Will the stars align for Cannes? That was a key question heading into Thursday’s unveiling of the Cannes Film Festival 2026 lineup, which took shape during its unveiling in Paris. The answer is a bit of a mixed bag: arthouse stars – yes, Hollywood stars – not so much. As things stand right now, Cannes 2026 promises a mix of well-known and emerging arthouse voices, but maybe less star wattage than recent editions of the world’s biggest film festival, even though French superstars Léa Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve alone will bring two movies to the competition program.
Other big names starring in Cannes 2026 films include the likes of Rami Malek (in Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love), Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan (in Cristian Mungiu’s English-language debut Fjord,) Isabelle Huppert (in Iranian auteur Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Tales), Sandra Hüller (in Fatherland from Paweł Pawlikowski) and Javier Bardem (in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved), but organizers acknowledged a lack of Hollywood studio fare lined up for this year’s edition of the fest. And Sachs is the only U.S. director in the competition program.
That said, arthouse darlings galore will head to the south of France to premiere their new films on the Croisette. Among them are the likes of Sachs, Pedro Almodóvar, Farhadi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Marie Kreutzer, László Nemes, Volker Schlöndorff, Jane Schoenbrun, Mungiu, Lukas Dhont, Pawlikowski and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi.
Artistic director Thierry Frémaux, with president Iris Knobloch by his side, discussed the official selection, the popular Un Certain Regard sidebar and other parts of the program for the 79th edition, also highlighting the fact that five of the 21 competition films unveiled, or about a quarter, are from female directors.
The Cannes team’s lineup isn’t complete, meaning it will add more titles in the coming weeks. But among the names that had been suggested for this year’s fest, as reported by THR, that didn’t make Thursday’s cut are the likes of Joel Cohen, Takashi Miike, Lars von Trier, Radu Jude, Werner Herzog and James Gray, whose Paper Tiger, with a cast featuring Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Miles Teller, would bring serious star power to the Croisette.
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 year – distributors and audiences will be combing the 2026 selection for signs of this year’s breakouts.
Last week, Cannes unveiled that its 2026 edition would open with Pierre Salvadori’s 1920s-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, in the Cannes Premiere Selection.
South Korean director Park Chan-wook, the acclaimed filmmaker behind Oldboy, The Handmaiden and No Other Choice, will be the jury president at Cannes 2026, heading up the group that will select the winners of this year’s awards. Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident won last year’s Cannes Palme d’Or.
Among big-name creatives who have previously been lined up for Cannes next month, New 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 year’s festival, as will actress/singer/director and EGOT winner Barbra Streisand. The 79th annual Cannes Film Festival runs May 12-23.
Knobloch started off Thursday’s proceedings by highlighting that “the news coming from all around the world is all but reassuring.” So, why organize a film 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 “capacity to dream” and humans at their best, she said. And Knobloch highlighted the need for a space of freedom and a space that gives visibility to people and important issues.
In the age of AI and major conflicts, she also called Cannes “a milestone in the hurricane, not a closed fortress but a place where the values are not adjusting according to the wind.”
And Knobloch addressed the rise of artificial intelligence. “We are defending the freedom of creation for all human beings, but only for human beings,” she said. “AI is already in the studio and the editing rooms and the process of creation. We will not close our eyes, but we refuse [to let] AI dictate its law to cinema. Behind each picture, there is a moviemaker, but also dozens, sometimes hundreds of, people who put their talent, their skill, their energy, their soul, in a shared project. A movie is not just a patchwork of data, it’s a personal vision.” Her conclusion: “AI knows how to imitate very well, but it will never know how to feel.”
Frémaux, early on in the press conference, argued that “the language of cinema has won” after worries about the death of cinema, suggesting that even on social media, it was alive and well. Cannes programmers have been busy watching films, with 2,541 features submitted this year from 141 countries, he also highlighted, mentioning that the submissions are up by 1,000 from 10 years ago.
Check out the full Cannes 2026 lineup, as unveiled on Thursday, below.
COMPETITION
Minotaur, Andrey Zvyagintsev
The Beloved, Rodrigo Sorogoyen
The Man I Love, Ira Sachs
Fatherland, Paweł Pawlikowski
Moulin, László Nemes
The Birthday Party, Léa Mysius
Fjord, Cristian Mungiu
Notre Salut, Emmanuel Marre
Gentle Monster, Marie Kreutzer
Nagi Notes, Hiroshi Fukada
Hope, Na Hong-jin
Sheep in the Box, Hirokazu Kore-eda
The Unknown, Arthur Harari
All of a Sudden, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
The Dreamed Adventure, Valeska Grisebach
Another Day, Jeanne Herry
Coward, Lukas Dhont
The Black Ball, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo
A Woman’s Life, Charline Bourgeois-Taquet
Parallel Tales, Asghar Farhadi
Bitter Christmas, Pedro Almodóvar
UN CERTAIN REGARD
All the Lovers in the Night, Yukiko Sode
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun
Everytime, Sandra Wollner
Club Kid, Jordan Firstman
I’ll Be Gone in June, Katharina Rivilis
Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep, Rakan Mayasi
The Meltdown, Manuela Martelli
Elephants in the Fog, Abinash Bikram Shah
Iron Boy, Louis Clichy
Ben’imana, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Congo Boy, Rafiki Fariala
Uļa, Viesturs Kairišs
Strawberries, Laïla Marrakchi
Forever Your Maternal Animal, Valentina Maurel
Words of Love, Rudi Rosenberg
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
John Lennon: The Last Interview, Steven Soderbergh
Avedon, Ron Howard
Les Survivants du Che, Christophe Réveille
Les Matins Merveilleux, Avril Besson
Rehearsals for a Revolution, Pegah Ahangarani
L’affaire Marie-Claire, Lauriane Escaffre and Yvo Muller
Cantona, David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas
CANNES PREMIERE
Visitation, Volker Schlöndorff
Propeller One-Way Night Coach, John Travolta
Kokurojo: The Samurai and the Prisoner, Kiyoshi Kurosawa
The Third Night, Daniel Auteuil
The Match, Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
Sanguine, Marion Le Coroller
Jim Queen, Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athane
Colony, Yeon Sang-ho
Roma Elastica, Bertrand Mandico
Full Phil, Quentin Dupieux
OUT OF COMPETITION
Her Private Hell, Nicolas Winding Refn
L’Abandon, Vincent Garenq
L’objet du délit, Agnès Jaoui
La bataille de Gaulle: L’âge de fer, Antonin Baudry
Karma, Guillaume Canet
The Electric Kiss, Pierre Salvadori – opening film
Diamond, Andy Garcia
Scott Roxborough contributed to this report.
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