Festival de Cannes 2026 : The Films in the Official Selection

The Cannes Film Festival 2026 is back for a 79th edition, running from May 12–23, 2026! This Thursday, April 9 brought the highly anticipated press conference unveiling the first films in and out of competition. Thierry Frémaux and Iris Knobloch announced the lineup of films selected for this new edition of the Cannes Film Festival.

Following an opening on the importance of diversity (especially women's representation) in cinema, on the freedom of human creativity in filmmaking (not AI), and on defending the in-theater experience, the two members of the organization announced that they had received over 2,541 feature films from 141 countries around the world.

With opening film The Electric Venus by Pierre Salvadori, the official selection in competition for the Palme d'Or 2026 includes 22 feature films, including five directed by women filmmakers. Without further ado, we reveal the official Cannes Film Festival 2026 lineup!

Official Selection films competing for the Palme d'Or

Hope: our review of Na Hong-jin’s spectacular film
With Hope, in theaters October 28, 2026, Na Hong-jin stages an intense spectacle in which an unseen threat, imposing creatures and absurd humor play off one another. Our review. [Read more]

The Braves (Coward): Lukas Dhont reimagines war.
The Braves (Coward), a historical drama from Lukas Dhont starring Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne, hits theaters on November 18, 2026. [Read more]

Fjord: Cristian Mungiu’s Palme d’Or lands on VOD
Fjord, Cristian Mungiu's 2026 Palme d’Or winner starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, is slated for digital purchase on December 17, 2026, followed by a VOD rental on December 21. [Read more]

Our salute to cinema: Swann Arlaud stars in the Cannes prize-winning film
Our Salvation, Emmanuel Marre’s film that won the Cannes 2026 Best Screenplay Award, opens in cinemas today with Swann Arlaud in the lead. [Read more]

Moulin in theaters: Gilles Lellouche stars as the Resistance leader
Moulin, the historical drama by László Nemes featuring Gilles Lellouche opposite Lars Eidinger, hits cinemas this Wednesday, October 28, 2026. [Read more]

L’Être Aimé est disponible en VOD avec Javier Bardem et Victoria Luengo
L’Être Aimé de Rodrigo Sorogoyen, drame porté par Javier Bardem et Victoria Luengo, est disponible en VOD dès aujourd’hui après sa présentation au Festival de Cannes 2026. [Read more]

Garance at the cinema: our take on the film starring Adèle Exarchopoulos
Garance, Jeanne Herry's new film starring Adèle Exarchopoulos and Sara Giraudeau, opens in cinemas on September 23, 2026. Read our review of this intimate portrait of alcoholism. [Read more]

Night Stories: Léa Mysius's family thriller is in theaters.
Léa Mysius's Night Stories, featuring Hafsia Herzi, Benoît Magimel and Monica Bellucci, is in theaters as of September 16, 2026. [Read more]

Minotaure will represent France at the 2027 Oscars after taking the Grand Prix at Cannes
Cannes Grand Prix: Minotaur by Andrey Zvyagintsev will represent France at the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Release scheduled for October 14, 2026. [Read more]

The Unknown Woman hits the big screen: Arthur Harari's fantastical thriller starring Léa Seydoux
Arthur Harari's The Unknown Woman, with Léa Seydoux and Niels Schneider, hits theaters on August 26, 2026. A fantastical thriller that premiered at Cannes. [Read more]

A Woman's Life: Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet's film in theaters this September
The Life of a Woman, directed by Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet, starring Léa Drucker, Mélanie Thierry, and Charles Berling, hits cinemas in France on 9 September 2026 after Cannes 2026. [Read more]

Autofiction: Pedro Almodóvar in competition at Cannes 2026 with his new film
Autofiction marks Pedro Almodóvar's return to the Cannes Film Festival's official competition in 2026. The film is set for release in cinemas with an international cast. [Read more]

Paper Tiger, James Gray’s film, in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2026.
Paper Tiger, James Gray's latest film, has joined the official competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival! [Read more]

Asghar Farhadi's Parallel Stories, in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2026
Asghar Farhadi returns to the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2026 with his new film, Histoires Parallèles, starring Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel and Pierre Niney. [Read more]

La Bola Negra by Javier Ambrossi & Javier Calvo, in the official competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival
La Bola Negra, the new film from Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, is in official competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. [Read more]

Valeska Grisebach’s dream project in official competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Valeska Grisebach joins the official competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival with her third feature, The Dreamed Adventure. [Read more]

"Soudain" by Ryusuke Hamaguchi in Official Competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Festival-goers will be able to catch Ryusuke Hamaguchi's film Soudain, in official competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. [Read more]

Sheep in the Box by Hirokazu Kore-eda, in official competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival
Hirokazu Kore-eda makes his return to the Cannes Film Festival in 2026 with his new competition film, Sheep in the Box. [Read more]

by Koji Fukada, in official competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2026
The Japanese filmmaker Koji Fukada will debut his new film, Quelques Jours à Nagi, in official competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. [Read more]

Gentle Monster, Marie Kreutzer's film, in official competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Marie Kreutzer's film Gentle Monster is in official competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, putting it in contention for the Palme d'Or. [Read more]

Fatherland, by Pawel Pawlikowski, in the official competition at the Cannes Film Festival 2026.
Pawel Pawlikowski will unveil his new feature, Fatherland (1949), in Official Competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. [Read more]

The Man I Love by Ira Sachs, in official competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Ira Sachs will present his new film, The Man I Love, at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, where it will compete for the Palme d'Or in the official competition. [Read more]

The Un Certain Regard selection

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma by Jane Schoenbrun (Opening film)
Lovers of All Nights by Yukiko Sode
Everytime by Sandra Wollner
A Few Words of Love by Rudi Rosenberg
I’ll Be Gone in June by Katharina Rivilis (feature debut)
Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep by Rakan Mayasi
I Am Always Your Maternal Animal by Valentina Maurel
The Melting by Manuela Martelli
The Sweetest One by Laïla Marrakchi
Ula by Viesturs Kairišs
Club Kid by Jordan Firstman (feature debut)
Congo Boy by Rafiki Fariala
Benimana by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo (feature debut)
The Corset by Louis Clichy
The Elephants in the Mist by Abinash Bikram Shah (feature debut)
Victorian Psycho by Zachary Wigon
A Girl’s Memory by Judith Godrèche
Titanic Ocean by Konstantina Kotzamani (feature debut)
Ulysses by Laetitia Masson (Closing Film)

The Cannes Première selection

Propeller One-Way Night Coach by John Travolta (feature debut)
Klara's Woods by Volker Schlöndorff
Arioka's Castle by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The Match by Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco
The Third Night by Daniel Auteuil
The End of It by Maria Martinez Bayona (feature debut)
Marie Madeleine by Gessica Généus
Here by Tiago Guedes
Orange-Flavored Marriage by Christophe Honoré
If You Think It Through by Géraldine Nakache

Off-Competition films

Her Private Hell by Nicolas Winding Refn
The Abandonment by Vincent Garenq
Diamond by Andy Garcia
Karma by Guillaume Canet
The Object of the Crime by Agnès Jaoui
The Battle of Gaulle: The Iron Age by Antonin Baudry

Les Séances de Minuit

Colony by Sang-ho Yeon
Roma Elastica by Bertrand Mandico
Sanguine by Marion Le Corroller (debut feature)
Full Phil by Quentin Dupieux
Jim Queen by Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané (debut feature)

Special Sessions

John Lennon: The Last Interview by Steven Soderbergh
The Wonderful Mornings by Avril Besson (debut feature)
Avedon by Ron Howard
Rare Soul for a Revolution by Pegah Ahangarani (debut)
Che Survivors by Christophe Dimitri Réveille (debut)
The Marie-Claire Case by Lauriane Escaffre and Yvo Muller
Cantona by David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas
Spring by Rostislav Kirpicenko (debut)
Ash in the Mouth by Diego Luna
Tangles by Leah Nelson (debut)
The Golden Triangle by Hélène Rosselet-Ruiz (debut)
Groundswell by Joshua & Rebecca Tickell
Lucy Lost by Olivier Clert (debut) — Family Seance

The opening film

The Electric Venus by Pierre Salvadori (out of competition)

The jury charged with deciding the films in competition is chaired by Park Chan-wook, who will in particular have the mission of handing the Palme d'or to one of the films in competition, on May 23.