The Cannes Film Festival Watch List

, ,

Black

Cannes 2026: The Films Defining This Year’s Line-Up

19 April, 2026

Words by:

Sarah Palmieri

Each May, the world’s most distinctive auteurs descend on the French Riviera to present their pièce de résistance. The Cannes Film Festival is just around the corner, and this year, big-budget blockbusters are notably absent from the lineup.

Last week, we wrote about why the Cannes Film Festival still matters in a cultural moment shaped by platforms, politics and increasingly polished storytelling. Now we're getting into the films themselves.

From past Palme d’Or winners to first-time Cannes debuts, we’ve curated a list of films to keep on your radar.

 

ALL OF A SUDDEN (Dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)

If you’ve seen Drive My Car, which won Best International Feature at the Academy Awards and the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes in 2021, you already know Ryusuke Hamaguchi works in a very specific emotional register. His latest film, All of a Sudden, stars Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto and was shot entirely in France. Based on the novel When Life Suddenly Takes a Turn: Twenty Letters Between a Philosopher with Terminal Cancer and a Medical Anthropologist, it brings together French and Japanese ideas of care through the concept of “Humanitude”, a philosophy that places dignity at the centre of caregiving.

 

FULL PHIL (Dir. Quentin Dupieux)

The notorious Quentin Dupieux (also a music producer known as Mr. Oizo) continues to operate in a cinematic register where logic is completely irrelevant. Known for films like Mandibles and Yannick, his lingo sits in absurd worlds that inevitably collapse in on themselves. In Dupieux’s first English film Full Phil, Kristen Stewart plays the daughter of a wealthy American industrialist, played by Woody Harrelson, during a trip to France where they hope to strengthen their relationship.

SHEEP IN THE BOX (Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)

Shoplifters cemented Hirokazu Kore-eda—an auteur known for his intimate portrayals of family drama—earning him the Palme d’Or in 2018. This year, he will present Sheep in the Box, a near-future film starring Ayase Haruka and Japanese comedian Daigo. Kore-eda has described it as exploring the idea of “bringing the dead back to life using the latest technology.” He was inspired after reading about “resurrection businesses” in China and later meeting people working in that field. The film translates this concept into a domestic setting: a couple who adopt a humanoid after the death of their son.

 

THE MAN I LOVE (Dir. Ira Sachs)

Set in 1980s New York during the AIDS crisis, musical drama The Man I Love follows Jimmy George, an actor preparing for his final role while facing his own mortality. Starring Rami Malek, Rebecca Hall and Tom Sturridge, this film continues Ira Sachs’ interest in intimacy, following Passages and Peter Hujar’s Day.

FJORD (Dir. Cristian Mungiu)

Cristian Mungiu, who won the Palme d’Or for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in 2007, returns with Fjord, starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, who was most recently Oscar-nominated for Sentimental Value. Set in Bowleigh, the film centres on a couple in conflict with their neighbours

COWARD (DIR. LUKAS DHONT)

Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont follows his Oscar-nominated Close with Coward, a First World War-set drama already being described by Cannes director Thierry Frémaux as “pure cinema.” The film is widely considered a Palme d’Or contender. Dhont describes it as “a film about love and death, construction and destruction. A film about survival and how, sometimes, even in the darkness, something beautiful manages to grow.”

 

Your next Read

Intensity Embodied: Aston Martin’s DBX707 AMR23 Edition

With little seat time thus far, but a vague idea of what I’m dealing with, …

,

Essence Of Australia: The Photography Of Trent Mitchell

Mitchell’s journey into photography began somewhat serendipitously during high school. “I first used a camera …

Genesis GV80 Coupe: The Stylish SUV that Puts Rivals on Notice

Genesis has been methodically building its case, vehicle by vehicle, and the GV80 SUV was …

The Chef’s Hotel

The most important thing about luxury, I’ve come to think, is in the detail. The …

,