From May 12 to 23, 2026, the 79th Cannes Film Festival brings together a Korean jury president, two Honorary Palmes and an official selection announced on April 9. A first overview.
Cannes remains the one place in the world where cinema still speaks as though it has something urgent to say. Not just a showcase, not just a market, a moment when films from everywhere arrive on the same Croisette with the same ambition: to matter. This 2026 edition looks dense and international, driven by a competition that mixes long-awaited names with some remarkable first-timers. Park Chan-wook in the jury, two legends honoured, and an official selection that confirms world arthouse cinema still has a great deal to say.
Park Chan-wook presides the jury
The festival has entrusted the jury presidency to Park Chan-wook, the South Korean filmmaker whose work spans Oldboy, Thirst and Decision to Leave. He succeeds Juliette Binoche and becomes the third Asian figure to hold this role, after Tetsuro Furukaki in 1962 and Wong Kar-wai in 2006. Park Chan-wook knows Cannes as a laureate: Grand Prix for Oldboy in 2004, Jury Prize for Thirst in 2009, Best Director for Decision to Leave in 2022.
Peter Jackson and Barbra Streisand receive an Honorary Palme
Two Honorary Palmes will be awarded at this edition. Peter Jackson, New Zealand director of The Lord of the Rings trilogy, was announced on March 5, 2026. Barbra Streisand, actress, singer, producer and director, will receive the second. The distinction comes forty-three years after she became the first woman to win a Golden Globe for Best Director, for Yentl, in 1983.
The 2026 Official Selection
Twenty-one films compete for the Palme d’Or, announced on April 9, 2026. The list confirms several of the most anticipated names and holds a few major surprises.
Competition
Opening Film (Out of Competition): La Vénus électrique — Pierre Salvadori
- Amarga Navidad — Pedro Almodóvar
- Histoires parallèles — Asghar Farhadi
- La Vie d’une femme — Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
- La Bola negra — Javier Calvo & Javier Ambrossi
- Coward — Lukas Dhont
- Das geträumte Abenteuer — Valeska Grisebach
- Soudain — Hamaguchi Ryusuke
- L’Inconnue — Arthur Harari
- Garance — Jeanne Herry
- Sheep in the Box — Kore-eda Hirokazu
- Hope — Na Hong-jin
- Nagi Notes (A Few Days in Nagi) — Fukada Koji
- Gentle Monster — Marie Kreutzer
- Notre salut — Emmanuel Marre
- Fjord — Cristian Mungiu
- Histoires de la nuit — Léa Mysius
- Moulin — László Nemes
- Fatherland — Pawel Pawlikowski
- The Man I Love — Ira Sachs
- El ser querido — Rodrigo Sorogoyen
- Minotaure — Andrey Zvyagintsev
Un Certain Regard
Opening Film: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma — Jane Schoenbrun
- Les Éléphants dans la brume — Abinash Bikram Shah (first film)
- Le Corset — Louis Clichy
- Ben’Imana — Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo (first film)
- Congo Boy — Rafiki Fariala
- Club Kid — Jordan Firstman (first film)
- Ula — Viesturs Kairišs
- La Más dulce — Laïla Marrakchi
- El Deshielo — Manuela Martelli
- Siempre soy tu animal materno (Your Maternal Animal) — Valentina Maurel
- Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep — Rakan Mayasi
- I’ll Be Gone in June — Katharina Rivilis (first film)
- Quelques mots d’amour — Rudi Rosenberg
- Everytime — Sandra Wollner
- De toutes les nuits, les amants — Sode Yukiko
Out of Competition
- La Bataille de Gaulle : L’Âge de fer — Antonin Baudry
- Karma — Guillaume Canet
- Diamond — Andy Garcia
- L’Abandon — Vincent Garenq
- L’Objet du délit — Agnès Jaoui
- Her Private Hell — Nicolas Winding Refn
Cannes Première
- La Troisième Nuit — Daniel Auteuil
- The Match — Juan Cabral & Santiago Franco
- Kokurojo (The Castle of Arioka) — Kurosawa Kiyoshi
- Heimsuchung (Klara’s Wood) — Volker Schlöndorff
- Vol de nuit pour Los Angeles — John Travolta
Midnight Screenings
- Full Phil — Quentin Dupieux
- Sanguine — Marion Le Corroller (first film)
- Roma Elastica — Bertrand Mandico
- Jim Queen — Marco Nguyen & Nicolas Athané (first film)
- Gun-Che (Colony) — Yeon Sang-ho
Special Screenings
- Rehearsals for a Revolution — Pegah Ahangarani (first film)
- Les Matins merveilleux — Avril Besson (first film)
- L’Affaire Marie-Claire — Lauriane Escaffre & Yvo Muller
- Avedon — Ron Howard
- Les Survivants du Che — Christophe Dimitri Réveille (first film)
- John Lennon: The Last Interview — Steven Soderbergh
- Cantona — David Tryhorn & Ben Nicholas
The films I’m waiting for
Rodrigo Sorogoyen (El ser querido) — the Spaniard behind Madre and As bestas in official competition for the first time. He films ordinary violence and the bonds that break with a precision that cuts deep.
Lukas Dhont (Coward) — after Girl and Close, the Belgian returns with a new film about male fragility and friendship. Cannes is his natural territory.
László Nemes (Moulin) — the director of Son of Saul (Grand Prix 2015) back in competition, eleven years on. The wait has been long.
Jeanne Herry (Garance) — after Il reste encore demain and Pupille, a filmmaker whose every film digs further into what institutions do to people. Jeanne Herry in competition at Cannes is proof that popular cinema and demanding cinema are not a contradiction.
Hamaguchi Ryusuke (Soudain) — in competition for the third time after Drive My Car (Best Screenplay 2021). With him, every film overflows its frame.
Ron Howard (Avedon) — a documentary on photographer Richard Avedon in Special Screening. Steven Soderbergh (John Lennon: The Last Interview) — Soderbergh and Lennon. That’s enough.
Volker Schlöndorff (Heimsuchung / Klara’s Wood) in Cannes Première — the director of The Tin Drum (Palme d’Or 1979) returning at 87.
John Travolta presents Vol de nuit pour Los Angeles, his directorial debut — adapted from a book he wrote for his son, starring his daughter Ella Bleu Travolta. There is something genuinely moving in that.
Jim Queen by Marco Nguyen & Nicolas Athané in Midnight Screening — a queer animated film about a character whose community faces extinction. A film movieintheair has been following since its announcement. It lands exactly where it belongs.
