79th Cannes Film Festival Unveils 2026 Official Selection

The 79th Cannes Film Festival has unveiled its official selection, featuring a diverse international lineup of films across multiple competitive and non-competitive sections. The festival will run from May 12 to 23, 2026, on the Côte d’Azur, with South Korean director Park Chan-wook presiding over the Competition jury.

Festival Overview and Leadership

The festival's artistic director, Thierry Frémaux, reported that 2,541 feature films from 141 countries were submitted for official selection this year. Festival president Iris Knobloch described the event as a space for freedom and visibility. The announced titles are reported to represent approximately 95% of the complete lineup, with potential for further additions.

Jury Presidents: Park Chan-wook will head the main Competition jury. Leïla Bekhti will preside over the Un Certain Regard jury.
Honorary Awards: Filmmaker Peter Jackson and actor-filmmaker Barbra Streisand are scheduled to receive honorary Palme d’Or awards.

Official Selection Highlights

• The festival will open on May 12 with Pierre Salvadori’s period drama "The Electric Kiss" (La Vénus électrique), set in the 1920s.

The main Palme d’Or competition features 21 films, including five directed by women.

Notable titles include:

• "Bitter Christmas" by Pedro Almodóvar (Spain).
• "Parallel Tales" by Asghar Farhadi (Iran), starring Isabelle Huppert and Vincent Cassel.
• "Fatherland" by Paweł Pawlikowski (Poland), starring Sandra Hüller.
• "Moulin" by László Nemes (Hungary), a French resistance drama.
• "Fjord" by Cristian Mungiu (Romania).
• "Minotaur" by Andrey Zvyagintsev (Russia).
• "Sheep in the Box" by Hirokazu Kore-eda (Japan), an AI-themed science-fiction drama.
• "All of a Sudden" by Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Japan).
• "The Man I Love" by Ira Sachs (USA), a musical fantasy set in 1980s New York, starring Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge, and Rebecca Hall. Ira Sachs is reported as the sole U.S. director in the main competition.
• "Paper Tiger" by James Gray (USA), a New York-set crime drama starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, and Miles Teller, was announced as a later addition to the competition.

This section showcases emerging talent.

Featured films include:

• "Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma" by Jane Schoenbrun, starring Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder.
• "Club Kid" by Jordan Firstman, his directorial debut featuring Cara Delevingne.

Later additions to the section include "Victorian Psycho" by Zachary Wigon, "A Girl's Story" by Judith Godrèche, "Titanic Ocean" by Konstantina Kotzamani, and "Ulysse" by Laetitia Masson, which will close the section.

Notable films screening out of competition include:

• "Her Private Hell" by Nicolas Winding Refn.
• "John Lennon: The Last Interview", a documentary by Steven Soderbergh.
• "Avedon", a documentary about photographer Richard Avedon by Ron Howard.
• "Diamond" by Andy Garcia, starring Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman.

This section will feature the world premiere of actor John Travolta’s directorial debut, "Propeller One-Way Night Coach", an adaptation of his 1997 children's book, starring his daughter Ella Bleu Travolta. The film is scheduled for release on Apple TV+ on May 29.

This segment includes a variety of documentaries and features, such as:

• A documentary on former footballer Eric Cantona, featuring interviews with David Beckham and Alex Ferguson.
• "The Match" by Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco, exploring the 1986 FIFA World Cup quarter-final between England and Argentina.
• Later additions include "Ashes" by Diego Luna and the animated feature "Tangles" by Leah Nelson.

Genre films in this section include "Colony" by Yeon Sang-ho and "Full Phil" by Quentin Dupieux.

Additional Information

• Spanish actors Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz are involved in separate projects; Bardem stars in Rodrigo Sorogoyen's "The Beloved" (in Competition), and Cruz has a cameo in "La bola negra" by Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi.
• A Family Screening of the animated film "Lucy Lost" by Olivier Clert has also been announced.