The Cannes Film Festival is doubling down on auteur cinema in 2026, unveiling a competition lineup led by some of the most defining voices in contemporary filmmaking.
Directors including Asghar Farhadi, Pedro Almodóvar, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Ira Sachs, Paweł Pawlikowski and László Nemes will premiere new films in competition, marking a clear pivot toward international and independent cinema.
The shift follows a 2025 edition that leaned heavily on Hollywood, with titles like “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” and Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest” dominating headlines. This year, Sachs stands as the sole American in competition with “The Man I Love”, a musical fantasy set against the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York, starring Rami Malek.
Among the most high-profile entries is Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s English-language debut “Fjord”, starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan. Pawlikowski returns with “Fatherland”, led by Sandra Hüller, while Korean filmmaker Na Hong-jin brings “Hope”, starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander.
Farhadi’s “Parallel Tales”, set in Paris, features Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve, while Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen presents “The Beloved”, starring Javier Bardem. Almodóvar returns with “Bitter Christmas”, a Spanish-language tragicomedy already released domestically.
Festival chief Thierry Frémaux said 2,541 feature films were submitted this year, describing a “quantitative vitality” with entries from 141 countries. Festival president Iris Knobloch framed the event against a tense global backdrop, arguing that cinema remains essential in moments of uncertainty. “When the world loses its bearings… it is a defense of humanity’s most precious asset: its freedom of thought,” she said.
French-language cinema features prominently, including works by foreign directors such as Nemes’ “Moulin” and Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden”. The lineup also includes five films by female directors, with French filmmakers Léa Mysius, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet and Jeanne Herry among them.
Asia holds a strong presence, with four films from Japanese and Korean directors competing for the Palme d’Or under jury president Park Chan-wook. Kore-eda returns with “Sheep in the Box”, while Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden” stars Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto. Koji Fukada enters competition with “Nagi Notes”.
Notably absent is James Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” despite industry speculation. Frémaux hinted the final slate is still being refined, with announcements expected in the coming weeks.
Beyond competition, the festival’s Un Certain Regard section includes US entries such as “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” and “Club Kid”, while Steven Soderbergh and Ron Howard will present documentaries in Special Screenings.
The festival opens May 12 with “The Electric Kiss” by Pierre Salvadori. Honorary Palme d’Or awards will be presented to Barbra Streisand and Peter Jackson, underscoring Cannes’ continued effort to balance legacy and reinvention.
Full lineup
Competition
“Minotaur” — Andrey Zvyagintsev
“El Ser Querido” (“The Beloved”) — Rodrigo Sorogoyen
“The Man I Love” — Ira Sachs
“Fatherland” — Paweł Pawlikowski
“Moulin” — László Nemes
“Histoire de la nuit” (“The Birthday Party”) — Léa Mysius
“Fjord” — Cristian Mungiu
“Notre salut” — Emmanuel Marre
“Gentle Monster” — Marie Kreutzer
“Nagi Notes” — Koji Fukada
“Hope” — Na Hong-jin
“Sheep in the Box” — Hirokazu Kore-eda
“Garance” (“Another Day”) — Jeanne Herry
“The Unknown” — Arthur Harari
“All of a Sudden” — Ryusuke Hamaguchi
“Das Geträumte Abenteuer” (“The Dreamed Adventure”) — Valeska Grisebach
“Coward” — Lukas Dhont
“La Bola Negra” (“The Black Ball”) — Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo
“A Woman’s Life” — Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
“Parallel Tales” — Asghar Farhadi
“Amarga Navidad” (“Bitter Christmas”) — Pedro Almodóvar
Out of competition
“The Electric Kiss” (“La Venus électrique”) — Pierre Salvadori (Opening film)
“Her Private Hell” — Nicolas Winding Refn
“Diamond” — Andy Garcia
“Karma” — Guillaume Canet
“L’Objet du Delit” — Agnès Jaoui
“La Bataille de Gaulle: L’Âge de Fer” — Antonin Baudry
“L’Abandon” — Vincent Garenq
Un Certain Regard
“La más dulce” (“Strawberries”) — Laïla Marrakchi
“Club Kid” — Jordan Firstman
“Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” — Jane Schoenbrun
“Everytime” — Sandra Wollner
“I’ll Be Gone in June” — Katharina Rivilis
“Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep” — Rakan Mayasi
“El Deshielo” (“The Meltdown”) — Manuela Martelli
“Siempre Soy Tu Animal Materno” (“Forever Your Maternal Animal”) — Valentina Maurel
“Elephants in the Fog” — Abhinash Bikram Shah
“Benimana” — Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
“Le Corset” (“Iron Boy”) — Louis Clichy
“Congo Boy” — Rafiki Fariala
“All the Lovers in the Night” — Yukiko Sode
“Uļa” — Viesturs Kairišs
“Words of Love” — Rudi Rosenberg
Special screenings
“John Lennon: The Last Interview” — Steven Soderbergh
“Avedon” — Ron Howard
“Les Survivants du Che” — Christophe Dimitri Réveille
“Les Matins Merveilleux” — Avril Besson
“Rehearsals for a Revolution” — Pegah Ahangarani
“L’Affaire Marie Claire” — Lauriane Escaffre, Yvo Muller
“Cantona” — David Tryhorn, Ben Nicholas
Midnight screenings
“Roma Elastica” — Bertrand Mandico
“Full Phil” — Quentin Dupieux
“Gun-Che” (“Colony”) — Yeon Sang-ho
“Jim Queen” — Nicolas Athan, Marco Nguyen
“Sanguine” — Marion Le Coroller
Cannes Premiere
“Propeller One-Way Night Coach” — John Travolta
“The Samurai and the Prisoner” — Kiyoshi Kurosawa
“Heimsuchung” (“Visitation”) — Volker Schlöndorff
“The Match” — Juan Cabral, Santiago Franco
“La Troisième nuit” (“When the Night Falls”) — Daniel Auteuil
