Absence of American studios, regulars of the Croisette and discoveries of young shoots: the 2026 edition of Cannes festival lifted the veil on its selection on Thursday, a little over a month before the start of the festivities. Three Spanish feature films are among the 21 films selected, including “Amarga Navidad” by Pedro Almodovar.
Published on: 04/09/2026 - 1:48 p.m. Modified on: 04/09/2026 - 1:52 p.m.
The Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, Pedro Almodovar for a seventh appearance in competition, the Russian director in exile Andrei Zviaguintsev, and the former winners Hirokazu Kore-eda and Cristian Mungiu, will compete for the Palme d'Or at the 79th Cannes Film Festival.
The list of 21 films, announced Thursday April 9, only includes one American director, Ira Sachs, while the major Hollywood studios are absent from this edition, which will be held from May 12 to 23, 2026.
Only five female directors are among the filmmakers in competition. This is less than in the previous edition which welcomed seven.
Young stars of French cinema will take their first steps, like Léa Mysius and her adaptation of Laurent Mauvignier's novel "Histoires de la nuit", with Bastien Bouillon and Monica Bellucci.
Arthur Harari, the companion of Justine Triet with whom he wrote the screenplay for the 2023 Palme d'Or "Anatomy of a Fall", is also present for "one of the most discussed films" in the selection committee, "an extremely particular cinema object", commented the general delegate of the festival, Thierry Frémaux. This is “The Unknown”, a film adapted from a comic book written with his brother, “The David Zimmerman Case”.
John Travolta's first achievement
Three Spanish films are also part of the selection, highlighting “a certain movement in Spanish cinema”, insisted Thierry Frémaux.
In the other sections or outside of competition, the festival will be marked by the screening of the major French production "The Battle of Gaulle: The Iron Age", the first part of the diptych on the general written and directed by the former diplomat Antonin Baudry.
Several real stories brought to the big screen should also be an event, such as “Abandonment”, a film about the last days of Professor Samuel Paty screened out of competition.
“The Marie-Claire Affair”, which looks back on the trial in Bobigny of a raped young girl who had an illegal abortion, with Charlotte Gainsbourg in the role of lawyer Gisèle Halimi, promises to be a strong moment.
Films by Guillaume Canet and Agnès Jaoui, two figures of French cinema, will also be screened out of competition.
If no film from a major American studio is expected, the Cannes marches will see as usual their share of stars with John Travolta's first film as director or that of Quentin Dupieux, with Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart, for a crazy story shot in Paris.
With AFP
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