Cannes 2026 Lineup Revealed: Pedro Almodóvar, Ira Sachs, Léa Seydoux & More With Films in Competition
The Cannes Film Festival has revealed its 2026 lineup, bringing together global auteurs, major stars, and a new wave of indie filmmakers. Once again, the Croisette stands at the center of the international awards conversation—last year’s Cannes premieres ended up a huge part of the Oscar race—setting the stage for another festival where prestige, discovery, and competition collide.
Among the well-known stars are French superstars Catherine Deneuve and Léa Seydoux, both of whom have films in competition. Seydoux stars in two films: Arthur Harari’s L’Inconnue (The Unknown) and Marie Kreutzer‘s Gentle Monster. Also headed to the Croisette are writer/director Ira Sachs, whose The Man I Love is set in 1980s New York and stars Rami Malek, Rebecca Hall, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach; iconic writer/director Pedro Almodóvar returns with Bitter Christmas (while two of his previous collaborators, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, will also be at Cannes with separate films); and Oscar-winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi is bringing Parallel Stories, which he shot in Paris last year and stars Isabelle Huppert, and his first feature since his film A Hero won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2021.
There’s a whole lot more coming to Cannes—Sentimental Value star Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan star in Cristian Mungiu’s English-language debut Fjord, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved stars the aforementioned Bardem, while Javier Calvo’s La bola negra includes a memorable cameo from Penélope Cruz (according to Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux), and John Travolta’s directorial debut with the film Propeller One-Way Night Coach, which will screen in the Cannes Premiere Section.
Last year’s Palme d’Or went to Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, one of many Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning films to premiere at last year’s fest, along with Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent, and Sîrat.
This year’s jury president is acclaimed South Korean director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, No Other Choice). 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, alongside actress/singer/director and EGOT winner Barbra Streisand.
The lineup isn’t complete yet, as more titles will be added in the coming weeks. The festival will open on May 12 with Pierre Salvadori’s 1920s-set La Vénus électrique (The Electric Kiss). The 79th annual Cannes Film Festival runs May 12-23.
Check out the current lineup here:
COMPETITION
Minotaur, Andrey Zvyagintsev
The Beloved, Rodrigo Sorogoyen
The Man I Love, Ira Sachs
Fatherland, Pawel Pawlikowski
Moulin, László Nemes
Histoires de la Nuit, Lea Mysius
Fjord, Cristian Mungiu
Notre Salut, Emmanuel Marre
Gentle Monster, Marie Kreutzer
Hope, Na Hong-Jin
Nagi Notes, Kôji Fukada
Sheep in the Box, Hirokazu Kore-eda
Garance, Jeanne Herry
The Unknown, Arthur Harari
Sudden, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
The Dreamed Adventure, Valeska Grisebach
Coward, Lukas Dhont
La bola negra, Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi
Parallel Stories, Asghar Farhadi
Bitter Christmas, Pedro Almodóvar
A Woman’s Life, Charline Bourgeois-Taquet
UN CERTAIN REGARD
All the Lovers in the Night by Yukiko Sode
La más dulce, Laïla Marrakchi
Club Kid, Jordan Firstman
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun
Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep, Rakan Mayasi
Everytime, Sandra Wollner
Meltdown, Manuela Martelli
I’ll Be Gone in June, Katharina Rivilis
I Am Always Your Maternal Animal, Valentina Maurel
Congo Boy, Rafiki Fariala
Iron Boy, Louis Clichy
Benimana, Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo
Elephants in the Fog, Abinash Bikram Shah
Uļa, Viesturs Kairišs
Words of Love, Rudi Rosenberg
OUT OF COMPETITION
Her Private Hell, Nicolas Winding Refn
Diamond, Andy Garcia
The Electric Kiss, Pierre Salvadori
La Bataille de Gaulle : L’âge de fer, Antonin Baudry
Karma, Guillaume Canet
L’Objet Du Delit, Agnes Jaoui
L’abandon, Vincent Garenq
CANNES PREMIERE
Propeller One-Way, John Travolta
Kokurojo: The Samurai and the Prisoner, Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Heimsuchung, Volker Schlondorff
El partido, Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco
When the Night Falls by Daniel Auteuil
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
John Lennon: The Last Interview, Steven Soderbergh
Avedon, Ron Howard
Les Survivants du Che, Christophe Réveille
Les Matins Merveilleux – Avril Besson
Cantona, Ben Nicholas and David Tryhorn
L’affaire Marie-Claire, Yvo Muller, Lauriane Escaffre
Rehearsals for a Revolution, Pegah Ahangarani
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
Roma elastica, Bertrand Mandico
Jim Queen, Nicolas Athane and Marco Nguyen
Full Phil, Quentin Dupieux
Colony, Yeon Sang-ho
Sanguine, Marion Le Coroller
Featured image: L-r: French actress Lea Seydoux poses during a photocall for the film “Le Deuxieme Acte” (The Second Act) at the 77th edition of the Cannes Film Festival in Cannes, southern France, on May 15, 2024. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP); CANNES, FRANCE – MAY 17: Pedro Almodovar attends the “Strange Way Of Life” photocall at the 76th annual Cannes film festival at Palais des Festivals on May 17, 2023 in Cannes, France. (Photo by Lionel Hahn/Getty Images)
