Published: : April 9, 2026, 07:35 PM
The 2026 Cannes Film Festival is shaping up as a strong showcase for auteur cinema, with new competition titles from Asghar Farhadi, Pedro Almodóvar, Paweł Pawlikowski, Ira Sachs, Hirokazu Kore-eda, László Nemes and Ryusuke Hamaguchi.
Following a 2025 edition marked by major Hollywood titles such as Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning and Highest 2 Lowest, this year’s selection leans heavily toward international and independent filmmaking. Ira Sachs stands as the sole American director in competition with The Man I Love, a musical fantasy set against the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York and starring Rami Malek.
Several competition films bring notable star power. Cristian Mungiu’s English-language debut Fjord features Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan as a couple relocating to rural Norway, while Pawlikowski’s Fatherland stars Sandra Hüller. Hong-jin Na’s Hope pairs Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander as a married couple for the first time. Farhadi’s Paris-set Parallel Tales is led by Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve, and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved stars Javier Bardem as a filmmaker estranged from his daughter. Almodóvar returns with Bitter Christmas, a Spanish-language tragicomedy already well received at home.
Festival chief Thierry Frémaux announced that “95% of the selection” has been finalized, with a few titles still to be confirmed in the coming weeks due to minor delays. He also revealed that 2,541 feature films were submitted this year, a sharp increase from a decade ago, representing entries from 141 countries.
French-language films are especially prominent in the competition, including works by Farhadi, Nemes and Hamaguchi. Emmanuel Marre’s Notre Salut, set during Vichy France and starring Swann Arlaud, is also included. Five films by female directors have made the lineup, among them works by Léa Mysius, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, Jeanne Herry, Marie Kreutzer and Valeska Grisebach, marking a relatively high level of representation.
Asian cinema also has a strong presence, with four films from Japanese and Korean directors competing under jury president Park Chan-wook. Among the most anticipated is Na’s Hope, his first film in a decade. Kore-eda returns with Sheep in the Box, while Hamaguchi presents the French-language All of a Sudden. Koji Fukada enters the main competition for the first time with Nagi Notes.
One notable omission is James Gray’s Paper Tiger, starring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Miles Teller, which had been widely expected to appear. Frémaux hinted, however, that at least one anticipated title may still be added once contractual matters are resolved.
Reflecting on the limited presence of American studio films, Frémaux suggested that studios are currently producing fewer works suited to Cannes. Still, he emphasized that this does not signal a long-term shift, noting that major studio projects have appeared at the festival in recent years. Instead, he underlined the continued vitality of independent and international cinema.
The Un Certain Regard section will include several American films, such as Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma and Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid. Meanwhile, Steven Soderbergh and Ron Howard will present documentaries in the Special Screenings section, focusing on John Lennon and photographer Richard Avedon.
Outside the competition, Nicolas Winding Refn returns with Her Private Hell, while Quentin Dupieux’s Full Phil is set for a Midnight Screening. The festival will open on May 12 with Pierre Salvadori’s period comedy The Electric Kiss. Honorary Palme d’Or awards will be presented to Barbra Streisand and Peter Jackson.
See the full lineup below.
Out of competition
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