The 2026 Cannes Film Festival reveals the program: 21 films in competition, jury chaired by Park Chan-wook and no Italian titles in official selection
The 79th edition of the Cannes Film Festival takes shape with a selection that reflects, once again, the fractures and anxieties of the present. From 12 to 23 May 2026, the Croisette will return to being the symbolic center of world cinema, among great returns, new voices and a curatorial line that insists on a precise point: defending creative freedom in a historical moment marked by geopolitical tensions and technological transformations.
The program was presented by president Iris Knobloch and general delegate Thierry Frémaux, who reiterated the two pillars of the edition: artistic freedom and freedom of expression. A message that fits into an unstable global context and that finds a space for cultural resistance in cinema. It is no coincidence that the stance on artificial intelligence is also strong, seen as a tool already present in the industry but which cannot replace the centrality of the author.
The competition: Almodóvar, Farhadi, Kore-eda and the weight of global cinema
The heart of the festival remains the official competition, with 21 titles competing for the Palme d’Or. A selection that mixes consolidated names and new trajectories, confirming Cannes as the place where auteur cinema continues to redefine itself.
Pedro Almodóvar returns with Amarga Navidad, while Asghar Farhadi presents Histoires parallèles. Ryusuke Hamaguchi signs All of Sudden, Hirokazu Kore-eda brings Sheep in the Box, and the Korean Na Hong-jin enters with Hope, a further sign of the centrality of Asian cinema.
Alongside them, a strong European presence: Andrey Zvyagintsev with Minotaur, Pawel Pawlikowski with Fatherland, László Nemes with Moulin, Cristian Mungiu with Fjord and Rodrigo Sorogoyen with The Beloved. There is also room for new authorial sensibilities with Léa Mysius, Jeanne Herry and Arthur Harari.
Park Chan-wook will preside over the jury, a choice that is not only symbolic but reflects an increasingly evident rebalancing of global cultural balances, with South Korea and Asia more generally at the center of the contemporary grammar of cinema.
No Italian films: an absence that weighs
The most evident, and inevitably most discussed, fact is Italy’s total absence from the official programme, at least in the initial phase. Not only no titles in competition, but no presence even in the collateral sections already announced.
A void that has not been seen since 2017 and which marks a significant setback for Italian cinema on the international scene. Until the end, the presence of Nanni Moretti’s new film, Succederà Tonight, was hypothesized, but the title does not appear on the billboard, probably due to issues related to production times.
There remains an indirect presence through co-productions and international casts: Roma elastica by Bertrand Mandico, in the Midnight section, includes several Italian performers, while Fatherland by Pawlikowski is also supported by an Italian production.
Out of competition and parallel sections: between star system and new promises
The festival will open with Electric Kiss – La Vénus électrique by Pierre Salvadori, already announced as the inaugural film. Out of competition, names such as Nicolas Winding Refn with Her Private Hell, Guillaume Canet, Andy Garcia and Agnès Jaoui stand out, in a section that continues to balance authorship and media appeal.
The Un Certain Regard section offers seven titles, including La más dulce by Laïla Marrakchi and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma by Jane Schoenbrun, while Cannes Première also welcomes John Travolta’s directorial debut with Propeller One-Way Night Coach.
Special screenings include Steven Soderbergh’s John Lennon: The Last Interview and Ron Howard’s Avedon, confirming an ongoing dialogue between cinema and cultural memory.
The program ends with the Midnight Screenings, with titles such as Roma Elastica and Colony by Yeon Sang-ho, capable of attracting a more transversal and nocturnal audience.
Cannes between politics, industry and cultural identity
In presenting the selection, Thierry Frémaux insisted on a criterion that goes beyond personal taste: each film was chosen by questioning its necessity in the contemporary panorama. A vision that translates into a lineup crossed by strong themes – war, violence, historical memory – and by a constant tension between industry and artistic research.
The lesser presence of American studios does not go unnoticed, a sign of a structural change in the relationship between Hollywood and the major European festivals. Yet, Cannes continues to maintain a unique balance, capable of bringing together auteur cinema, the star system and cultural operations with a high symbolic impact.
The honorary Palmes d’Or to Peter Jackson and Barbra Streisand perfectly summarize this double soul: on the one hand global industry, on the other memory and myth.
In an increasingly fragmented world, Cannes remains one of the last places where cinema still tries to tell – and perhaps hold together – what is changing.
