The Cannes Film Festival 2026 lineup is taking shape in front of the world’s eyes in Paris on Thursday. Artistic director Thierry Frémaux, with president Iris Knobloch by his side, is unveiling the official selection, the favored Un Certain Regard sidebar and other parts of this system for the 79th edition of the world’s biggest film festival during a press conference within the French capital.
Last week, Cannes unveiled that its 2026 edition would open with Pierre Salvadori’s Nineteen Twenties-set La Vénus électrique (The Electric Kiss) on May 12, following the opening ceremony hosted by actress Eye Haïdara. It also unveiled the world premiere of John Travolta’s directorial debut, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, within the Cannes Premiere Selection.
Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident won last 12 months’s Cannes Palme d’Or. South Korean director Park Chan-wook, the acclaimed filmmaker behind Oldboy, The Handmaiden and No Other Choice, will probably be the jury president at Cannes 2026, heading up the group that may select the winner of this 12 months’s Palme d’Or.
Given the importance of the festival for the independent circuit and awards season – Oscar nominees and winners Sentimental Value, It Was Just an Accident, The Secret Agent, and Sîrat all premiered in Cannes last 12 months — distributors and audiences will probably be combing the 2026 selection for signs of this 12 months’s breakouts.
Amongst big names already lined up for Cannes, Recent Zealand filmmaker and The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson will receive an honorary Palme d’Or in recognition of his life’s work at this 12 months’s festival, as will actress/singer/director and EGOT winner Barbra Streisand. The 79th annual Cannes Film Festival runs May 12-23.
Among the many names which were suggested for this 12 months’s fest, as reported by THR, are the likes of Joel Cohen, Pedro Almodóvar, Asghar Farhadi, Marie Kreutzer, Takashi Miike, Paweł Pawlikowski, Valeska Grisebach, Radu Jude, Lars von Trier, July Jung, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Lukas Dhont and Werner Herzog. Meanwhile, a number of the 12 months’s most anticipated titles expected to skip the Croisette are Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, Pixar’s Toy Story 5, Lucasfilm’s The Mandalorian & Grogu and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.
Knobloch began off by highlighting that “the news coming from all world wide is all but reassuring.” So, why organize a movie festival during such a “time of great uncertainty”? She highlighted: “Cannes was born at a time of great uncertainty, in 1939.” Gathering filmmakers back then “was not a luxury, it was a necessity” to showcase the “capability to dream” and humans at their best, she said. And Knobloch highlighted the necessity for an area of freedom and an area that provides visibility to people and essential issues.
Within the age of AI and major conflicts, she also called Cannes “a milestone within the hurricane, not a closed fortress but a spot where the values usually are not adjusting in response to the wind.”
Frémaux, early on within the press conference, argued that “the language of cinema has won” after worries concerning the death of cinema, suggesting that even on social media, it was alive and well. Cannes programmers have been busy watching movies, with 2,541 features submitted this 12 months from 141 countries, he also highlighted, mentioning that the submissions are up by 1,000 from 10 years ago.
Follow along as this post is updated with key movies from known auteurs, emerging voices, and latest names.
Scott Roxborough contributed to this report.