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 popular Un Certain Regard sidebar and other parts of the program for the 79th edition of the world’s biggest film festival during a press conference in the French capital.
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.
Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident won last year’s Cannes Palme d’Or. 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 winner of this year’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 year — distributors and audiences will be combing the 2026 selection for signs of this year’s breakouts.
Among big names already lined up for Cannes, 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.
Among the names that have been suggested for this year’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, some of the year’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 started off 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.”
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.
Follow along as this post is updated with key films from known auteurs, emerging voices, and new names.
Scott Roxborough contributed to this report.
