Cannes Unveils 21-Film Lineup for 2026 Edition

Organizers of the 79th Cannes Film Festival unveiled a lineup dominated by acclaimed international directors on Thursday, announcing 21 films competing for the Palme d'Or at the event set for May 12 to 23, 2026, on the French Riviera.

The selection emphasizes auteur-driven cinema from around the world, with new works from several Palme d'Or veterans and Oscar winners. Pedro Almodovar returns with Bitter Christmas, a drama about filmmakers exploiting each other's lives, following his past Cannes successes with All About My Mother and Volver. Hirokazu Koreeda, whose Shoplifters won the Palme in 2018, presents the science fiction tale Sheep in the Box, centering on a grieving couple adopting a humanoid boy in the near future. Pawel Pawlikowski's Fatherland stars Sandra Hüller as the daughter of novelist Thomas Mann, set during the family's return from American exile after World War II. Other competition entries include Asghar Farhadi's Parallel Lives, featuring Isabelle Huppert and Vincent Cassel; Andrey Zvyagintsev's political thriller Minotaur; Ryusuke Hamaguchi's French-language debut All of a Sudden, set in a Parisian nursing home; Cristian Mungiu's Norway-set Fjord, starring...