Cannes 2026 Predictions: What’s In The International Mix?

As ever there are a raft of French Cannes hopefuls. With a Cannes slot in Official Selection regarded as the holy grail for France’s film industry, Delegate General Thierry Frémaux and his deputy Christian Jeune will be inundated right now with messages from local producers, distributors and sales agents lobbying for their films. With the French selection only finalized hours before the press conference, it’s a nail-biting period for the local industry.

French titles we hear are in the mix include Arthur Harari’s The Unknown; Pierre Salvadori’s period romantic drama Venus Electrificata; Judith Godrèche’s feature directorial debut A Girl’s Story; Lea Mysius’ The Birthday Party, Stéphane Demoustier’s La Chaleur, and Nicole Garcia’s Milo and Bruno Dumont’s Red Rocks, which is in post.

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s second French-language feature Parallel Tales, with Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney and Adam Bessa, is also hotly anticipated.

Further possibilities include Quentin Dupieux’s father-daughter tale Full Phil, Alexandre Arcady’s The Last Concert, Stephane Brizé’s A Good Little Soldier, Yann Gonzalez’s I’ll Forget Your Name, Daniel Auteuil’s Une Nuit, Martin Prevost’s Love Lessons, with Fabrice Lucchini, Chiara Mastroianni, Emmanuelle Devos and Carole Bouquet, although its touch and go on the latter on whether it will be ready for a punt.

There are expectations of an Out of Competition screening for the first part of Antonin Baudry’s Charles de Gaulle bio-pic De Gaulle: The Sovereign Edge, which comes out in France on June 3. France’s Paris Match has tipped it as a potential opening film. But this would require a change to the release date because under Cannes protocol the opener also launches simultaneously in French cinemas the day it opens the festival.

Buzzy first features include two separate films from twin sisters: Marie Rousselet-Ruiz’s One Of Them, starring Céleste Brunquell as a young woman who embraces ultra soccer fan culture, and Hélène Rosselet-Ruiz’s Triangle d’Or. Other debut pictures in the mix include L’Âge d’Or by Berenger Thouin, La Gradiva by Marine Atlan and political thriller Jupiter by Alexandre Smia, who took writing credits on 13 Days, 13 Nights.

With Cannes an increasingly important launchpad for animated features, after Oscar 2026 nominees Little Amélie or The Character of Rain and Arco debuted there last year, potential animation selections include Olivier Clert’s Michael Morpurgo adaptation Lucy Lost; Sébastien Laudenbach’s Viva Carmen, Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athane’s Jim Queen and Julián, lead produced by Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon.

It could also be a strong year for Spain with Albert Serra currently working on post-production for English-language drama Out Of This World, while Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s father-drama daughter drama The Beloved, starring Javier Bardem and Victoria Luengo is ready to go. Pedro Almodóvar could also be back with Bitter Christmas, even if the film opens theatrically in Spain on March 20, with all his Cannes-selected pictures releasing at home before heading to the festival.

La Bola Negra, the second feature from Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, featuring Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close in the cast, is more touch and go. The duo, known collectively as Los Javos, told Deadline at European Film Awards in January that they were taking their time on post-production.

Italy’s frontrunner is Cannes Palme d’Or winner Nanni Moretti’s It Will Happen Tonight, starring Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca. Other Italian submissions include Paolo Genovese’s Il Rumore Delle Cose Nuove and Irene Dionisio’s Idda, about two childhood friends whose mission to climb Mount Etna does not go to plan.

Some lists have mentioned Mario Martone’s new film Trick with Toni Servillo but it is currently shooting in Naples. There has also been buzz around Belgian filmmaker-screenwriter Anne Paulicevich’s Italian Belgian co-production The Man Who Could Have Changed The World, starring Elio Germano as an archaeologist enlisted by Benito Mussolini to show Adolf Hitler key sites in Italy. However, with the shoot wrapping in early February a Cannes submission looks tight.

A more likely Italian Belgian co-production in the mix (on which Paulicevich takes co-writing credits) is Felix van Groeningen’s couple drama Let Love In, starring partner and the long-time  collaborator Charlotte Vandermeersch opposite Luca Marinelli. Other Belgian possibilities include Lukas Dhont’s Coward and Michaël R. Roskam’s Le Faux Soir although we hear it is touch and go on whether either will be completed in time.

German possibilities include Ulrike Vahl’s drama Crux, unfolding in a German village as social order collapses at the end of World War Two; Valeska Grisebach’s The Dreamed Adventure, and Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastards.   From Austria, Cannes 2022 Uncertain Regard Alumna Marie Kreutzer (Corsage) is expected to return with English-language drama Gentle Monster starring Léa Seydoux.  

For the Nordics, Denmark’s Nicolas Winding Refn is hotly tipped for a Cannes comeback with U.S. production Her Private Hell, while look out for Girl Beast, a first feature by Selma Sunniva. With Ruben Ostlund’s The Entertainment System Is Down out of play, Swedish possibles include Johannes Nyholm’s Weird Elliot, May el-Toukhy’s Woman, Unknown and Sámi community-set film Brace Your Heart by Amanda Kernell.

Some lists have suggested Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason’s On Land and Sea is in the running, but we’re told it’s rather for Cannes 2027. With Norway in the spotlight thanks to awards season frontrunner Sentimental Value, its titles in the running this year include Low Expectations by Eivind Landsvik, whose short film Tits was a Palme d’Or contender in 2023.

For Eastern and Central Europe, Cristian Mungiu’s English-language debut Fjord looks a sure bet. The director told Deadline last year he was aiming for a Cannes splash and French distributor Le Pacte’s August 19 release date suggests it has made the cut.

There’s a question mark around Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski’s 1949. The film began principal photography in Poland last summer, but local reports state it is scheduled for a 2027 release. Film reps said they had no updates. Other Polish films in the mix include Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s sci-fi thriller Hot Spot with Noomi Rapace as well as Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert’s The Idiots.

Russia’s exiled filmmaking community could be out in force this year with Kantemir Balagov’s Butterfly Jam, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur and Kirill Serebrennikov’s Après all currently in post-production.

South-European films confirmed as ready for Cannes include Greek productions A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra by Jacqueline Lentzou and Titanic Ocean by Konstantina Kotzamani, while there’s buzz around North Macedonian Honeyland doc director Tamara Kotevska’s drama Man Vs Flock, following a strong WIP presentation at Les Arcs last December where it won the top prize.

From the UK, Andrew Haigh’s A Long Winter and two-time Directors’ Fortnight attendee Clio Barnard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning are both in post-production. Un Certain Regard and parallel section candidates include UK-based Chilean Indian director Shalini Adnani’s Film4-BFI production Our Share of Sand, and Daughters of Eden by UK-Iranian director Fateme Ahmadi, whose short film Leila’s Blues played in Directors’ Fortnight. There have been suggestions that Mike Leigh’s untitled film could be aiming for Cannes but this feels tight given it officially wrapped around February 11.

ASIA

Japan looks set for a strong year in Cannes. As well as being the Marché du Film’s Focus Country, a number of Japanese films look well-placed for a Cannes debut.

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s French-language debut All of a Sudden has recently been scheduled for an August 19 release by its French distributor Diaphana suggesting it has made the cut.  Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Sheep in the Box is also expected to be ready in time and releasing at home on May 29. Other Japanese titles in the mix include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s The Samurai and the Prisoner, Ryota Nakano‘s I Don’t Know You while Takashi’s Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo feels like a shoo-in for Midnight Screenings.

Out of South Korea, there are strong expectations Na Hong-jin will return with sci-drama Hope, having shown his last film The Wailing Out of Competition in 2016. There’s also buzz around July Jung’s Dora, starring Kim Do-yeon and Sakura Ando. It was due to shoot last summer, and we have feelers out on whether it could be ready. Jung premiered her first film A Girl At My Door in Un Certain Regard, while her second film Next Sohee closed Critics’ Week in 2022 .

For China, there’s buzz around Zou Jing’s A Girl Unknown, a recent winner of the Cannes Critics’ Week Next Step program which has supported a number of Cannes debuts including Molly Manning Walker’s Un Certain Regard winner How To Have Sex. After Taiwanese-U.S. director Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-Handed Girl, another coming of age tale out of Taiwan could be Croisette-bound in Lu Po-Shun’s Will You Still Be My Friend which has been submitted.

Three years after Amanda Nell Eu heralded a new generation of Malaysian filmmakers with her 2023 Cannes Critics Week Grand Prize winner Tiger Stripes, supernatural horror Baran by compatriot Joel Soh’s Baran is also being tipped as for potential Cannes splash.

OCEANIA

Australian hopes are pinned on Tilda Cobham-Hervey’s It’s All Going Very Well in which she co-stars opposite Jonathan Pryce as a depressed aspiring artist who finds new meaning in her work through her friendship with one of the residents.

LATIN AMERICA

With Brazil leading the charge for Latin American indie cinema over the past years, could 2026 be Mexico’s year? Deadline hears Gael García Bernal’s third feature Hombre al agua is angling for a Cannes slot, while Carlos Reygadas said over the summer that his long-awaited Wake of Umbria was in the final stages of post-production. Director Gabriel Ripstein, who has had two films in competition in Cannes early on in his career, is readying Mexico 86, while Jorge Michel Grau, whose We Are What We Are played in Directors’ Fortnight, has hurricane drama Contra el huracán in post. However, both films are backed by Netflix, which puts them out of the frame for Cannes unless the platform agrees to a theatrical release and window in France.

Other potential Latin American selections include Chilean director Dominga Sotomayor’s La Perra, starring Manuela Oyarzún opposite I’m Still Her star Selton Mello; Argentinian director Benjamín Naishtat’s tale of betrayal and revenge Glaxo, about four childhood friends whose paths diverge in adulthood with a deadly outcome in small town in the Pampas, and Butchers, a 1970s-set thriller from Uruguayan fraternal directorial duo Rafael and Bernardo Antonaccio.

MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA