UPDATE: Confirmed by Variety.
EARLIER: NEON isn’t even hiding it, laying the groundwork for a run at a seventh consecutive Palme d’Or.
The indie distributor is already attached to Cannes 2026 titles from Arthur Harari, Cristian Mungiu, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and Nicolas Winding Refn. And now, they’re eyeing yet another film in their 2026 slate—one that could very well find itself in the running for the Palme d’Or this coming May.
According to EmpireCity, Neon is in talks to acquire Na Hong-jin’s “Hope.” The film stars Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander in lead roles, with Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton, Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, and Hoyeon rounding out the cast.
Billed as Na’s most ambitious effort to date, “Hope” was shot in early 2023 and has since gone through an arduous editing process, which has since culminated in it being submitted late for this year’s Cannes Film Festival.
Synopsis: “Set in the isolated village of Hope Harbor, near Korea’s DMZ. The story begins with reports of a tiger sighting, prompting the local police chief (Hwang Jung-min) to investigate. But what starts as a routine rural emergency quickly snowballs into something far stranger—a cosmic mystery that begins to unravel the town’s grip on reality.”
Na’s last film, “The Wailing,” released 10 years ago, played Out of Competition at Cannes and remains one of the most quietly influential Korean films of the past decade—a supernatural procedural that mutates into something far more unclassifiable. With “Hope,” Na will be competing for the Palme d’Or for the first time in his career.
As for Neon, the company has built a remarkable Palme d’Or streak beginning with “Parasite” and continuing through “Titane,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Anora,” and “It Was Just An Accident.”
Just five Cannes competition titles still seek U.S. distribution, four of them subpar, all French. The fifth, and easily the best film still without US studio attachment, is Ira Sachs’ “The Man I Love.”