If you’ve read this column for a while, you know the drill: I spitball Cannes every month from January to April, updating the latest intel and trying to figure out what will be in competition, vying for the Palme d’Or.
It all starts with a long list of potential titles in November. This year, I have around 60 titles to work from, some of which might show up a few months earlier in Berlin or Sundance instead — Herzog, Schoenbrun, Oppenheim, Eisenberg, Sachs, Corbijn, Jude, Hong, Schanelec, Schleinzer, Atef, etc.
If we’re lucky, the upcoming 79th edition of Cannes won’t be short on marquee international directors. Ruben Östlund, whose last two films won the Palme d’Or, will be aiming for a trifecta. Pedro Almodóvar will once again chase that elusive first Palme. And will Terrence Malick’s “The Way of the Wind” finally show up? I have my doubts, but I’m still including it below.
So yes, Cannes is still over six months away, but it’s never too early to speculate — and quite frankly, it’s a lot of fun. Half the joy lies in trying to piece together the breadcrumbs of production schedules, distributor strategies, and festival politics.
MAJOR CONTENDERS
Bitter Christmas (Pedro Almodovar)
The Entertainment System is Down (Ruben Östlund)
Fjord (Cristi Mungiu)
Jack of Spades (Joel Coen)
Paper Tiger (James Gray)
The Way of the Wind (Terrence Malick)
Minotaur (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
All of a Sudden (Ryusuke Hamaguchi)
Her Private Hell (Nicolas Winding Refn)
Parallel Tales (Asghar Farhadi)
Coward (Lukas Dhont)
Hope (Na Hong-jin)
1949 (Pawel Pawlikowski)
Out of this World (Albert Serra)
Sheep in the Box (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
It Will Happen Tonight (Nanni Moretti)
Après (Kirill Serebrenikko)
Butterfly Jam (Kantemir Balagov)
The Loved One (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)
Wake of Umbra (Carlos Reygadas)
The Basics of Philosophy (Paul Schrader)
Untitled (Mike Leigh)
On Land and Sea (Hlynur Palmason)
Mimesis (Kaouther Ben Hania)
Burning Rainbow Farm (Justin Kurzel)
Gentle Monster (Marie Kreutzer)
The Long Winter (Andrew Haigh)
Let Love In (Felix Van Groeningen)
Double Freedom (Lisandro Alonso)
Switzerland (Anton Corbijn)
The Man I Love (Ira Sachs)
The Costume (Corneliu Porumboiu)
The Diary of a Chambermaid (Radu Jude)
Bucking Fastards (Werner Herzog)
At The Middle of Life (Hong Sang-soo)
Call Me Queen (Emily Catef)
At the Sea (Kornél Mundruczó)
Thomas le Fort (Angela Schanelec)
The Dream Adventure (Valeska Grisebach)
Every year, anywhere between four and six competition films hail from France. For 2026, I’ve identified 15 potential titles, of which only a handful will be selected to compete for the Palme d’Or.
The Unknown (Arthur Harari)
If Love Should Die (Mia Hansen-Løve)
Red Rocks (Bruno Dumont)
Full Phil (Quentin Dupieux)
The Things That Hurt (Arnaud Desplechin)
Moulin (Laszlo Nemes)
A Good Little Soldier (Stephane Brizé)
Les Petites Peurs (Michel Gondry)
Dao (Alain Gomis)
Dumas: Black Devil (Ladj Ly)
Roma Elastico (Bertrand Mandico)
Histoires De La Nuit (Lea Mysius)
Des Rayons et des Ombres (Xavier Giannoli)
De Gaulle: Part One (Antonin Baudry)
I’ll Forget Your Name (Yann Gonzalez)
As for Hollywood titles, it’s very hard to tell. I gather Christopher Nolan will again be skipping Cannes, this time with “The Odyssey,” which releases around two months after the festival ends. Steven Spielberg could technically show up with his untitled sci-fi movie, which hits theaters less than four weeks after the festival ends. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Judy,” starring Tom Cruise, seems more Venice-bound with that October release date. Ditto Luca Guadagnino, who has “Artificial,” likely headed for a fall release. Martin McDonagh has been a Venice mainstay with his last two films, and that will likely continue with his latest, “Wild Horse 9.”
“The Runner,” which is basically another riff on “Run Lola Run,” a movie centered on characters moving through a city, is getting some of the worst reviews of the year.