2026 Cannes Film Festival Lineup Revealed

The 79th annual Cannes Film Festival lineup is here!

Selections from some of the most prominent international filmmakers have landed among the titles selected in competition for this year’s Palme d’Or. Renowned auteur Park Chan-Wook (“Oldboy,” “The Handmaiden”) will lead a jury in selecting the Palme d’Or winner.

Pedro Almodóvar returns to the festival with “Bitter Christmas,” a Spanish-language tragicomedy about gender. Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland” has early interest among the awards pundits. Shot in black and white, Sanda Hüller, in her second of three high-profile performances this year, makes her debut with the Polish filmmaker to play the daughter of a Nobel Prize-winning writer. Pawlikowski, best known for his “Cold War” and “Ida,” will be competing against “Parallel Tales” by Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, “Sheep in the Box” by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden,” the Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan-led “Fjord” by previous Cannes-winner Cristian Mungiu, and Ira Sach’s queer musical “The Man I Love” starring “Bohemian Rhapsody’s” Rami Malek. Other titles include “Moulin” by László Nemes of Hungary, and “Minotaur” by Andrey Zvyagintsev.

Absent heavyweights like Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” and Steven Speilberg’s “Disclosure Day,” Hollywood’s presence will be largely felt outside of competition with names like Ron Howard, debuting a Richard Avedon documentary, Steven Soderbergh, showing “John Lennon: The Last Interview,” and John Travolta, piloting his directorial debut “Propeller One-Way Night Coach.” Travolta has a long history with the festival – appearing in 1994’s Palme d’Or winner “Pulp Fiction.” Fellow actor-turned-director Andy Garcia will be showing “The Diamond,” a crime picture with a brilliant cast including Brendan Fraser, Dustin Hoffman and LaTanya Richardson Jackson.

Jane Schoenbrun’s fourth directorial effort, “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” has garnered early intrigue. The slasher film stars Gillian Anderson, “Hacks”’ Hannah Einbinder, and “Sorry, Baby’s” Eva Victor, and is up for Un Certain Regard. Schoenbrun’s work will screen alongside Rwandan filmmaker Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s “Ben’imana,” “Congo Boy” by 28-year-old Rafiki Fariala, and “Iron Boy,” by Walt Disney animator Louis Clichy of “WALL-E” and “Up” fame.

Cannes has often been a launching point for film’s awards campaigns, particularly in the “International Feature Film” category at the Academy Awards. This year, four of the five nominees made their debut at Cannes, with the award going to Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value” distributed by Neon, who will likely have a large footprint in this year’s acquisitions. Last year, the indie studio made history with becoming the first studio to claim the Palme d’Or title six years in a row. Pre-Cannes, the studio boasts various distribution deals for four Palme d’Or nominees, including the Hamaguchi and Mungiu titles, but expect the distributor to pick up additional buzzy features along the way.

The festival will kick off on May 12 with Pierre Salvadori’s “The Electric Kiss,” and an opening ceremony tribute to New Zealand filmmaking legend Peter Jackson. Barbra Streisand will also be honored during the closing ceremony on May 23.

Questions linger around a potential add to the lineup as Cannes General Delegate Thierry Frémaux noted there was one anticipated title left off the slate that will be playing the festival. Many are wondering about James Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” which reunites “Marriage Story” actors Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, which is anticipated for a fall 2026 theatrical release if it can secure global distribution. However, rumors swirl about Terrence Malick, Joel Coen and Mike Leigh, all of whom are up to bat with their next project, along with Cannes-veteran Alejandro G. Iñárritu, who is teaming up with Tom Cruise for their Warner Bros-backed comedy “Digger.” Only time will tell.

The Cannes film festival will run from May 12 through May 23.

Competition

“Amarga Navidad” by Pedro Almodóvar

“Parallel Tales” by Asghar Farhadi

“A Woman’s Life” by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet

“La Bola Negra” by Javier Calvo & Javier Ambrossi

“Coward” by Lukas Dhont

“Das Geträumte Abenteuer” by Valeska Grisebach

“All Of Sudden” by Hamaguchi Ryusuke

“The Unknown” by Arthur Harari

“Another Day” by Jeanne Herry

“Sheep In the Box” by Kore-Eda Hirokazu

“Hope” by NA Hong-Jin

“Nagi Notes” by Fukada Koji

“Gentle Monster” By Marie Kreutzer

“Notre Salut” by Emmanuel Marre

“Fjord” by Cristian Mungiu

“The Birthday Party” by Léa Mysius

“Moulin” by László Nemes

“Fatherland” by Pawel Pawlikowski

“The Man I Love” by Ira Sachs

“El Ser Querido” by Rodrigo Sorogoyen

“Minotaur” by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Un Certain Regard

“Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” By Jane Schoenbrun

“Elephants In the Fog” by Abinash Bikram Shah

“Iron Boy” by Louis Clichy

“Ben’imana” by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo

“Congo Boy” by Rafiki Fariala

“Club Kid” by Jordan Firstman

“Uļa” by Viesturs Kairišs

“La Más Dulce” by Laïla Marrakchi

“El Deshielo” by Manuela Martelli

“Siempre Soy Tu Animal Materno” by Valentina Maurel

“Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep” by Rakan Mayasi

“I’ll Be Gone in June” by Katharina Rivilis

“Words Of Love” by Rudi Rosenberg

“Everytime” by Sandra Wollner

“All the Lovers in the Night” by Sode Yukiko

Out of Competition

“La Bataille De Gaulle: L’âge De Fer” by Antonin Baudry

“Karma” by Guillaume Canet

“Diamond” by Andy Garcia

“L’abandon” by Vincent Garenq

“Crescendo” by Agnès Jaoui

“Her Private Hell” by Nicolas Winding Refn

Midnight Screenings

“Full Phil” by Quentin Dupieux

“Sanguine” by Marion Le Corroller

“Roma Elastica” by Bertrand Mandico

“Jim Queen” by Marco Nguyen & Nicolas Athané

“Gun-Che” by Yeon Sang-Ho

Cannes Premiere

 “La Troisième Nuit” By Daniel Auteuil

“The Match” by Juan Cabral & Santiago Franco

“Kokurojo” by Kurosawa Kiyoshi

“Heimsuchung” by Volker Schlöndorff

“Propeller One-Way Night Coach” By John Travolta

Special Screenings

“Rehearsals For a Revolution” by Pegah Ahangarani

“Les Matins Merveilleux” by Avril Besson

“L’affaire Marie-Claire” by Lauriane Escaffre & Yvo Muller

“Avedon” by Ron HOWARD

“Les Survivants Du Che” by Christophe Dimitri Réveille

“John Lennon: The Last Interview” by Steven Soderbergh

“Cantona” by David Tryhorn & Ben Nicholas

Allons-y!