The 79th Cannes Film Festival has announced its official 2026 selection, featuring a competitive slate of 19 films from directors including Pedro Almodóvar, Asghar Farhadi and Hirokazu Kore-eda, per faroutmagazine.co.uk.
Artistic director Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch unveiled the line-up in Paris, confirming that the festival will run from May 12 to 23. South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook has been appointed as jury president for the main competition.
The festival opens with the world premiere of Pierre Salvadori’s 1920s period piece, La Vénus électrique. Among the high-profile additions is the directorial debut of John Travolta, “Propeller One-Way Night Coach,” which will screen out of competition in the Cannes Premiere section. Other notable non-competitive entries include Steven Soderbergh’s documentary “John Lennon: The Last Interview” and Ron Howard’s “Avedon”.
The competition for the Palme d’Or includes Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur,” Paweł Pawlikowski’s “1949” and Lukas Dhont’s “Coward”. Regional representation remains strong with multiple entries from Japanese directors Hiroshi Fukada and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. Organisers noted a significant increase in interest this year, with 2,541 feature submissions from 141 countries, an increase of 1,000 titles compared to a decade ago.
The Un Certain Regard strand will showcase works by Jane Schoenbrun and Sandra Wollner, while the Midnight Screenings section features Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Her Private Hell” and Yeon Sang-ho’s “Colony”. Additional titles are expected to be announced in the coming weeks to complete the 2026 programme.
The 2026 festival follows a year of significant critical success for Cannes alumni. The 2025 Palme d’Or winner, It Was Just an Accident by Jafar Panahi, and Grand Prize winner Sentimental Value by Joachim Trier, both secured major honours at the Academy Awards, including Best International Feature.
