Twenty-one premiering titles unveiled in the Competition category for the Cannes Film Festival. While the readout was no slouch as far as drawing filmmakers, the world’s biggest glam event had less wind in the sails this year. Reflecting the broader trend in a business in the throes of a difficult change as old assumptions have melted away revealing a sand shifting future.
The 79th edition is loaded with European and Asian works.
Dubbed the “Auteur” festival because Hollywood skipped on the 2026 South of France movie happening, directors with their own sense of storytelling dominate the calendar from May 12th to 23rd.
Bitter Christmas from Pedro Almodóvar looks promising. Two past winners return, Hirokazu Kore-eda with Sheep in the Box, second, L. Nemes’s Moulin, the story of French Resistance is the latest entry from the Hungarian director. The only American director with a spot, Ira Sachs, delivers The Man I l Love, an LGBTQ themed drama from the sincere Tennessee born helmer. Iranian Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Tales could be a hit in the Palais.
Academy Award winners Ron Howard and Steven Soderbergh original docs, Avedon and John Lennon: The Last Interview are in the Special Screening section. John Travolta’s directorial debut Propeller One-Way Night Coach is a curious choice in the Cannes Premiere Section, adapting his 1997 children’s book for the big screen.
Fest head Terry Fremaux addressed Tinseltown’s no show calling the situation “a transition, not a snub.” The expectation or hope of a Tom Cruise or Steven Spielberg strolling on the La Croisette were dashed as studio after studio declined to attend with crowd attracting titles, instead, preferring launching potential blockbusters away from cinema events. Potentially cantankerous press conferences have become no go areas in Hollywood Media circles.
Cannes Film Festival stands for cinema mystique, even in precarious times.