in the Sun as himself. Production Company Stay Gold Features (Honey Boy). Cast: Cara Delevingne.
Actor Diego Luna is back with his fifth feature as a director, Ashes, starring Cannes Best Actress winner Adriana Paz (Emilia Pérez), who plays a woman plagued by the death of her younger brother. The film becomes surreal and political. More details on the combo here, as it’s based on this book. Playing out of Competition in Cannes Premiére.
Leah Nelson has the starriest cast of the festival for her first feature, an animated film, Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me. Voice cast: Bryan Cranston, Seth Rogen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who also produces), Sarah Silverman, Wanda Sykes, and Bowen Yang. Playing out of Competition in Cannes Premiére.
Joachim Trier’s long-time producer, Juliette Schrameck (Sentimental Value, The Worst Person in the World), is producing Strawberries, playing at Un Certain Regard. It follows a Moroccan migrant worker who goes to Spain to pick strawberries and gets abused. The first look image is beautiful.
The goofiest synopsis of Cannes is for the Midnight animated film Jim Queen: A gay influencer's life crumbles when a virus turns Paris's gay men straight. He teams up with a twink to find a rumored cure in the Marais district. A satire on identity, fame, and queer culture.
Judith Godrèche (the actress who leaves Kyle and marries Mike in The Climb) directs A Girl’s Story (Mémoire de fille) about a woman who travels back in time on her way to a book signing, to her first night with a man. Playing in Un Certain Regard.
Canal+’s Lucy Lost gets added as Family Screening. This is the first film by Olivier Clert, who did animation on Splice (2009) and served as an animator on The Lorax (2012) and Klaus (2019)
Mini Tidbit:
None other than Wim Wenders, who won the Palme d’Or for Paris, Texas (1984), is producing Cannes Un Certain Regard’s I’ll Be Gone in June, picked up by Int. Sales Rep: Luxbox (Magellan).
CANNES INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Yeon Sang-ho created the sublimely visceral Train to Busan (2016) about a zombie attack on a train. Its ability to foreground the father-daughter relationship elevated it above the typically pure-gore genre fare.
His next film, Gun-Che (Colony), will play at Midnight at Cannes.
Synopsis:
Professor Se Jeong attends a biotech conference, only to witness it spiral into catastrophe when a rapidly mutating virus is unleashed. As the outbreak spreads and the infected begin to transform, authorities seal off the entire facility.
Sang-ho thrives in this very specific genre of storytelling where he’s able to isolate the profoundly personal stories. This should be no different.
Andrey Zvyagintsev, who wrote and directed Leviathan (Cannes, Best Screenplay, 2014) and Loveless (Cannes Jury Prize, 2017), has his new film, Minotaur, join the Official Selection. It is a political fable that blends a police thriller with a classic tragedy.
Synopsis:
Gleb, a Russian company director about to fire his employees, who discovers that his wife is having an affair.
Zvyagintsev’s films are typically characterized by their deep exploration of complex human relationships and moral dilemmas, often set against the backdrop of contemporary Russian society. Check out this first look.
Ever since his heart-wrenching cinematic POV debut Son of Saul hit Cannes in 2015, László Nemes has been one of the most interesting international filmmakers. He returns to Cannes with Moulin playing In Competition.
Synopsis:
Jean Moulin unites French resistance fighters under de Gaulle's command after parachuting into occupied France. Captured and tortured by Gestapo chief Klaus Barbie, his unwavering silence aids France's liberation.
No one captures war and torture like Nemes; he has a predilection to show us nothing, which just makes the entire thing that much more tense and riveting.
Mini Tidbit:
First-time filmmaker Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo is the first Rwandan filmmaker to have a movie at Cannes. She premieres Ben’Imana at Un Certain Regard.
CANNES DIRECTOR’S FORTNIGHT
Cannes Directors’ Fortnight’s most high-profile films:
Butterfly Jam
Dir/Wri: Kantemir Balagov (Cannes breakout Beanpole)
Cast: Barry Keoghan, Monica Bellucci, Riley Keough, Harry Melling (Pillion)
Int. Sales Rep: Goodfellas
Synopsis:
A Circassian-American teen in New Jersey balances working at his family’s struggling ethnic diner with his wrestling aspirations, until his father’s risky decision forces him to face harsh realities and grow up quickly.
Never would I have predicted a movie set in New Jersey would be one of the headlining films at Cannes, but crazier things have happened!
Opening the section, Balagov’s English-language debut features a cast of strong young actors and a raw coming-of-age story that feels both personal and universally relatable.
Clarissa
Dir: Aerie and Chuko Esiri (This Is My Desire)
Cast: Ayo Edebiri (The Bear), David Oyelowo (Selma)
Worldwide Dist/Int. Sales Rep: Neon
Synopsis:
A re-imagining of Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway” set in Lagos.
Woolf’s 1925 landmark novel perfected a stream of consciousness style that, reimagined today, with Edebiri in the titular role, could bring the story’s interiority to life in a really cool, cinematic way.
Diary of a Chambermaid (Journal d’une femme de chambre)
Dir: Radu Jude (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn)
Cast: Ana Dumitrascu (Immaculate), Amélie Prevot (Band of Spies)
Prod. Comp: SBS Productions (Benedetta)
Synopsis:
A young Romanian woman living in France works for a French family and joins a theatre company who are adapting Octave Mirbeau’s “The Diary of a Chambermaid.”
Jude’s comedy and contemporary adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s classic novel is bringing him to Cannes (shockingly) for the first time. Diary… marks back-to-back projects for Dumitrascu, who starred in Jude’s satirical horror Dracula last year.
Mini Tidbits:
Reed Van Dyk is making both his Cannes and directorial debut with Atonement, an Iraqi war drama starring Kenneth Branagh and Succession’s Hiam Abbass.
The widely absurd and quirky French director Quentin Dupieux (Rubber) is bringing two films to the festival this year. Full Phil, the father-daughter dramedy starring Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart, will screen in the midnight section, and his debut animated feature Le Vertige is closing out the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar.
Full breakdown here.
CANNES CRITICS WEEK
Cannes Critics’ Week (La Semaine de la Critique) drops its selection. The parallel selection of the Cannes Film Festival focuses on first and second-time feature directors.
There are seven competition films, including a few that caught our eye:
Dua
Dir: Blerta Basholli (Hive)
Synopsis:
Prishtina, Kosovo, late 1990s. As war looms and ethnic tensions escalate, 13-year-old Dua struggles to find her place among her peers and within her changing body.
If you haven’t seen Hive, it’s a must.
In Waves (opening film)
Dir: Phuong Mai Nguyen
EP: David Levine (Nickel Boys)
Sales Rep: CAA
Synopsis:
AJ, meets Kristen in high school. Kristen is passionate about surfing. AJ, Kristen’s life starts falling apart, shattered by illness.
Check out the full selection here.
Club Kid, playing at Un Certain Regard, gets sales reps. UTA comes on for domestic, while Charades picks up international.
Also, here’s the Cannes Acid selection.
Cannes runs May 12th - 23rd.
See the full list of 2026 Cannes films here, including the opening night film.
Written and edited by Gabriel Miller.
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