Cannes 2026 Lineup Drops Hollywood and Bets on World Cinema
Quick Reads
- The Cannes 2026 lineup is official, with the 79th festival running May 12–23 on the French Riviera.
- Park Chan-wook of South Korea will lead the main competition jury this year.
- Pedro Almodóvar, Asghar Farhadi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Cristian Mungiu all bring new films to compete.
- Ira Sachs is the only American director in the main competition, with a queer AIDS-era musical starring Rami Malek.
- Cannes Critics’ Week opens with In Waves, the first animated feature to ever open the parallel section, led by the voices of Will Sharpe and Stephanie Hsu.
The Cannes 2026 Lineup: A World Cinema Takeover
The competition this year features Asghar Farhadi, Pedro Almodóvar, PaweÅ‚ Pawlikowski, Ira Sachs, Hirokazu Kore-eda, László Nemes, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi. Each is bringing a brand-new film to fight for the Palme d’Or. A full 65% of competition films come from France, Japan, and Spain.
Ira Sachs is the only American director in competition. His film The Man I Love is a musical fantasia set in 1980s New York. Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux confirmed it deals with the AIDS crisis. Rami Malek stars.
Asghar Farhadi returns with Parallel Tales, a French-language film. Its cast includes Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, and Catherine Deneuve. It marks Farhadi’s fifth time competing at Cannes.
Lukas Dhont’s World War I drama Coward also made the competition. The film was partially shot on the actual battlefields near Ypres, Belgium. Five women directors feature in the main competition this year.
Jury, Honours, and the Opening Night
South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook will serve as jury president for the main competition. French actress Eye Haïdara will host the opening and closing ceremonies.
Peter Jackson and Barbra Streisand will each receive an honorary Palme d’Or this year.IndieWire John Travolta also returns to Cannes to present his feature directorial debut, screening out of competition. Festival de Cannes
The festival opens May 12 with Pierre Salvadori’s French-language period comedy The Electric Kiss. It is a local title, as Cannes tradition demands.
Critics’ Week Makes History With Animation
Critics’ Week Makes History With Animation
Cannes Critics’ Week revealed its own slate on the same day. It made history immediately. In Waves, directed by Phuong Mai Nguyen, becomes the first animated feature ever to open Cannes Critics’ Week.
The film adapts AJ Dungo’s 2019 cult graphic novel. It follows two young California lovers, a skateboarder and a surfer, tested by illness and grief. Will Sharpe and Stephanie Hsu lead the English-language voice cast.
Seven films compete in the Critics’ Week section, selected from 1,050 feature submissions. They come from Kosovo, China, Yemen, Mexico, Ireland, France, and Spain. Blerta Basholli, whose debut Hive won the 2021 Sundance Grand Jury Prize, makes her Cannes debut with her second feature, Dua. It explores the aftermath of the 1990s Kosovo War through a 13-year-old girl’s eyes.
Scottish-Yemeni director Sara Ishaq brings The Station, set in a women-only petrol station in a war-torn Yemeni village. It is one of the most geographically and politically vital films in this year’s full Cannes 2026 lineup.
