Schoenbruns Camp Miasma Gets 9-Min Ovation at Cannes

Jane Schoenbrun's latest film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, premiered to a nearly nine-minute standing ovation as the opening entry in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, 2026, at the Debussy Theatre.

The surreal queer horror blends slasher tropes, comedy, and psychodrama, centering on Kris, a young queer filmmaker played by Hannah Einbinder. Hired to reboot the faded Camp Miasma franchise, a Friday the 13th-style series featuring a masked killer called Little Death, Kris travels to the Pacific Northwest camp where the original was filmed. There, she seeks out the reclusive original final girl, Billy, portrayed by Gillian Anderson, hoping to convince her to return. Their encounter evolves into an exploration of sexual awakening, fandom, identity, and the genre's legacy, marked by gore, intimacy, and meta commentary on horror remakes.

Schoenbrun, a nonbinary trans filmmaker whose prior works include I Saw the TV Glow and We're All Going to the World's Fair, described the production as the most joyful of their career. The film, produced by Plan B and distributed by MUBI, faced financing hurdles, with Schoenbrun noting that major studios...