Cannes Film Festival 2026 – Official Selection. Cristian Mungiu in competition

The official selection for the 79th Cannes Film Festival, scheduled to take place from May 12 to 23, has been announced by Iris Knobloch, president of the event, and artistic director Thierry Frémaux.

Fjord, written, directed and produced by Cristian Mungiu, is one of the films included in the competition, the Romanian filmmaker now making his seventh Cannes Film Festival appearance.

The feature film stars Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve and Christian Rubeck. It revolves around a Romanian immigrant family living in Norway who are under investigation and under the surveillance of the local justice system.

Cristian Mungiu won the 2007 Palme d’Or, the festival’s main trophy, for his drama 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. He has also presented at Cannes the films “Occident” (2002, in the Caméra d’Or), “Memories of the Golden Age” (2009, in Un Certain Regard), “After the Hills” (2012, competition, screenplay award), “Baccalaureat” (2016, competition, directing award) and “R.M.N.” (2022, competition).

In addition, this year, Emanuel Pârvu is among the eight filmmakers chosen to present their next project in the Investors Circle at the Marché du Film – Festival de Cannes, a program now in its fourth edition that brings together every year filmmakers of the moment who have films in development, giving them the opportunity to present their feature-length projects with the aim of obtaining funding.

Magnus Von Horn, Juho Kuosmanen, Atsuko Hirayanagi, Felipe Gálvez, Carine Tardieu, Ismaël El Iraki and Noé Debré were selected for the program.

Emanuel Pârvu was present in the Cannes competition in 2024 with “Three kilometers to the end of the world”, produced by FAMart, which won the Queer Palm Award.

Cannes, a landmark amid the hurricane

Iris Knobloch emphasized at the presentation on April 9 that even in the troubled times the world is going through, the festival – a fragile festival that must be defended every day – remains true to its original values: the freedom to create and the freedom of expression for all people.

In the age of artificial intelligence and major conflicts, she described Cannes FF as “a reference point in the middle of the hurricane, not a closed fortress, but a place where values don’t adapt with the wind”.

This year’s selection was made from more than 2,500 feature films from 141 countries. A thousand more productions were entered than ten years ago, according to Frémaux.

Pierre Salvadori’s feature film “The Electric Kiss/ La Vénus électrique” has already been announced as the opening film. Set in the artistic world of early 20th century Paris, the film stars Pio Marmaï, Anaïs Demoustier, Gilles Lellouche and Vimala Pons.

John Travolta’s directorial debut, “Propeller One-Way,” will also be screened at the festival, ahead of its release on Apple TV on May 29. The movie is based on the children’s book of the same title that Travolta wrote for his son and published in 1997. The cast of the movie, which depicts a nostalgic journey back to the golden age of aviation, includes the filmmaker’s daughter Ella Bleu Travolta.

The official selection includes competition and non-competition titles, films from the Un Certain Regard competition section, as well as the Séances spéciales, Séance de minuit and Cannes première sections.

In 2026, honorary Palme d’Or trophies will be awarded to New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson, and American actress, director and singer Barbra Streisand.
Last year, honorary trophies were awarded to American actors Robert De Niro and Denzel Washington.

Competition

In competition were selected: Andrej Zvyagintsev – Minotaur, Rodrigo Sorogoyen – The Beloved, Ira Sachs – The Man I Love, Pawel Pawlikowski – Fatherland, Cristian Mungiu – Fjord, Laszlo Nemes – Moulin, Léa Mysius – Histoire de la nuit, Emmanuel Marre – Our Salvation, Marie Kreutzer – Gentle Monster, Koji Fukada – Nagi Notes, Na Hong-Jin – Hope, Hirokazu Kore-eda – Sheep in the Box, Jeanne Herry – Garance, Arthur Harrari – The Unknown, Ryusuke Hamaguchi – All of a Sudden, Valeska Grisebach – The Dreamed Adventure, Lukas Dhont – Coward, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo – La Bola Negra/ The Black Ball, Charline Bourgeois-Taquet – A Woman’s Life, Asghar Farhadi – Parallel Tales and Pedro Almodovar – Amarga Navidad.

The jury for this year’s main awards will be headed by filmmaker Park Chan-wook, the first Korean to chair the festival.

Last year, Jafar Panahi’s Iranian-French feature film “Un simple accident” won the Palme d’Or trophy, the highest award given by the Cannes Film Festival’s international jury.

Un Certain Regard and other sections

The Un Certain Regard secondary section includes: Laïla Marrakchi’s “La plus dulce”, Jordan Firstman’s “Club Kid”, Jane Schoenbrun’s “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma”, Abinash Bikram Shah’s “Elephants in the Fog”, Sandra Wollner’s “Everytime”, Katharina Rivilis’ “I’ll Be Gone in June”, Rakan Mayasi’s “Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep”, Manuela Martelli’s “El Deshielo/The Meltdown”, Louis Clichy’s ”Iron Boy”, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s “Ben’Imana”, Rafiki Fariala’s “Congo Boy”, Viesturs Kairiss’s “Ula”, Valentina Maurel’s “I’m Always Your Mother Animal”, Rudi Rosenberg’s “Words of Love”, Sode Yukiko’s “All the Lovers in the Night”.

Steven Soderbergh’s “John Lennon: The Last Interview”, Ron Howard’s “Avedon”, Christophe Réveille’s “Les Survivants du Che” and Avril Besson’s “Les Matins Merveilleux” are included in the non-competition section Séances spéciales.

The midnight screening includes “Roma Elastica” by Betrand Mandico, “Full Phil” by Quentin Dupieux, “Colony” by Yeon Sang-ho, “Jim Queen” by Nicolas Athane and Marco Nguyen, and “Sanguine” by Marion Le Coroller.

This year’s Cannes Première brings, in addition to John Travolta’s “Propeller One-Way Night Coach”, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s “Kokurojo: The Samurai and the Prisoner”, Volker Schlöndorff’s “Heimsuchung” and Daniel Auteuil’s “La Troisième nuit”.

Out of competition are “Her Private Hell” by Nicolas Winding Refn, “Diamond” by Andy Garcia, “Karma” by Guillaume Canet, “Objet du deli” by Agnes Jaoui, “De Gaulle: L’Age de Fer” by Antonin Baudry.

Other titles in the official selection will be announced in the coming weeks.