The 2026 festival lineup is packed with prestige projects that command serious attention.
The 79th annual festival kicks off May 12th with a roster that includes Oscar-contending dramas, documentary releases, and international thrillers. Adam Driver plays a man chasing the American Dream while entangled with the Russian Mafia. Sebastian Stan plays a bald, paranoid protagonist in a cryptic tale about xenophobia and rumors turned violent.
Major filmmakers are in the competition: Pedro Almodóvar returns with Bitter Christmas, Nicolas Winding-Refn brings Her Private Hell, and Hirokazu Kore-eda presents Sheep in a Box. Asghar Farhadi and James Gray are also competing.
The documentaries include a study of Richard Avedon's early career and John Lennon's final interview.
Rami Malek delivers vocals in a period drama set during an epidemic in the 1980s. A South Korean thriller features major national stars alongside the actor who played young Magneto in X-Men. There is a film called The Samurai and the Prisoner set in feudal Japan.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi—following Drive My Car—makes his French-language debut with All of a Sudden, a three-and-a-half-hour film on death and love starring Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto.
These 22 films will shape cinema discourse for the rest of 2026.
