Cannes 2026: Festival Verdict
The critics’ report
Cannes 2026
Cannes 2026: The Awards
‘Fjord’, Cristian Mungiu’s layered family drama about the cultural clashes and prejudices of a Norwegian community connected with Park Chan-wook’s jury to win the Cannes Palme ‘Or.
The Joyless Economy
A young woman becomes obsessed with watching porn videos in Marjorie Conrad’s ‘The Joyless Economy’, a tough experiment that challenges audiences to make or withhold judgment.
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Director Clio Barnard’s engaging, bittersweet Cannes prize-winner ‘I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning’ depicts a lively bunch group of working-class friends as they enter the stormy seas of adulthood.
Amarga navidad
El icónico veterano español del cine Pedro Almodóvar ofrece más dolor que gloria en Amarga Navidad, un drama semi-autobiográfico y autocrítico -aunque de forma suave y delicada- en la etapa tardía de su carrera.
Death Has No Master
Launched in the Director’s Fortnight section in Cannes, Venezuelan director Jorge Thielen Armand’s brooding psychological revenge thriller ‘Death Has No Master’ achieves an excellent atmosphere but gets lost exploring its messy mixture of genres.
Low Expectations
A young woman deals with existential upheaval in Eivind Landsvik’s cleverly measured feature debut, the Cannes Directors Fortnight premiere ‘Low Expectations’.
A Man of His Time
The short-lived Vichy government in France, created in partnership with Nazi Germany during WW2, is brilliantly brought to life through the eyes of a civil servant who makes a career out of conforming to the fascist state, in Emmanuel Marre’s impressive second feature ‘A Man of His Time’.
La muerte no tiene dueño
La muerte no tiene dueño, del director venezolano Jorge Thielen Hedderich, en la Quincena de Realizadores, logra una excelente atmósfera pero la película se pierde al buscar una mezcla de géneros.
Bitter Christmas
Veteran Spanish screen icon Pedro Almodóvar delivers more pain than glory in ‘Bitter Christmas’, a semi-autobiographical and gently self-critical but fairly slight late-career drama.
The Unknown
Arthur Harari’s fascinating and weirdly poignant fantasy ‘The Unknown’ takes body horror to metaphysical levels when an introverted photographer and a mysterious Léa Seydoux awaken from orgasm-induced unconsciousness to find they have exchanged bodies.
Thanks for Coming
Veteran French filmmaker and film-diarist Alain Cavalier draws from his vault of video footage to deliver ‘Thanks For Coming’, a personal, funny and poignant documentary spanning Cannes, cats, companions and cinema.
Summer Drift
Notions of identity and seasonal entertainment coalesce in quietly affecting fashion in the Swiss autofiction ‘Summer Drift’, playing in the ACID sidebar at Cannes.
El deshielo
La segunda película de la directora chilena Manuela Martelli es muy efectiva como thriller sobre personas desaparecidas pero estira demasiado sus alegorías políticas.
Sheep in the Box
Award-winning filmmaker Koreeda Hirokazu takes the children’s side in ‘Sheep in the Box’, a lean, engrossing SF story about parents who have lost their son and replace him with an android replica.
John Lennon: The Last Interview
Well crafted but inevitably low on surprises, director Steven Soderbergh’s controversial AI-enhanced documentary ‘John Lennon: The Last Interview’ is based on a familiar radio interview that the legendary ex-Beatle recorded just hours before his murder.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
Gillian Anderson stars as a veteran horror movie scream queen in Jane Schoenbrun’s third feature ‘Teenage Sex and Death in Camp Miasma’, an uneven but boldly ambitious celebration of vintage slasher films and their psychosexual undercurrents.
The Meltdown
Chilean director Manuela Martelli’s sophomore feature ‘The Meltdown’ is highly effective as a missing-person thriller, but stretches its political allegories too far.
All of a Sudden
The lives of two idealistic women — a visionary French caregiver and a Japanese theater director – briefly overlap in ‘All of a Sudden’, Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s long and challenging manifesto against the inhumanity of capitalism and the possibility of a better world.
Parallel Tales
Art and life take turns imitating each other in a long cascade of intricately interwoven stories in Asghar Farhadi’s ‘Parallel Tales’, part engrossing puzzle and part a repetitively revolving door.
Fatherland
Set in newly divided Germany at the start of the Cold War, Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski’s biographical literary drama ‘Fatherland’ is a visually stunning, superbly acted, minimalist masterpiece.
Nagi Notes
Low-key but spanning a symphony of disturbing themes from personal relations and wildlife conservation to the threat of war, Koji Fukada’s ‘Nagi Notes’ offers a fascinating, multi-faceted perspective on insular Japan today.
Butterfly Jam
Newcomer Talha Akdogan soars alongside Barry Keoghan and Riley Keough in the Directors’ Fortnight opener “Butterfly Jam”, directed by exiled Russian cineaste Kantemir Balagov.
Directors’ Fortnight head Julien Rejl on Animation for Adults and How to Mix Cannes Veterans and Rookies
The Quinzaine artistic director also touches on Quentin Dupieux’s film classes, Sarah Arnold subverting male-oriented genre tropes, finding a spot for Bruno Dumont and courting Radu Jude.