The Cannes Film Festival has started. Here are the key films making
their debut
[May 13, 2026]
By JAKE COYLE
For 12 days this week, the eyes of the movie world will be on the Cannes
Film Festival.
The Cote d’Azur spectacular plays host — starting on Tuesday — to some
of the most anticipated movies of the year in a constant parade of red
carpets and megawatt premieres. This year, Hollywood studios are mostly
on the sidelines. But for more than 78 years, Cannes has been an
unparalleled showcase, and sun-dappled circus, for some of the best in
cinema.
Last year that included Oscar nominees like “Sentimental Value,” “The
Secret Agent” and “It Was Just an Accident.” This year is just as likely
to produce a crop of contenders. In recent years, movies like “Parasite”
and “Anora” have launched at Cannes and gone on to win best picture at
the Academy Awards.
Presiding over the jury deciding the Palme this year is South Korean
filmmaker Park Chan-wook. At the opening ceremony Tuesday, Cannes will
also bestow an honorary Palme d’Or on Peter Jackson. Later, Barbra
Streisand will get one, too.
So there will be much to keep an eye on at this year’s Cannes, including
“The White Lotus.” The HBO series has come to the Croisette — the
Mediterranean city's famous promenade — to shoot its fourth season.
On the screen, these are some of the movies that should stir Cannes.
“Hope”
Na Hong-jin isn’t as well known as some of his fellow Korean filmmakers,
but he may be poised for a breakout moment this year. His latest is a
long-gestating sci-fi thriller that Cannes artistic director Thierry
Frémaux said “constantly changes genres.” The cast has both Korean and
Hollywood stars, including Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Ho-yeon,
Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander and Taylor Russell.
“Paper Tiger”
Though not initially announced as part of the festival competition
slate, James Gray’s latest Queens-set drama was subsequently added. And
it instantly became one of the most anticipated and star-studded
American films at the festival. Gray, the filmmaker of “Armageddon Time”
and “The Immigrant,” tells a story about two brothers (Adam Driver,
Miles Teller) who become mixed up with the Russian mafia. Scarlett
Johansson co-stars.
“Fjord”
The Romanian director Cristian Mungiu is a heavyweight of European
cinema because of films like the 2007 Palme d’Or winner “4 Months, 3
Weeks and 2 Days” and 2022’s “R.M.N.” Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve
star in his latest as a Romanian-Norwegian couple who move to the wife’s
remote Norwegian hometown.
“Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma”
Jane Schoenbrun has quickly established themselves as a vital voice in
contemporary American film with 2024’s “I Saw the TV Glow” and 2021’s
“We’re All Going to the World’s Fair.” Playing in the Un Certain Regard
section, Schoenbrun’s new one stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian
Anderson in a movie about the making of a slasher film.
“Fatherland”
Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski is best known for a pair of
black-and-white, powerfully succinct period dramas: “Ida” and “Cold
War.” His latest makes it three. It stars Hanns Zischler as the German
author Thomas Mann on a road trip following World War II. Accompanying
him is his daughter, played by Sandra Hüller.
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This image released by Neon shows Hoyeon in a scene from "Hope."
(Neon via AP)
 “All of a Sudden”
The Japanese auteur Ryusuke Hamaguchi makes his French-language
debut. Hamaguchi’s 2021 opus “Drive My Car” made history as the
first Japanese film nominated for best picture. His 2023 follow-up,
“Evil Does Not Exist,” was also acclaimed. “All of a Sudden,”
starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, is about a nursing home
director and a terminally ill Japanese playwright.
“Sheep in the Box”
Long revered for his delicate humanism, the Japanese filmmaker
Hirokazu Kore-eda will unveil his latest. Kore-eda has already won
the Palme d’Or, for 2018’s “Shoplifters.” But his three decades of
moviemaking have made him a never-to-be-missed filmmaker of
exquisite tenderness. The sci-fi “Sheep in the Box” is about a
couple, grieving the loss of their son, who adopt an infant humanoid
robot.
“The Man I Love”
Before Gray’s film entered the competition, Ira Sachs' “The Man I
Love” was the sole American selection. Coming quickly on the heels
of Sachs’ “Peter Hujar’s Day,” with Ben Whishaw, “The Man I Love”’
stars Rami Malek as a an actor with a life-threatening illness in
1980s New York, preparing for what could be his final performance.
“The Unknown”
The French filmmaker Arthur Harari three years ago co-wrote the
Palme d’Or winner “Anatomy of a Fall” with his partner, Justine
Triet. In “The Unknown,” Harari directs and cowrites a film about a
photographer who, after photographing a woman at a party and then
following her, wakes up in her body. Starring Léa Seydoux.
“Minotaur”
The Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev has been behind some
powerfully potent dramas, including 2014’s “Leviathan” and 2017’s
“Loveless” — both of which were Oscar nominated. After a near-death
experience during the pandemic, Zvyagintsev returns to Cannes with a
business executive in crisis in rural Russia.
“John Lennon: The Last Interview”
Steven Soderbergh's documentary about John Lennon’s final interview,
granted at the Dakota in New York just before he was killed, drew
headlines after Soderbergh acknowledged using artificial
intelligence to illustrate some of Lennon’s more philosophical
musings. But the film, playing in Cannes as a special screening,
promises to lend unparalleled intimacy with the great Beatle.
“Bitter Christmas”
Pedro Almodóvar is among the most regular filmmakers in Cannes. This
festival, he'll debut “Bitter Christmas,” a multilayered melodrama
about filmmaking, grief and aging. After making his English-language
debut with “The Room Next Door,” starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne
Moore, Almodovar is back in his native Spain with one of his most
personal films yet.
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