79th Cannes Film Festival (2026)

2026 Cannes Film Festival, as the 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, is an international cinema event to be held from 12 to 23 May 2026 in the city of Cannes, France, at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès de Cannes. The 79th Cannes Film Festival will be chaired by South Korean director Park Chan-wook.

The festival opening ceremony took place on 12 May 2026, during which two artists were awarded the Honorary Palme d'Or. Director Peter Jackson received the Honorary Palme d'Or at the opening ceremony. Singer and actress Barbra Streisand will also be honored with the Honorary Palme d'Or during the festival.

The opening film of the festival is La Vénus Électrique / The Electric Kiss directed by Pierre Salvadori, screening in the Out of Competition category.

The official poster of the 79th Cannes Film Festival features the two lead characters from Ridley Scott’s 1991 film Thelma & Louise. The film had its world premiere in Cannes on 20 May 1991. The poster was created using photographs by Roland Neveu and graphic design by Hartland Villa.

The Main Competition jury has been tasked with evaluating 22 films to determine the winner of the Palme d'Or. The winners will be announced at the Closing Ceremony on 23 May 2026, which will be broadcast live in France by France Télévisions and internationally by Brut.

The Main Competition jury consists of the following members:

Park Chan-wook – Director, Screenwriter, Producer (South Korea) | Jury President

Demi Moore – Actress (United States)

Ruth Negga – Actress (Ethiopia, Ireland)

Laura Wandel – Director, Screenwriter (Belgium)

Diego Céspedes – Director, Screenwriter (Chile)

Isaach De Bankolé – Actor (Ivory Coast, United States)

Paul Laverty – Screenwriter (United Kingdom)

Chloé Zhao – Director, Screenwriter, Film Editor (China)

Stellan Skarsgård – Actor (Sweden)

Park Chan-wook’s role as jury president marks a historic first for Korean cinema at Cannes.

Un Certain Regard is chaired by French actress Leïla Bekhti, succeeding British director Molly Manning Walker. The jury members are Senegalese producer Angèle Diabang, Lebanese composer Khaled Mouzanar, Italian director Laura Samani and French director Thomas Cailley. This jury is responsible for selecting the winners of the section, which highlights young, auteur-driven and emerging cinema.

The following 22 films will screen in the Main Competition:

– Amarga Navidad (Bitter Christmas) – Pedro Almodóvar

– A Woman's Life – Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet

– La Bola Negra – Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi

– Coward – Lukas Dhont

– Parallel Tales – Asghar Farhadi

– Paper Tiger – James Gray

– Das Geträumte Abenteuer (The Dreamed Adventure) – Valeska Grisebach

– All of a Sudden (Soudain) – Hamaguchi Ryusuke

– The Unknown – Arthur Harari

– Another Day (Garance) – Jeanne Herry

– Sheep in the Box – Kore-eda Hirokazu

– Hope – Na Hong-jin

– Nagi Notes – Fukada Koji

– Gentle Monster – Marie Kreutzer

– A Man of His Time – Emmanuel Marre

– Fjord – Cristian Mungiu

– The Birthday Party – Léa Mysius

– Moulin – László Nemes

– Fatherland – Paweł Pawlikowski

– The Man I Love – Ira Sachs

– El Ser Querido (The Beloved) – Rodrigo Sorogoyen

– Minotaur – Andreï Zvyagintsev

The opening film of the Un Certain Regard section is Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma directed by Jane Schoenbrun. Other films in this section include:

– Elephants in the Fog – Abinash Bikram Shah (Debut film)

– Iron Boy – Louis Clichy

– Ben'Imana – Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo (Debut film)

– Congo Boy – Rafiki Fariala

– Club Kid – Jordan Firstman (Debut film)

– A Girl's Story – Judith Godrèche

– UĻA – Viesturs Kairišs

– Titanic Ocean – Konstantina Kotzamani (Debut film)

– La Más Dulce (Strawberries) – Laïla Marrakchi

– El Deshielo (The Meltdown) – Manuela Martelli

– Siempre Soy Tu Animal Materno – Valentina Maurel

– Yesterday the Eye Didn't Sleep – Rakan Mayasi (Debut film)

– I'll Be Gone in June – Katharina Rivilis (Debut film)

– Words of Love – Rudi Rosenberg

– Everytime – Sandra Wollner

– Victorian Psycho – Zachary Wigon

– All the Lovers in the Night – Sode Yukiko

– Ulysse – Laetitia Masson

Films in this section include: La Bataille de Gaulle: L'Âge de Fer (Antonin Baudry), Karma (Guillaume Canet), Diamond (Andy Garcia), Forsaken (Vincent Garenq), Crescendo (Agnès Jaoui) and Her Private Hell (Nicolas Winding Refn).

Films in this section include: Full Phil (Quentin Dupieux), Species (Marion Le Corroller – Debut film), Roma Elastica (Bertrand Mandico), Jim Queen (Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané – Debut film) and Gun-Che / Colony (Yeon Sang-ho).

Films in this section include: La Troisième Nuit (Daniel Auteuil), The Match (Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco), Marie Madeleine (Géssica Généus), Aquí (Tiago Guedes), Orange-Flavoured Wedding (Christophe Honoré), Kokurojo / The Samurai and the Prisoner (Kurosawa Kiyoshi), The End of It (Maria Martínez Bayona – Debut film), Think Good (Géraldine Nakache), Heimsuchung / Visitation (Volker Schlöndorff) and Propeller One-Way Night Coach (John Travolta – Debut film).

Films in this category include: Rehearsals for a Revolution (Pegah Ahangarani – Debut film), Les Matins Merveilleux (Avril Besson – Debut film), L'Affaire Marie-Claire (Lauriane Escaffre and Yvo Muller), Avedon (Ron Howard), Vesna (Rostislav Kirpičenko – Debut film), Ashes (Diego Luna), Tangles (Leah Nelson – Debut film), Les Survivants du Che (Christophe Dimitri Réveille – Debut film), Le Triangle d'Or (Hélène Rosselet-Ruiz – Debut film), John Lennon: The Last Interview (Steven Soderbergh), Groundswell (Josh Tickell and Rebecca Tickell) and Cantona (David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas).

The only film in this section is Lucy Lost (Olivier Clert – Debut film).

Hope is a science fiction thriller completed after an extended development period, bringing together Korean actors and Hollywood stars. Directed by Na Hong-jin, the film features Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Ho-yeon, Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Taylor Russell. According to Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux, the film has a constantly shifting genre structure.

Paper Tiger is a drama film by James Gray, initially not included in the festival’s competition lineup but later added. Set in Queens, the film stars Adam Driver, Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson, exploring the story of two brothers drawn into the Russian mafia.

Fjord is the latest film by Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu. Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve portray a Romanian-Norwegian couple whose lives are uprooted as they relocate to the woman’s remote Norwegian hometown.

Fatherland is Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski’s third film following his black-and-white period dramas. The film centers on German writer Thomas Mann and his daughter during a journey after World War II. Hanns Zischler and Sandra Hüller share the lead roles.

All of a Sudden is Japanese auteur Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s first film in French. Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto star in the story of a nursing home director and a Japanese playwright diagnosed with a terminal illness.

Sheep in the Box is the latest film by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, winner of the Palme d'Or in 2018. The science fiction film tells the story of a couple who adopt a humanoid baby robot after losing their sons.

Bitter Christmas is a multi-layered melodrama directed by Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar. The film explores themes of production, grief and aging. Almodóvar returns to Spain and the Spanish language after his previous English-language film.

John Lennon: The Last Interview is a documentary film directed by Steven Soderbergh, centered on John Lennon’s final interview given in New York’s Dakota building shortly before his death. The film is screened in the Special Screenings category.

Minotaur is the film by Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev marking his return to Cannes after the pandemic. The film examines the crisis faced by a businessman in rural Russia.