The Cannes Film Festival will favour auteur-driven cinema in its 2026 edition, with filmmakers including Asghar Farhadi, Pedro Almodóvar, Paweł Pawlikowski, Ira Sachs, Hirokazu Kore-eda, László Nemes and Ryusuke Hamaguchi premiering new films in competition.
The 2025 edition of the annual French film festival had a strong Hollywood presence, including Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning.
Sachs is the only American director in competition this year, with The Man I Love, a musical fantasy starring Rami Malek set against the AIDS crisis in 1980s New York.
“It’s important to note that when studios have a smaller presence at Cannes, it’s because they’re simply less active in the kind of cinema that used to allow them to come here,” Cannes’ longtime chief Thierry Fremaux said while unveiling the lineup.
He added that the shift was not necessarily a long-term trend, emphasising that “independent cinema, cinema made outside of Los Angeles — continues to exist, and this selection will bear witness to that”.
Among the competition titles are Cristian Mungiu’s English-language debut Fjord, starring Renate Reinave and Sebastian Stan; Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, featuring Sandra Hüller; Hong-jin Na’s Hope, starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander; Farhadi’s Parallel Tales, led by Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve; and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, starring Javier Bardem.
Almodóvar will also present Bitter Christmas, which has already premiered in Spain.
The competition lineup includes an unusually high number of French-language films, including works by foreign directors such as Farhadi’s Parallel Tales, Nemes’ Moulin and Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden.
French filmmaker Emmanuel Marre will present Notre Salut, starring Swann Arlaud. Five films by female directors are in competition, including titles from Léa Mysius, Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet and Jeanne Herry, as well as Marie Kreutzer and Valeska Grisebach.
Asian cinema is strongly represented at Cannes this year, with four films competing for the Palme d’Or under jury president Park Chan-wook. Na’s Hope, his first feature in a decade, marks the first Korean film in competition in four years and features an international cast including Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Hoyeon and Taylor Russell.
Kore-eda returns with Sheep in the Box, while Hamaguchi competes with All of a Sudden, starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto. Koji Fukada rounds out the Asian slate with Nagi Notes.
In parallel sections, the Un Certain Regard sidebar will feature US titles including Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma by Jane Schoenbrun, starring Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, and Club Kid, the directorial debut of Jordan Firstman, featuring Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva and Eldar Isgandarov.
Steven Soderbergh and Ron Howard will present documentaries in Special Screenings.
Elsewhere, Nicolas Winding Refn will return with Her Private Hell, while Quentin Dupieux’s Full Phil, starring Kristen Stewart and Woody Harrelson, is set for a Midnight Screening.
The festival opens May 12 with The Electric Kiss (La Venus électrique) by Pierre Salvadori and will honour Barbra Streisand and Peter Jackson with honorary Palme d’Or awards.