It’s the most exciting time of the year for any cinephile: the Cannes Film Festival is set to kick off next week, running May 12th-23rd. Ahead of the festivities, we’ve rounded up what we’re most looking forward to, and while we’re sure many surprises await, per every year, one will find twenty films that should be on your radar. Check out our picks below and be sure to subscribe to our daily newsletter for the latest updates from the festival.
All of a Sudden (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Following up the shot-in-secret Evil Does Not Exist and Gift, Ryusuke Hamaguchi returns with a higher-profile feature, All of a Sudden. The French production, starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto, landed at the top spot in our 100 most-anticipated films of 2026, and thus the Cannes premiere we’re most looking forward to. The French-language film, which draws inspiration from real-life letters in Makiko Miyano and Maho Isono’s book You and I – The Illness Suddenly Get Worse, clocks in at just over three hours and 15 minutes, and we can’t wait to experience every second. – Jordan R.
Bitter Christmas (Pedro Almodóvar)
Following up his first English-language feature, Pedro Almodóvar returned to Spain for Bitter Christmas (translated from Amarga Navidad), led by Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, Aitana Sánchez-Gijón, Victoria Luengo, Patrick Criado, Milena Smit, and Quim Gutiérrez. While technically not a Cannes premiere (it debuted in its native country a few months ago to strong acclaim) any new feature by Almodóvar is certainly an event. The less we know about the story the better, and we imagine Sony Pictures Classics will give this one a U.S. release come fall, as is routine. –Jordan R.
Butterfly Jam (Kantemir Balagov)
It’s been seven long years since Kantemir Balagov’s gripping second feature Beanpole debuted, and the Russian filmmaker, now working in exile, is finally back. Butterfly Jam, featuring the cast of Riley Keough, Barry Keoghan, and Harry Melling, was shot by Jomo Fray, cinematographer of the astounding Nickel Boys and All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. The Directors’ Fortnight opener is said to tell the father-son story of a struggling Circassian family in Newark. – Jordan R.
Clarissa (Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri)
Twin brothers Arie and Chuko Esiri are back with their sophomore feature, Clarissa, following the acclaim of 2020’s This Is My Desire. NEON acquired the Nigerian duo’s film in February, giving the project significant momentum in the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar at Cannes. Veteran Sophie Okonedo leads the cast as the titular Clarissa, with David Oyelowo and Ayo Edibiri supporting in what it seems will be meaty roles for all three, and editing courtesy of Aftersun‘s Blair McClendon. The screenplay, adapted by Chuko, is a reimagining of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway, in which Lagos socialite Clarissa prepares to host a house party only to be surprised by the arrival of childhood friends that she reflects on life with through the night. – Luke H.
The Diary of a Chambermaid (Radu Jude)
After last year’s Dracula and Kontinental ’25, the ever-prolific Radu Jude returns to Cannes for the first time in quite a while. The Diary of a Chambermaid, which will premiere at Directors’ Fortnight, features Dracula‘s Ana Dumitrașcu alongside quite a trio of French talent: Éric Rohmer regular Marie Rivière, Vincent Macaigne, and Mélanie Thierry. It follows a Romanian housekeeper in Bordeaux who spends her evenings rehearsing for a theater adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s classic. – Jordan R.
Double Freedom (Lisandro Alonso)
Coming full circle, Lisandro Alonso’s new feature is a sequel to his acclaimed debut La libertad. Double Freedom (aka La libertad doble) catches up with woodcutter Misael (Misael Saavedra) a quarter-century later. While not a great deal more is known, it’s said to tell a meta tale about the importance of creative independence. After the near-decade wait between his prior two features, we’re glad to have Alonso back so soon. – Jordan R.
The Dreamed Adventure (Valeska Grisebach)
Another long-awaited return, Valeska Grisebach’s first feature since 2017’s Western will premiere in competition. The Dreamed Adventure is set on the border between Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey, concern a woman who agrees to a deal to help an old acquaintance. She follows the hero on his adventure and enters dangerous territory, where she is confronted not only with her own past but also her desires. Despite only a few features to her name, Grisebach’s subtly powerful style is a gift and we can’t wait to see what she has in store here. – Jordan R.
Fatherland (Paweł Pawlikowski)
If the 2023 Cannes Film Festival was defined by Sandra Hüller with Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest, 2026 marks an even more impressive year. Following a staggering performance in the Berlinale premiere Rose and being a highlight of Project Hail Mary—plus before Digger arrives this fall—she leads Paweł Pawlikowski’s first film since 2018’s Cold War. Fatherland, shot by The Zone of Interest cinematographer Łukasz Żal, captures Thomas Mann’s road trip across Germany during the Cold War with his daughter Erika Mann. – Jordan R.
Fjord (Cristian Mungiu)
Returning after his powerful drama R.M.N., Cristian Mungiu has reunited A Different Man stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve for a family drama centered on a Romanian-Norwegian couple who move to the wife’s remote Norwegian hometown. “It’s about this huge polarization in the society of today,” the director told us earlier this year. “If you watch what is happening in a lot of countries, this difference between conservatives and progressives has gotten so big that people have started hating each other, literally, and hoping that the other side disappears, with nobody left in the middle. This is a problem for the society we are living in today. It’s not only that we have these wars and conflicts; it’s that every country has this ongoing war between these extreme views. And I think everybody is exaggerating a little bit in their own direction.”
Gentle Monster (Marie Kreutzer)
Corsage director Marie Kreutzer has teamed with Léa Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve for her next feature, Gentle Monster, which will debut in the Cannes competition lineup and is centered on two women, one a pianist and the other a special investigator, who confront dark truths about the men in their lives. After upending the standard period drama with Vicky Krieps, we’re curious to see how Kreutzer takes on modern life. – Jordan R.
Hope (Na Hong-jin)
Yet another director at Cannes making a long-awaited return, The Wailing helmer Na Hong-jin is back with his feature in a decade. The competition title Hope, already picked up by NEON, is a sci-fi feature set in a remote village as a local emergency spirals into a larger mystery. With the varied cast of Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Ho-yeon, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Alicia Vikander, and Michael Fassbender, we’re looking forward to one of only a few genre films at the festival. – Jordan R.
Kokurojo: The Samurai and the Prisoner (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
Nearly fifty years into his prolific and propulsive film career, Kiyoshi Kurosawa is still breaking new ground. The Japanese auteur best known for Cure, Pulse, and other psychological horror-thrillers has regularly dipped out of his main subgenres or settings to explore other worlds (e.g., the life of a travel show host scouring the mountains and deserts of Uzbekistan in To the Ends of the Earth). But he’s never told a story set in feudal 16th-century Japan. Kokurojo will debut in the Cannes Premiere sidebar, rife with promise under the writer-director’s assured hand. He’s proven how well he handles mystery, and the core mystery of a murdered boy–along with a series of strange events that follow–sounds right up Kurosawa’s alley, even if the time and place represents fresh ground. – Luke H.
The Man I Love (Ira Sachs)
Coming off the terrific Peter Hujar’s Day, writer-director Ira Sachs returns to the historic art scene of New York City, this time set in the 1980s amidst the AIDS epidemic. Rami Malek is Jimmy George, a theater icon who “lives with the most tender and attentive of lovers,” played by Tom Sturridge. The in-competition film follows their impassioned desire to make art as a way of keeping themselves and their memory alive. With death looming over at least one of the main characters, the story is bound to be heartfelt, devastating, and, hopefully, a continuation of the terrific directorial instincts that have rendered Sachs an essential queer voice to date with films like The Delta, Keep the Lights On, and Passages. The cast is rounded out by Rebecca Hall and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. – Luke H.
Minotaur (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
It’s been nine years since Russian writer-director Andrey Zvyagintsev made a feature film, and cinephiles are ready for the drought to end. One of the most revered filmmakers alive, working, and still in their prime (Leviathan, The Return, Loveless), Zvyagintsev has made a name for himself as a realist, minimalist visual storyteller who has a sixth sense for unearthing the raw emotion embedded in his films and capturing it with a quiet yet explosive undercurrent of devastation. His newest, Minotaur, which will premiere in competition, seems to follow in the footsteps of his favorite kinds of stories to tell. The synopsis reads: “A high-powered executive’s meticulously controlled existence unravels when professional crises, global chaos, and marital betrayal converge, pushing him toward a dangerous breaking point.” – Luke H.
Paper Tiger (James Gray)
Following Armageddon Time, James Gray is returning with what is said to be a tense, gritty story about two brothers pursuing the American dream––a subject the great director has explored at least a few times before, always with distinct clarity and understated emotion. Paper Tiger stars Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson, and Miles Teller while offering a reunion with his Two Lovers and We Own the Night cinematographer Joaquín Baca-Asay. Read much more about what could be the American film of the year in Nick Newman’s interview with producer Rodrigo Teixeira. – Jordan R.
La Perra (Dominga Sotomayor)
First landing on our radar with 2018’s Locarno winner Too Late to Die Young, Chilean director Dominga Sotomayor is returning this year with the Directors’ Fortnight selection La Perra. It concerns a woman living on a remote Chilean coast whose quiet life is introduced to drama when her newly adopted puppy disappears. With Sotomayor’s evocative sense of place, we look forward to what awaits. –Jordan R.
Red Rocks (Bruno Dumont)
After his ambitious foray into harder sci-fi with The Empire, Bruno Dumont is returning to the coming-of-age film with his Directors’ Fortnight selection Red Rocks, following two gangs of kids on the French Riviera over the course of the summer as friendships and first attractions start to develop. We’re curious to see a perhaps different register for Dumont than his recent spate of films. – Jordan R.
Sheep in the Box (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
One of two incoming 2026 features from Palme d’Or-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters, Monster), Sheep in the Box bears striking narrative resemblance to Kubrick and Spielberg’s A.I.: Artificial Intelligence. Set in the near future, the story follows a husband and wife––construction company owner/operator and architect, respectively––who invite a boy robot into their lives to be their son. Sci-fi is a largely untapped genre for Koreeda, but films about family, whether biological or found, have long been a tenet of the Koreeda greats, which tees the premise up perfectly for a filmmaker like him. Perhaps Koreeda will collect his second Palme in eight years. – Luke H.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (Jane Schoenbrun)
After Jane Schoenbrun’s haunting, astounding second feature I Saw the TV Glow topped our list of the best films of 2024, we’ve been counting down the days for the release of their follow-up. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, which stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson, explores a complex relationship on the set of a slasher franchise. Unlike most Cannes premieres, this one will also arrive before the summer ends, and the enticing teaser has us counting the seconds. – Jordan R.
The Unknown (Arthur Harari)
The movie star might be dead, but the actor-as-auteur is a concept to embrace so long as Léa Seydoux keeps making movies. Three years since The Beast, one of her two leading roles at Cannes this year boasts a similar-sounding conceit: where Bertrand Bonello’s sci-fi film spanned eras, Arthur Harari’s project opts for gender-swapping psychological drama wherein a man (Niels Schneider) awakens one day to find himself in the body of a woman (Seydoux). The Unknown‘s first still already portends another major turn by the defining actress of our moment. Also: Radu Jude is in this? – Nick N.
Honorable Mentions
As always is the case, there’s more to highlight beyond our 20 most-anticipated premieres. Also premiering in competition are new films from Asghar Farhadi, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Lukas Dhont, Léa Mysius, László Nemes, and Kôji Fukada, while Un Certain Regard features Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid and Everytime, from The Trouble with Being Born director Sandra Wollner.
Elsewhere there is Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell, which will open in U.S. theaters this July, and Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho’s Colony, which arrives in the U.S. this August. Volker Schlöndorff makes a return with Visitation, and we’ve heard strong early buzz for the Midnight animation Jim Queen. Though already embroiled in controversy due to its A.I. usage, we’re curious to see Steven Soderbergh’s John Lennon: The Last Interview.
At Directors’ Fortnight, we also can’t wait to see Clio Barnard’s latest, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, and July Jung’s Dora, amongst what we imagine will be many surprises. Zachary Wigon is also back with the horror feature Victorian Psycho, starring Maika Monroe, Thomasin McKenzie, and Jason Isaacs, premiering in Un Certain Regard.
The Cannes Classics lineup is also full of treasures, among them the long-awaited new restoration of Ken Russell’s The Devils, which will arrive October 16 in U.S. theaters for a one-week run.
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