Cannes 2026: The 79th Festival Unveils Its Official Selection

The 79th Cannes Film Festival has unveiled its Official Selection, with festival director Thierry Frémaux and festival president Iris Knobloch revealing the lineup at a press conference held at the Pathé Palace cinema in Paris. Frémaux confirmed 21 titles in the main Competition, with one further title still to be announced.

Knobloch, now in her fourth year as president, opened the proceedings by addressing the current geopolitical climate, recalling that the festival was “born during a period of uncertainty” and insisting that “assembling films and artists from all over the world isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity.” In that spirit, a total of 2,541 features were submitted from 141 countries, some 1,000 more than ten years ago, though still down on last year’s record of 2,909 submissions.

Competition: The Return of the Auteurs

This edition signals a decisive return to international auteur cinema. The Competition brings together Pedro Almodóvar, Asghar Farhadi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Paweł Pawlikowski, Ira Sachs, László Nemes and Ryusuke Hamaguchi, filmmakers whose work has shaped the festival’s identity over the decades.

Pawlikowski returns with Fatherland, starring Sandra Hüller and centring on the relationship between the writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika, as they travel across a Germany in ruins. Mubi produces. Almodóvar, meanwhile, brings Amarga Navidad (Bitter Christmas), which recently opened in Spain and will mark his eighth film in Competition.

Farhadi returns with the French-language Parallel Tales, featuring an all-star cast including Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel and Catherine Deneuve, his fifth time in Competition. In a similar vein, Nemes, whose debut Son of Saul won the Grand Prix in 2015, brings Moulin, a biopic of French resistance leader Jean Moulin, played by Gilles Lellouche.

Cristian Mungiu premieres Fjord, an English-language debut starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan as Romanian religious parents relocating to a Norwegian village. Similarly crossing borders, exiled Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev returns with Minotaur, his first feature since 2017, a political fable about a Russian businessman confronting crisis, shot in Latvia.

Asia in Focus, One American in the Running

Asia is particularly well represented, with four films from Japanese and Korean directors vying for the Palme d’Or. Kore-eda brings Sheep in the Box, set in the near future and exploring the arrival of a humanoid robot into a family home. Hamaguchi, in turn, competes with All of a Sudden, his first film shot outside Japan, starring Virginie Efira as the director of a Parisian nursing home.

Korean director Na Hong-jin makes his English-language debut with the sci-fi thriller Hope, starring Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Hwang Jung-min, Hoyeon and Taylor Russell, his first feature since The Wailing, a decade ago. Rounding out the Asian contingent, Koji Fukada enters Competition proper for the first time with Nagi Notes, a portrait of a sculptor living in the shadow of a past love.

By contrast, Ira Sachs stands as the sole American director in Competition, presenting The Man I Love, a musical set in 1980s New York during the AIDS crisis, starring Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge and Rebecca Hall.

Five Women Directors in Competition

Five female filmmakers are included in this year’s main Competition, a figure that Frémaux described as “rather high for the competition”, though it remains in line with the five-year average and falls short of the seven recorded in both 2023 and 2025.

Valeska Grisebach makes her Competition debut with Das Geträumte Abenteuer (The Dreamed Adventure), set in the border region between Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey, where a woman enters dangerous territory that forces her to confront both her past and her desires. Austrian director Marie Kreutzer, known internationally for Corsage, moves into Competition proper with Gentle Monster, a drama uniting Léa Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve around the story of a renowned pianist who uncovers a life-altering secret.

The three remaining female directors in Competition are all French. Léa Mysius takes her first step into the main Competition with The Birthday Party, starring Hafsia Herzi, Monica Bellucci and Bastien Bouillon. Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet follows with A Woman’s Life, a portrait told in eleven chapters of a woman in her fifties. Finally, Jeanne Herry reunites with Adèle Exarchopoulos for Another Day, continuing a creative partnership that has drawn sustained critical attention.

Beyond the Competition: Un Certain Regard and Out of Competition

The Official Selection extends well beyond the main Competition, with a programme that reflects the festival’s commitment to a broad spectrum of cinematic voices.

Un Certain Regard opens with Jane Schoenbrun‘s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, starring Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder, a title that signals the sidebar’s continued appetite for bold American independent filmmaking. Elsewhere in the section, Jordan Firstman makes his directorial debut with Club Kid, in which he also stars alongside Cara Delevingne and Diego Calva.

Out of Competition, Nicolas Winding Refn returns to the Croisette with Her Private Hell, marking the Danish director’s first feature-length fiction since Too Old to Die Young in 2019. Guillaume Canet presents Karma, while Agnès Jaoui screens L’Objet du Délit, a drama centring on accusations of sexual assault during an opera production, a subject Frémaux acknowledged as deliberately provocative in the current cultural climate. Andy Garcia, for his part, brings Diamond, a film noir he also directs.

Midnight Screenings, Cannes Premiere and Special Screenings

The Midnight Screenings section, traditionally reserved for genre films and wilder cinematic experiments, features Quentin Dupieux‘s Full Phil, an English-language father-daughter road movie starring Kristen Stewart and Woody Harrelson, which Frémaux described as “very Dupieuxien” at the press conference. Alongside it, South Korean director Yeon Sang-ho returns with Gun-Che (Colony), while Bertrand Mandico continues his singular brand of surrealist cinema with Roma Elastica.

The Cannes Premiere section offers the most eclectic mix of the entire programme. John Travolta presents Propeller One-Way Night Coach, his directorial debut, while Kiyoshi Kurosawa screens Kokurojo (The Samurai and the Prisoner) and veteran German director Volker Schlöndorff returns with Heimsuchung (Visitation).

In the Special Screenings, the documentary strand is particularly strong. Steven Soderbergh presents John Lennon: The Last Interview, and Ron Howard screens Avedon, a portrait of the legendary American photographer Richard Avedon. Iranian filmmaker Pegah Ahangarani makes her directorial debut with Rehearsals for a Revolution, and British directors David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas bring Cantona, a documentary on the iconic French footballer Eric Cantona.

Jury, Honorary Palmes and Opening Film

Park Chan-wook will preside over the jury. Barbra Streisand and Peter Jackson will each receive an honorary Palme d’Or. The festival opens on May 12 with Pierre Salvadori‘s 1920s-set comedy La Vénus Électrique.

The 79th Cannes Film Festival runs May 12 to 23, 2026.

Full Official Selection

Competition

Amarga Navidad — Pedro Almodóvar
Parallel Tales — Asghar Farhadi
A Woman’s Life — Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
La Bola Negra — Javier Calvo & Javier Ambrossi
Coward — Lukas Dhont
Das Geträumte Abenteuer — Valeska Grisebach
All of a Sudden — Hamaguchi Ryusuke
The Unknown — Arthur Harari
Another Day — Jeanne Herry
Sheep in the Box — Kore-eda Hirokazu
Hope — Na Hong-jin
Nagi Notes — Fukada Koji
Gentle Monster — Marie Kreutzer
Notre Salut — Emmanuel Marre
Fjord — Cristian Mungiu
The Birthday Party — Léa Mysius
Moulin — László Nemes
Fatherland — Pawel Pawlikowski
The Man I Love — Ira Sachs
El Ser Querido (The Beloved) — Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Minotaur — Andrey Zvyagintsev

Un Certain Regard

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma — Jane Schoenbrun (Opening Film)
Elephants in the Fog — Abinash Bikram Shah
Iron Boy — Louis Clichy
Ben’Imana — Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Congo Boy — Rafiki Fariala
Club Kid — Jordan Firstman
Uļa — Viesturs Kairišs
La Más Dulce (Strawberries) — Laïla Marrakchi
El Deshielo (The Meltdown) — Manuela Martelli
Siempre Soy Tu Animal Materno — Valentina Maurel
Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep — Rakan Mayasi
I’ll Be Gone in June — Katharina Rivilis
Words of Love — Rudi Rosenberg
Everytime — Sandra Wollner
All the Lovers in the Night — Sode Yukiko

Out of Competition

La Vénus Électrique — Pierre Salvadori (Opening Film)
La Bataille de Gaulle : L’Âge de Fer — Antonin Baudry
Karma — Guillaume Canet
Diamond — Andy Garcia
L’Abandon — Vincent Garenq
L’Objet du Délit — Agnès Jaoui
Her Private Hell — Nicolas Winding Refn

Midnight Screenings

Full Phil — Quentin Dupieux
Sanguine — Marion Le Corroller
Roma Elastica — Bertrand Mandico
Jim Queen — Marco Nguyen & Nicolas Athané
Gun-Che (Colony) — Yeon Sang-ho

Cannes Premiere

La Troisième Nuit — Daniel Auteuil
The Match — Juan Cabral & Santiago Franco
Kokurojo (The Samurai and the Prisoner) — Kurosawa Kiyoshi
Heimsuchung (Visitation) — Volker Schlöndorff
Propeller One-Way Night Coach — John Travolta

Special Screenings

Rehearsals for a Revolution — Pegah Ahangarani
Les Matins Merveilleux — Avril Besson
L’Affaire Marie-Claire — Lauriane Escaffre & Yvo Muller
Avedon — Ron Howard
Les Survivants du Che — Christophe Dimitri Réveille
John Lennon: The Last Interview — Steven Soderbergh
Cantona — David Tryhorn & Ben Nicholas