Hollywood may have stayed away from the Croisette this year, but the 79th edition of the film world's most prestigious festival still saw the debuts—some great, some less so—of new films from noted directors such as James Gray, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Pedro Almodóvar, Jane Schoenbrun, Steven Soderbergh, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ira Sachs, Cristian Mungiu, Nicolas Winding Refn, Pawel Pawlikowski, Asghar Farhadi, and Radu Jude, as well as a few impressive debuts from first-time directors. (And also John Travolta's directorial debut.)
Below, we take a look at the highs and lows of this year's Cannes Film Festival by sampling the reactions of critics to dozens of new films. But first, here are the 2026 award winners ...
The winners
Awards in the main competition were chosen by a jury led by director Park Chan-wook that also included Chloe Zhao, Demi Moore, Ruth Negga, Stellan Skarsgård, and more.
Palme d'Or (1st Place)
82 Fjord
Drama | Romania/France/Norway/Sweden/Denmark | dir. Cristian Mungiu
Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu took home the Palme d'Or in 2007 for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. He returned to Cannes in 2012 with Beyond the Hills, which won Best Screenplay. 2016's Graduation earned him the Best Director prize. In 2022, R.M.N. played in competition, but failed to get an award from the jury—still it's a Metacritic Must-See. All of this success resulted in high hopes for Mungiu's first film set and shot outside his home country and his first not in Romanian. (It's partly English, partly Norwegian.) And for most critics—and the festival jury, which awarded Mungiu his second Palme d'Or— Fjord didn't disappoint.
Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve star as Mihai and Lisbet Gheorghiu, a religiously conservative Romanian couple who move, with their five kids, to the Norwegian village near where Lisbet grew up. As they try to integrate into their secular surroundings, Mihai and Lisbet find themselves accused of mistreating their children. For The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, it's an "anticlimactic, underpowered movie," but IndieWire critic David Ehrlich believes it's another "characteristically fraught and tangled drama" from Mungiu. Matt Neglia of NBP declares it "one of his most intelligent, uncompromising, and troubling (complimentary) works to date." And Variety's Guy Lodge finds Fjord "riveting, acted with careworn nuance down the line by an excellent ensemble, yawing this way and that in terms of narrative and emotional momentum, even as we sense early on that no clear, cathartic resolution will ever be forthcoming."
It's the seventh straight Palme d'Or win (dating back to 2019's Parasite) for specialty distributor Neon, which has not yet set a release date for Fjord.
See where Fjord ranks among all recent Palme d'Or winners→
Grand Prix (2nd place)
91 Minotaur
Drama/Thriller | France/Latvia/Germany | dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
After nearly dying from COVID complications in 2021, exiled Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev returned to Cannes with an adaptation of Claude Chabrol's 1969 classic The Unfaithful Wife (also the inspiration for Adrian Lyne's Unfaithful). Co-written with Simon Lyashenko and set in Russia in 2022, this thriller follows Gleb, a privileged, unscrupulous businessman, as he discovers his wife is cheating on him. Zvyagintsev has already won Best Screenplay in 2014 for Leviathan and the Jury Prize in 2017 for Loveless, so it's not a surprise to see him take home another award for his "majestic new film" that teems "with rage, despair, elastic metaphor and darkest gallows humor," according to Variety's Guy Lodge. Writing for NBP, Matt Neglia declares Minotaur "another unmistakably political, bleak, and methodical work from one of our best storytellers," and IndieWire critic Ryan Lattanzio believes it's "not only a return to form—it's also exactly the kind of hopeless, coldly gazing, and politically indicting film only the director of Leviathan and Loveless could ever make." THR's Leslie Felperin adds, "This rigorously well-made, grippy-as-a-live-squid, toska-steeped work is Zvyagintsev's most openly critical commentary on the motherland's current political, spiritual and moral malaise, a denunciation never said in so many words but expressed with intricate layers of irony."
Jury Prize (3rd place)
78 The Dreamed Adventure (Das geträumte Abenteuer)
Action-Adventure/Thriller | Germany/France/Bulgaria/Austria | dir. Valeska Grisebach
Nine years after her last film, Western, played in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival, writer-director Valeska Grisebach enters the main competition with another tale set in southern Bulgaria. Veska (Yana Radeva) has returned to the area to run an archaeological dig when she runs into an old friend, Saïd (Syuleyman Alilov Letifov). When Saïd disappears, Veska gets sucked into his shady business with a local gangster. For The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, it's "clearly the work of a director with a fluent, distinctive film-making language, but what she is trying to tell us is elusive." At TheWrap, Ben Croll sees an "ethnographic travelogue, using a potboiler hook for lightly applied narrative structure," and Lee Marshall of Screen Daily finds it "relentlessly absorbing," a "magnificent example of cinema built from the ground up." Variety critic Jessica Kiang adds, " The Dreamed Adventure is basically a modern Bulgarian The Godfather, rangily reworked as a docudrama with suntanned arms, a squinting grin and a sly way of lolling back in its plastic chair as after-dinner conversation, sloshed and salty, rolls around the patio table."
More awards
Other major award winners at this year's festival include:
- Best director: (tie) Javier Calva and Javier Ambrossi, The Black Ball and Pawel Pawlikowski, Fatherland
- Caméra d'Or * (for best first feature): Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, Ben'Imana
- Best screenplay: Emmanuel Marre, A Man of His Time
- Best actor: Valentin Campagne and Emmanuel Macchia, Coward
- Best actress: Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto All of a Sudden
- L'Oeil d'or (best documentary): Rehearsals for a Revolution (dir. Pegah Ahangarani), a personal look at the last 40 years of Iranian life which was then immediately acquired by Sony Pictures Classics
* awarded by a different jury led by Monia Chokri; films screening in any of the various sections are eligible
Un Certain Regard
A jury led by actress Leïla Bekhti selected Everytime, the third feature from Austrian director Sandra Wollner, as the winner of this year's Un Certain Regard selection, which included 19 feature films, many by first-time directors. Nepalese drama Elephants in the Fog collected the section's Jury Prize, while the animated Iron Boy —which was picked up by Sony Pictures Classics during the fest—was awarded a Special Jury Prize.
Directors' Fortnight
This parallel competition (aka Quinzaine 2026) was led by first-time French feature director Sarah Arnold's Too Many Beasts, which was named the top European film (collecting the "Europa Cinemas Label" prize). Shana Pinell's sophomore feature Shana was honored with the SACD Coup de Coeur prize as the section's top French-language film. The People's Choice Audience Award, meanwhile, went to UK filmmaker Clio Bernard's I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, an adaptation of Keiran Goddard's same-named book.
Critics' Week and others
A Payal Kapadia-led jury awarded the Grand Prize in Critics' Week, the other major parallel competition, to the French drama La Gradiva from director Marine Atlan. Shortly after its win, the film's North American rights were acquired by 1-2 Special.
And this year's Palm Dog trophy for best canine performance in any festival film went to Yuri for her portrayal of a rescue dog in La Perra. Yuri went Method for her performance, living in an actual Chilean animal rescue facility before being plucked for stardom. The canine star has now taken her talents to a new, loving family.
Best of the festival
Below are additional titles generating the most positive buzz at this year's Cannes. That's followed by a list of the remaining notable festival debuts, and then by a recap of this year's biggest disappointments. Note that any films which previously debuted at other festivals are excluded.
87 All of a Sudden (Soudain)
Drama | France/Japan/Germany/Belgium | dir. Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
After winning Best Screenplay at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival and the Best International Feature Oscar for Drive My Car, Ryusuke Hamaguchi brought his follow-up, Evil Does Not Exist, to Venice in 2023, collecting the Grand Jury Prize at that festival. Now he has taken on the challenge of making something outside of Japan as he follows the friendship of Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira), the innovative director of a Parisian elder care facility, and Mari (Tao Okamoto, sharing the festival's Best Actress award with Efira), a Japanese theater director battling cancer. According to THR critic David Rooney, "Only a director as elegant as Hamaguchi could fold together a testament to the solace of female friendship, a painstakingly detailed workplace study, a consideration of compassion as a form of resistance and a soulful meditation on mortality." For Screen Daily's Tim Grierson, "Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto are wonderful as richly layered, openhearted characters who prove magnetic company" in this "graceful paean to kindness and curiosity." High praise also comes from Carlos Aguilar at The Playlist, who sees "a transcendent film whose power is capable of rekindling one's hope in humanity." And those thoughts are echoed by Variety critic Jessica Kiang, who writes, " All of a Sudden, the Japanese director's gorgeous new feature, is the rarest type of film, not merely good enough to remind you what cinema can be, but great enough to remind you what life can be."
76 The Beloved (El ser querido)
Drama | Spain | dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen
In Rodrigo Sorogoyen's follow-up to his award-winning The Beasts, Javier Bardem stars as an egotistical film director who hires his estranged daughter (Victoria Luengo) to star in his latest project. In the eyes of IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio, "Bardem's perpetually alpha aura makes for a great match to the material. His performance is terrific and internalized as ever, bringing vulnerability and edge to a stereotype." Writing for Screen Daily, Wendy Ide finds this "superbly acted and dramatically compelling study of generational rifts, gender divides and the deep, unhealing scars in a father-daughter relationship" to be "fierce, unflinching and insightful on the power dynamics of a film set." In his five-star review for Time Out, Phil de Semlyen writes, " The Beloved is a fabulous film about filmmaking, and an astute and hard-hitting one about family dynamics."
87 Ben'Imana
Drama/Sci-Fi | Rwanda/Gabon/France/Norway/Ivory Coast | dir. Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo
Rwandan director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo 's debut feature won the Camera d'Or for best first feature at this year's festival. Co-written with Delphine Agut, the story, set in 2012 Rawanda, follows Vénéranda, a survivor of genocide who works for reconciliation by leading conversations between victims and perpetrators. However, her convictions are challenged when she learns of her daughter's unexpected pregnancy. It's a "searing and intimate portrait of a nation's reckoning," according to THR critic Sheri Linden, who finds it "both emblematic and achingly specific." IndieWire's Josh Slater-Williams declares it "remarkable, and Cody Dericks of NBP believes this "chillingly powerful debut feature" is "visually grand." For Screen Daily critic Lee Marshall, it's a "film that works by accretion, layering its stories, characters and themes like the colourful textiles."
85 The Black Ball (La bola negra)
Drama | Spain/France | dir. Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo
The sophomore feature of creative partners Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo, aka Los Javis, is a major change from their 2017 musical comedy Holy Camp!, but it gave the duo a share of the fest's Best Director award (along with Fatherland's Pawel Pawlikowski). The connecting spirit of the three timelines in this gay male epic is the murdered Spanish poet and writer Federico García Lorca, who appears in the film and whose unfinished play "La Bola Negra," is adapted for the film's 1932 story. The triptych is completed with an adaptation of Alberto Conejero's stage play "La Piedra Oscura," set in 1937, and an original 2017 tale about a gay historian (Carlos González) investigating what his grandfather left him in his will. "The gratification of experiencing all the narrative threads coming together is only eclipsed by an awe at the underlying emotional continuity," writes Sophie Monks Kaufman in her IndieWire review. Less enthusiastic is Variety critic Guy Lodge, who admits it "occasionally strikes a poetic note worthy of its historical muse," but "more often plays as turgidly overblown melodrama, its themes writ large through schematically intersecting narrative strands." For The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, the only regret he has "about this superlatively acted and beautifully shot film is that once the connection between the three narrative strands is explained, some of the mystery and poetry is lost." But in his review for THR, Richard Lawson sees "outsized, gregarious cinema" and a "dazzlingly assured film, delivering the heady satisfaction of seeing something ambitious actually land its nervy attempt."
It looks like Netflix will be the winner of a bidding war for the buzzy festival film, though the mid-seven-figure deal has not yet been finalized.
86 Clarissa
Drama | USA/Nigeria | dir. Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri
For their feature-length follow-up to 2020's Eyimofe (This Is My Desire), twin filmmakers Arie and Chuko Esiri bring Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs. Dalloway to Lagos, Nigeria. Sophie Okonedo plays the older Clarissa, who is preparing to host a party at her home when she runs into an old flame, Peter, played by David Oyelowo. Viewers also see them in their youth when Clarissa and Peter are played by India Amarteifio and Toheeb Jimoh. "There's a radical bent to the Esiris' ' interpretations of and deviations from Mrs. Dalloway," according to Lovia Gyarkye of THR, who believes the film "revels in the splintered language of memory." Writing for Screen Daily, Robert Daniels sees a "boldly executed and eloquent reimagining of Virginia Woolf's landmark novel." And Variety critic Jessica Kiang praises the "superb Sophie Okonedo, radiant with melancholy, at the heart of its remarkably well-cast ensemble." Giving the film five stars, The Telegraph's Tim Robey declares Clarissa an "achingly elegant piece of work which I'm already looking forward to revisiting."
85 Club Kid
Comedy/Drama | USA | dir. Jordan Firstman
Acquired by A24 at the festival (for approx. $17 million); release date tbd
Before Cannes, Jordan Firstman might have been known for his online antics, as the star of Sebastián Silva's Rotting in the Sun (if you're an indie film fan), or as a memorable supporting player in edgy TV comedies I Love LA or English Teacher. Leaving the festival, he's the writer-director-star of the buzzy film that inspired a bidding war resulting in A24 acquiring it for a reported $17 million. Firstman plays a washed-up party promoter thrust into adulthood when he's presented with a son (Reggie Absalom) he never knew he had. Vulture's Alison Willmore praises Firstman's ability to take a "clichéd set-up" and turn it into something "genuinely touching" as well as "funny and filled with deft jokes." The Telegraph's Tim Robey finds this "crowd-pleasing comedy-drama" to be "plentifully funny and pretty touching." IndieWire critic Ryan Lattanzio agrees, claiming this "terrific movie" is a "hugely crowd-pleasing, excruciatingly funny, and poignant first film." At Variety, Guy Lodge advises, "Come for the arch, bitchy humor promised by the title and the director's general social media brand; stay for the unabashed sweetness of the enterprise; leave with the distinct sense that there's more to Firstman than his online persona."
81 The Diary of a Chambermaid
Comedy/Drama | Romania/France | dir. Radu Jude
The prolific Romanian writer-director Radu Jude (Aferim!, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World, Kontinental '25) is back with his first feature in French, a very loose adaptation of Octave Mirbeau's 1900 novel. Ana Dumitrascu, from Jude's Dracula, plays Gianina, a young Romanian who cares for the house and young son of a wealthy couple played by Melanie Thierry and Vincent Macaigne. The film "never ditches its razor-sharp view of class exploitation," according to Jordan Mintzer of THR. Martin Tsai of AwardsWatch believes it's a "thoroughly contemporary provocation, less interested in preserving Mirbeau's text than in using it as a diagnostic instrument with which to probe the hypocrisies and neuroses of the present day." In his B+ review for IndieWire, Siddhant Adlakha writes, "At a mere 94 minutes in length, its meandering, meta-textual appearance might seem like a misfire at first, but it disguises what might be Jude's most slyly character-focused work, culminating in a completely unexpected emotional gut punch."
82 Everytime
Drama | Austria/Germany | dir. Sandra Wollner
With her follow-up to The Trouble with Being Born, Austrian filmmaker Sandra Wollner took home the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival. After the tragic death of teenage Jessie, her mother, sister and boyfriend travel to Tenerife to confront their grief, resulting in a film that "might be the best in Cannes this year," according to Rory O'Connor of The Film Stage, who claims it "lingers in the bloodstream, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since." For THR's Jordan Mintzer "this delicately made tale of grieving and recovery doesn't resonate until it ultimately does so in a big way." And in her review for Screen Daily, Catherine Bray also praises the film's ending, which reaches "almost unbearable levels of emotional resonance." At TheWrap, Chase Hutchinson believes, "Wollner has made not just one of the more intriguing discoveries of the festival, but a delicate depiction of grief that'll stick with you."
90 Fatherland
Drama | Poland/Germany/Italy/France | dir. Pawel Pawlikowski
At the 2018 Cannes Films Festival, Paweł Pawlikowski won the Best Director award for Cold War, the follow-up to his 2015 Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film, Ida. And he duplicated the feat this year with Fatherland. Once again shooting in black and white, his latest period drama follows novelist Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) as he returns to Germany in 1949 with his daughter Erika (Project Hail Mary's Sandra Hüller) after 16 years of exile in America. "At just 80 minutes it's small but perfectly formed and packed with more ideas and infused with more heartbreak than most overlong arthouse epics," according to Kevin Maher of The Times. For Time Out's Phil de Semlyen, Fatherland is "another expansive, enriching work from a modern master," and at NBP, Nadia Dalimonte believes "each and every artistic element works in lockstep to create another exquisite Pawlikowski film." Robbie Collin of The Telegraph adds, "Sharp, exacting, trenchant, and fascinating, it's a shard of history which uses immense polish to make of itself a mirror."
77 I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Drama | UK | dir. Clio Barnard
Clio Barnard's fourth fiction film, following The Selfish Giant, Dark River, and Ali & Ava, is an adaptation of Keiran Goddard's novel. Co-written with Enda Walsh (Small Things Like These), the film captures the lives of five childhood friends from the same estate who are all about to turn 30. It doesn't work for Variety's Beatrice Loayza, who cautions, "Barnard gives bleak scenarios a stirring kind of hopefulness, an effect achieved by the cast's breezy chemistry, but the film as a whole slumps in weird tonal directions." Tim Robey of The Telegraph is more positive, noting, "This might be familiar dramatic terrain, but it's handled with blazing empathy by all involved." And in her review for IndieWire, Sophie Monks Kaufman agrees, "This film is a heartfelt swing at making no place unreachable, wherever you come from." In his five-star review for The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw writes, "It's a film whose mix of poignancy, defiance and contaminated euphoria stayed with me hours after the closing credits."
98 La Gradiva
Drama | France/Italy | dir. Marine Atlan
Acquired by 1-2 Special during the festival (release date tbd)
Marine Atlan's debut feature took home the top prize at the Cannes Critics' Week sidebar. Co-written with Anne Brouillet, the 145-minute drama follows a group of French teenagers and their patient teacher, Mme Mercier (Antonia Buresi) on a school trip to Pompeii and Naples. It's a film that features an "impressive cast of unknowns and a fluid style that captures them with both lyricism and verisimilitude," according to Jordan Mintzer of THR, who claims La Gradiva "announces the arrival of a formidable new talent." For Screen Daily's Amber Wilkinson, Atlan's film rewards "patient audiences with a subtle multiple character study that is also an anthem to the heightened experiences of youth." And at TheWrap, Chase Hutchinson believes it's "It's not just an illuminating portrait of youth, but a potent film about history" as well as being "quite funny" and "a film of consistently stunning, sublime visuals." In her A review for IndieWire, Marya E. Gates adds, "It is so wholly transporting that its running time flies by unnoticed, and as it barrels toward its melancholic end, you're left breathless in your seat wishing you could spend more time with these kids."
78 The Man I Love
Drama/Fantasy/Musical | USA | dir. Ira Sachs
The last time writer-director Ira Sachs (Keep the Lights On, Love is Strange, Litlte Men, Passages) was in the main competition at Cannes it was for Frankie, a film many critics believe to be his weakest. Luckily, that's not the case this time. Coming off the success of Peter Hujar's Day, a Metacritic Must-See, Sachs and writing partner Mauricio Zacharias tell the story of Jimmy George (Rami Malek), a theater artist dying of AIDS in 1980s New York City. Tom Sturridge plays his caretaker and partner, Dennis, and Luthor Ford is a new love interest that moves into an apartment downstairs. Rebecca Hall plays Jimmy's supportive sister, Brenda, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach is her husband. IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio believes "Malek's performance is probably the most affecting of his career," and THR critic David Rooney, who also has praise for Sturridge (the "stealth MVP") agrees, "Malek's performance as Jimmy approaches the end is the best work he's ever done." For Erik Anderson of AwardsWatch, Malek is "something of a wonder" in "one of the director's most indelible films." And Variety's Owen Gleiberman sees a "tirringly offbeat drama, small and delicate and disarmingly precise, with a performance by Rami Malek that, if there's any justice, should finally quiet down all the reviewers who've always been so snarky about him."
77 Nagi Notes
Drama | Japan/France/Singapore/Philippines | dir. Kôji Fukada
Japanese filmmaker Kôji Fukada (The Real Thing, Love Life) was last at the Cannes Film Festival with Harmonium, for which he won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize. He returned this year with a story of two women trying to let go of the past: Yoriko (Takako Matsu), a sculptor, and her model (and former sister-in-law) Yuri (Shizuka Ishibashi), an architect from Tokyo. Set in the titular rural town, Nagi Notes is an "immaculately rendered drama," according to IndieWire critic David Ehrlich. And Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian believes "Fukada has created a film of great lucidity and calm." For THR's Leslie Felperin, Notes isn't a "grabby, attention seeker of a film, but a quiet, watchful sort of movie that whispers its secrets sotto voce." And Variety critic Guy Lodge see this "subtly stirring new film" as a return to form, "with the precision of its characterization and the balance between heartfelt emotional candor and pensive silence in its finely worked script."
77 Paper Tiger
Drama/Thriller | USA | dir. James Gray
Writer-director James Gray (Armageddon Time) returned to the Cannes competition for the sixth time in his career with this personal portrait of a family in 1986 New York who become entangled with the Russian mob. Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson play Irwin and Hester Pearl. They have two sons and a good life, but when Uncle Gary (Adam Driver) offers Irwin a way to make their life a little better, he takes it, putting everything they have at risk. For Time's Stephanie Zacharek the result is "old school in the best way," a "thriller filled with tenderness, the kind you can make only when you've got performers who know what they're doing." Rodrigo Perez of The Playlist finds Paper Tiger "authentic, poignant, and quietly devastating," and THR's David Rooney believes "Gray and his superb cast are in blazing form and full command." IndieWire critic David Ehrlich declares it a "remarkably knowing and perceptive film about how family is, and has always been, the ultimate devil's bargain. Our greatest strength and our heaviest cross to bear. The reason our most dangerous risks can seem worth taking, and the most valuable thing we risk by taking them."
76 The Samurai and the Prisoner (Kokurojo)
Drama/Thriller | Japan | dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Genre-jumping filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Cure, To the Ends of the Earth) follows his modern thrillers Chime and Cloud with a classic samurai film set in 16th century Osaka. Adapting Honobu Yonezawa's award-winning 2021 novel, Kurosawa tells the story of Lord Murashige Araki (Masahiro Motoki), who after a series of unexplained crimes, turns to his prisoner, the shrewd samurai Kanbei Kuroda (Masaki Suda), for guidance. IndieWire critic David Ehrlich finds it "tedious in its plotting but rich in its temporal frictions," and Slant's Marshall Shaffer believes "Kurosawa's narrative storytelling [...] never quite matches the fluidity of his immaculate visual formalism." For the AV Club's Rory Doherty, this "densely plotted story" is a "delightful detour for the genre master," and RogerEbert.com critic Brian Tallerico believes, "Kurosawa has made one of his best films, a work that feels a bit like Agatha Christie, a bit like Shakespeare, and even a bit like Samurai Columbo. It's a dense chamber piece with big ideas and riveting performances, but it's nothing without the genre-boundless acumen of its creator."
91 Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
Horror/Comedy | USA/Canada | dir. Jane Schoenbrun
Opens in theaters on August 7
Writer-director Jane Schoenbrun's third feature, following We're All Going to the World's Fair and I Saw the TV Glow, is, in the words of Variety's Jessica Kiang, a "steamy stew of sex, death, VHS and junk food, as though workshopped by Eros, Thanatos, Colonel Sanders and the Jolly Rancher in the seediest recesses of a Blockbuster Video." (Please put that on the poster!) Hacks' Hannah Einbinder stars as Kris, a filmmaker directing a reboot of the "Camp Miasma" horror franchise whose research leads her to the summer camp where the original movies were shot. There, she finds the original film's "final girl" Billy (Gillian Anderson) living as a recluse. Kris and Billie form a special connection, and for The AV Club's Luke Hicks, it's a "revelry of comedy, murder, intellectualism, sexual awakening, queerness, and more." Writing for IGN, Chase Hutchinson describes Miasma as a "joyous blast of a film about sex, desire, and death" that is "deeply, movingly personal." And Vulture critic Alison Willmore believes "Schoenbrun's film is rich with ideas [...] But Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma traffics in emotions even more." Patrick Cremona of Radio Times adds, "It's an endlessly engaging and often very funny film equipped with arresting imagery, gorgeous design (including some beautiful matte paintings) and no shortage of gleeful gore. Or to put it another way, this is another instant cult classic from Schoenbrun."
Other notable debuts (good but unexceptional)
66 Ashes (Ceniza en la boca)
Drama | Mexico | dir. Diego Luna
The latest directorial effort from actor Diego Luna is an adaptation of Brenda Navarro's novel Ceniza en la boca, in which Lucila (Anna Diaz) leaves Mexico with her younger brother to reunite with their mother Isabel (Adriana Paz) in Madrid. THR critic David Rooney believes "the movie lacks fluidity; its fussily fragmented approach ultimately just leaves us with pieces that don't add up to much." For The Playlist's Gregory Ellwood, "the film lives and dies on the captivating Diaz's performance." And at Screen Daily, Tim Grierson agrees, "A compassionate, clear-eyed study of a young woman searching for a place to call home, Ashes is driven by Anna Diaz's evocative performance which expresses a world of discontent through the simplest of glances." Giving the film an A– at IndieWire, Carlos Aguilar adds, " Ashes doesn't feel like a typical immigration tale, not because of where it takes place, but because of the nuance of emotion that fuels it."
74 Atonement
Drama | USA | dir. Reed Van Dyk
For his feature debut, director Reed Van Dyk adapts Dexter Filkins' 2012 New Yorker article, "Atonement After Iraq" about a U.S. Marine (Boyd Holbrook) attempting to reconcile with the woman (a much-praised Hiam Abbass) whose family he killed. Kenneth Branagh also stars as Michael Reid, a version of Filkins. For Screen Daily's Jonathan Romney, Atonement is an "intelligent and involving film that successfully questions Hollywood cliches of war drama, while drawing knowingly on that tradition." And Matt Neglia of NBP believes it's "very complicated, delicate material handled with great care." At IndieWire, Sophie Monks Kaufman writes, "This intimate and psychologically astute portrait of the human cost of U.S. imperial violence draws a precise focus from what cinema is built for: putting us in a character's skin."
72 Avedon
Documentary | USA | dir. Ron Howard
Ron Howard, whose previous documentaries include Pavarotti, Rebuilding Paradise, We Feed People and Jim Henson: Idea Man, tackles the legendary photographer Richard Avedon with his latest. Using Avedon's vast archive and interviews with his contemporaries, Howard "strikes an elegant balance between providing context for his innovations and letting the work do the talking, resulting in one of the more entertaining art documentaries" Christian Zilko of IndieWire "has ever seen." Writing for NBP, Ben Rolph believes "Howard does a good job at bringing Avedon's story together, showing his artistic process and political beliefs that influenced his photography." And Screen Daily's Lee Marshall finds it "persuasive in arguing why the photographer mattered, and why he seemed most at home and in control from behind a camera lens." THR critic Sheri Linden adds, " Avedon doesn't aim to unsettle, like Avedon himself did, but neither does it tie things up neatly. There's nothing simple or reductive about the emotional throughlines the documentary traces."
69 Bitter Christmas (Amarga Navidad)
Drama | Spain | dir. Pedro Almodóvar
Returning to his homeland after 2024's The Room Next Door, Spanish writer-director Pedro Almodóvar has produced a meta-fictional self-critique about a film director (Leonardo Sbaraglia) who takes inspiration from tragedies suffered by those closest to him. His latest script is about Elsa (Bárbara Lennie), a filmmaker whose life mirrors his own. "Despite not being top-shelf Almodóvar," Rafa Sales Ross of The Playlist believes "it remains the work of a director long settled into form and, as such, offers its fair share of delights." For Ed Potton of The Times, it's "cooler emotionally than Almodóvar's early work but full of wit and self-awareness." And Variety critic Guy Lodge compares it to "a garishly colored costume-jewelry crystal, made to be held up to the light, so one can peer at its many reflective surfaces for glimmers of the director's past work and regular fixations." Time's Stephanie Zacharek echoes those sentiments, concluding, " Bitter Christmas is so enjoyable to watch that you almost will yourself into believing that Almodóvar isn't simply reworking, with certain beats that feel a little too familiar, some of his recent preoccupations."
69 Cantona
Documentary | UK | dir. Ben Nicholas and David Tryhorn
The latest sports documentary from Pelé directors David Tryhorn and Ben Nicholas focuses on another great footballer—Eric Cantano, who made his legend at Manchester United. For Variety's Guy Lodge, it's a "glossy, enthralled portrait of the legendary French soccer player and culture-spanning icon," and at NBP, Matthew Turner sees a "well-made sports documentary that explores a complex figure with insight and candor." Screen Daily's Dave Calhoun finds it "energetic and generous," and Robbie Collin of The Telegraph claims it's the "documentary equivalent of biting down hard on a high-voltage overhead power line."
66 Coward
Drama | Belgium/France/Netherlands | dir. Lukas Dhont
Acquired during the festival by Mubi (release date tbd)
Belgian director Lukas Dhont's previous successes at the festival include a Camera d'Or (best first film) for Girl in 2018 and a Grand Prix for Close in 2022. His third feature, co-written with Angelo Tussens, stars Valentin Campagne and Emmanuel Macchia (who shared the festival's Best Actor award) as soldiers who fall in love while on the Belgian front during World War I. For THR critic David Rooney it "reeks of manneristic affectation and phoniness" and the leads have "minimal chemistry." Screen Daily's Tim Grierson is more positive, finding Coward to be an "affecting, familiar drama," and Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire believes it's "visually arresting if thematically by-the-book." Praising the film are NBP's Nadia Dalimonte, who claims it's a "masterful exploration of sexuality and camaraderie," and Erik Anderson of AwardsWatch, who declares it "a defining masterpiece."
70 Gentle Monster
Drama/Thriller | Austria/Germany/France | dir. Marie Kreutzer
With her follow-up to Corsage, Austrian writer-director Marie Kreutzer (The Ground Beneath My Feet) attempts to find a fresh angle on a very difficult subject with this story of Lucy (Léa Seydoux), whose life is irrevocably changed when her husband is arrested. Isolated and unsure of what to believe, Lucy is brought to vivid life by Seydoux in a performance described by THR's Leslie Felperin as "all raw nerves—steely, vulnerable, angry and broken at once." Writing for The Playlist, Marshall Shaffer believes "Seydoux is so brilliant that she outshines other elements of the film, especially the script." And Nadia Dalimonte of NBP finds her "astounding" in this "uncomfortably tense thriller." Reports indicate that Netflix is currently deep in talks to acquire the film, though the deal is not yet official.
68 Hope
Action/Drama/Sci-Fi/Thriller | South Korea | dir. Na Hong-jin
Opens in theaters this fall (date tbd)
For fans of The Wailing (a Metacritic Must-See), it has been a long ten-year wait for a new film from writer-director Na Hong-jin (The Yellow Sea, The Chaser). But for most critics (and probably all critics, if you stopped the movie after its opening 45 minutes), it was worth the wait. Set in the remote South Korea village of Hope Harbor, this action-packed entertainment follows a police chief (Hwang Jung- min), his officer (Hoyeon), and a band of locals as they face off against mysterious creatures played by Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell, and Cameron Britton. According to IndieWire critic David Ehrlich, "Bad films are a dime a dozen, even at the world's most prestigious festival—this one is only so painful because it first gives you the hope of being great." And Tim Robey of The Telegraph likewise believes there's a "sharper, more satisfying 100-minute film fighting to get out here." In her review for Variety, Jessica Kiang finds it "hilarious, unwieldy, overlong and featuring some of the most breathtakingly elegant action moviemaking of this or any year." Collider's Therese Lacson claims it "could have been a near-perfect film had it abandoned its desire to go even bigger and simply stuck to the creature feature that made its first half so entertaining." Fully endorsing the film, Chase Hutchinson of TheWrap declares it a "glorious genre romp that contains more magnificent moments in its opening act than most do in their entire runtime."
61 Jim Queen
Animation/Comedy/Drama/Sci-Fi | France | dir. Nicolas Athane and Marco Nguyen
Nicolas Athané and Marco Nguyen 's animated feature debut follows 24-packed influencer Jim Queen as the sexually transmitted Heterosis disease turns him and many fellow Parisian gays into straight men. Helping Jim in his search for a cure is Lucian, a skinny twink who still has eyes for Jim despite his now flabby body. THR's Richard Lawson wishes this "crass, profane, giddily stupid romp through a heap of stereotypes about gay life in Paris" was "funnier and fresher than it is," and Gregory Ellwood of The Playlist likewise believes it's "not clever enough to transcend the genre." However, for Variety critic Guy Lodge, Jim Queen offers a "short, concentrated barrage of jokes good, bad and both, fired with enough energy and glee to keep a spirit of hilarity afloat throughout."
71 A Man of His Time (Notre salut)
Drama | Belgium/France | dir. Emmanuel Marre
Winner of the festival's Best Screenplay award, writer-director Emmanuel Marre's sophomore feature, following Zero F*cks Given, is based on the life of his great-grandfather, Henri Marre (Swann Arlaud), an author (the French title Notre Salut (Our Salvation) is the same as his self-published manifesto) who chose to work for the fascist Vichy regime in 1940. IonCinema's Nicolas Bell doesn't believe the film "justifies its subject or its methods," and for Cody Dericks of NBP, it's a "brilliant concept for an historical film, but the way Marre tells his relatives' unheroic story would've been better served by a more discerning eye on the film's runtime." Variety critic Jessica Kiang admits it "can be genuinely wearying and not a little depressing to spend 148 minutes in the company of a man so deeply wrongheaded and in such maddening self-denial," but it is also "certainly instructive and horribly relevant." Most enthusiastic about the film is THR's Jordan Mintzer, who thinks Arlaud gives a "career-best performance" in a film that "feels fresh and off-the-cuff, as if someone traveled back to 1940 with an iPhone and hit record, chronicling the dark years of far-right obedience and moral decadence."
67 Moulin
Drama | France | dir. László Nemes
Hungarian filmmaker László Nemes' debut feature, Son of Saul, won the Grand Prix at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. His follow-ups, 2018's Sunset and 2025's Orphan, were less admired. His latest chronicles the final days of French Resistance leader Jean Moulin, who in 1943 was captured and subsequently tortured by Klaus Barbie (Lars Eidinger), the head of the Gestapo in Lyon. "At over two hours in length, its points are made with clarity before being repeated ad nauseam," complains Siddhant Adlakha in his review for Variety. And IndieWire's David Katz sees a "lavishly mounted, yet claustrophobic view of history, with few provocative insights." But The Telegraph's Robbie Collin gives this "scalding Second World War thriller" five stars, and Dave Calhoun of Screen Daily believes the film "delivers top-class artistry in the service of taking us to the depths of moral hell."
60 The Unknown (L'Inconnue)
Fantasy/Thriller | France/Italy | dir. Arthur Harari
After co-writing the script for the 2023 Palme d'Or winner Anatomy of a Fall, Arthur Harari (Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle) enters the Cannes competition for the first time as a director with this adaptation of The Case of David Zimmerman, a graphic novel he co-wrote with his brother Lucas. This psychological thriller takes the body-swap genre in a decidedly non-comedic direction as it follows David (Niels Schneider), a photographer, as he switches bodies with a mysterious woman (Léa Seydoux). For Variety's Jessica Kiang, the film "makes ponderously heavy going of its switcheroo storyline," and Jonathan Romney of Screen Daily believes it "never feels quite confident enough to lead us compellingly through the labyrinth of its bizarre body swap narrative." On the positive side, IndieWire critic David Ehrlich sees a film "as protean and prone to shapeshifting as its characters," and THR's David Rooney admits some may find this "spellbinding psychological puzzler," to be "odd to a fault and too opaque to be satisfying," but he "can't wait to see it again and keep sifting through its mysteries."
65 A Woman's Life (La vie d'une femme)
Drama | France/Belgium | dir. Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet's follow-up to Anaïs in Love stars Léa Drucker (Last Summer, Dossier 137) as Gabrielle, a successful surgeon whose busy life is upended when she meets Frida (Mélanie Thierry), a novelist who comes to observe her at work. For IonCinema's Nicholas Bell, it's Drucker's "effervescent lead performance which manages to unite all the messy threads into a satisfying melancholic portrait." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian similarly believes Drucker "carries off the lead with terrifically competent elan." Screen Daily's Nikki Baughan praises Bourgeois-Tacquet's "keenly observed screenplay and Drucker's finely balanced performance," while Variety critic Guy Lodge believes the film "presents not just a well-shaded character but the rolling rhythm and clatter of her existence."
The disappointments
56 Another Day (Garance)
Drama | France | dir. Jeanne Herry
Despite the power of star Adèle Exarchopoulos, the joint Palme d'Or winner for Blue Is the Warmest Color in 2013, this addiction drama from writer-director Jeanne Herry failed to work for most critics. Exarchopoulos plays Garance, a gifted actress whose alcohol addiction is ruining her life. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw admits Exarchopoulos "has her moments," but on the whole, "this is a very glib and unsatisfying drama." Ryan Lattanzio of IndieWire offers a solution: "Exarchopoulos is a force. Hire her and get out of her way. Hell, hire her to write your screenplay, too." More positive is NBP's Cody Dericks, who believes this "engaging, engrossing story" is a "surprisingly funny, affirming, and powerful look at one individual's highs and lows." And Screen Daily critic Jonathan Romney declares Another Day a "compelling study in psychological realism" with Exarchopoulos as its "magnetic centre."
55 The Birthday Party (Histoires de la nuit)
Action-Adventure/Drama/Thriller | France | dir. Léa Mysius
With her third feature, French writer-director Léa Mysius graduated to the main competition, after Ava played in the 2017 Critics' Week and The Five Devils competed in the 2022 Director's Fortnight. This adaptation of the French bestseller Histoires de la Nuit by Laurent Mauvignier stars Hafsia Herzi as Nora, whose birthday party on the isolated island where she lives with her husband (Bastien Bouillon), daughter (Tawba El Gharchi), and one neighbor (Monica Bellucci) is interrupted by three strangers played by Benoit Magimel, Paul Hamy, and Alane Delhaye. It's a "head-scratching letdown," according to Beatrice Loayza of Variety, who claims it's an "oddly lifeless—and worse, conventional—crime tale about the unearthing of buried secrets." For Nikki Baughan of Screen Daily the film "lacks the dramatic spark and heady atmosphere of Mysius's previous films." And IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio finds it "superbly directed, yet narratively predictable." THR critic David Rooney admits there is a "pileup of movie-ish improbabilities in the climactic act," but is more positive overall on a film that is "lean, mean and frequently terrifying."
58 Butterfly Jam
Drama | France/USA | dir. Kantemir Balagov
In 2019, Kantemir Balagov made a splash at Cannes with Beanpole, winning Best Director in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival. Seven years later, the now-Los Angeles-based filmmaker is in the Director's Fortnight with a film originally intended to be set in Russia. Now set in the Circassian community of Newark, Balagov's first English-language feature stars Barry Keoghan as Azik, a widower and father of Temir (Talga Akdogan), a talented wrestler. Riley Keough plays Azik's pregnant sister Zalda, and Harry Melling is his good-for-nothing buddy Marat. For Screen Daily's Jonathan Romney, this family drama's "uneven mix of melodrama, eccentricity and hyper-male boisterousness never entirely convinces." And The Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw calls the film an "off moment" for the director, warning, "Butterfly Jam is contrived, tonally uncertain, implausible and frankly plain silly in its underpowered kind of magic-unrealism." But Variety critic Guy Lodge believes "even out of place and not entirely on form, Balagov remains a filmmaker of outsize, thrillingly declarative talent," and in her review for The Playlist, Savina Petkova writes, "With its soulful dedication to people's daily lives and their search for belonging, the film is open and accepting of its characters' dreams and failures."
56 Colony (Gun-che)
Action-Adventure/Horror/Sci-Fi/Thriller | South Korea | dir. Sang-ho Yeon
Opens in theaters on August 28
Train to Busan and The Ugly director Yeon Sang-ho has a new zombie thriller coming to theaters this August. Trapped inside a 30-story office building after a rapidly mutating virus is released during a biotech conference, a professor (Gianna Jun) and a small group of survivors must fight to stay alive as the infected mutate and grow the ability to communicate with each other. Writing for NBP, Jason Gerber claims it's a "mediocre genre blast, palatable only to those craving another bite of the zombie-film genre, a middling, messily constructed effort with only minor details that can truly be considered original." At The Playlist, Chase Hutchinson sees "much to appreciate, with the willingness to really go for broke with the zombies giving everything a jolt of energy, but there's increasingly also far too much dead air that holds it back from fully coming to life." According to Screen Daily's Nikki Baughan, " Colony' s main draw is its visuals, its carefully choreographed action sequences unfolding at a breakneck pace saturated by lashings of gore."
45 The Electric Kiss (La Vénus électrique)
Rom-Com | France/Belgium | dir. Pierre Salvadori
If there's a lesson to be learned at Cannes, it's this: Skip the first night. The opening night film at this year's festival, like many openers before it, failed to impress critics. Directed by Pierre Salvadori (The Trouble with You), The Electric Kiss is a "carny-and-conman comedy that strains a little too hard for the Lubitsch touch" and "badly overstays its welcome," according to IndieWire critic Ben Croll. Set in 1928, with flashbacks to 1919, the story centers on Antoine Balestro (Pio Marmaï), a painter who has been unable to paint since the passing of his wife, Irène (Vimala Pons). Desperate to get new work from Antoine, his gallery owner (Gilles Lellouche) hires Suzanne (Anaïs Demoustier), a carnival worker, to play a psychic capable of contacting Irène. But as the ruse progresses and Suzanne learns more about Irène through her diaries, she develops feelings for Antoine, resulting in what David Rooney of THR claims is a "bland, middlebrow entertainment" whose "air of strained whimsy falls flat." The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw sees a "gooey, glutinous and slightly flat confection," and for Variety critic Owen Gleiberman, it "may be the worst festival opener" he has seen in a decade.
60 Full Phil
Comedy/Drama | France | dir. Quentin Dupieux
The latest from French musician/DJ (under the name Mr. Oizo) and absurdist filmmaker Quentin Dupieux (The Second Act, Daaaaaalí!, Incredible But True, Mandibles, Deerskin) stars Woody Harrelson as Phillip Doom and Kristen Stewart as his estranged daughter Madeline. Phillip wants to reconnect with his daughter, so he's booked a beautiful suite in Paris with a room for each of them, but all Madeline wants to do is eat and watch a horror movie, and the more she eats the more Phil's waistline expands. Time Out's Phil de Semlyen finds it "fun" but "wafer thin," and Variety critic Owen Gleiberman claims it's an "italicized screw-loose satire that some will want to see, because in its halfway funny, halfway off-putting extreme way it dares to color so far outside the lines." More positive is Lee Marshall of Screen Daily who believes this "unclassifiable mindfuck with its refreshingly compact running time is both totally weird and weirdly touching." And for The Telegraph's Tim Robey, this "crackers comedy" makes for "easy-breezy viewing, the daft tone landing halfway between Buñuel and the Farrelly Brothers."
38 Her Private Hell
Drama/Horror/Thriller | Denmark | dir. Nicolas Winding Refn
Opens in theaters on July 24
Ten years ago at Cannes, Nicolas Winding Refn premiered his last feature film, The Neon Demon. Between features, NWR has directed two TV series— Too Old to Die Young for Prime Video and Copenhagen Cowboy for Netflix—and then died for over 20 minutes. Unfortunately, critics feel that the director's physical resuscitation has not coincided with an artistic rebirth. NWR's latest has all the trappings of his previous projects, but the story of Elle (Sophie Thatcher), Johnny Thunders (Dougray Scott), a serial killer known as Leather Man, and a soldier named Private K (Charles Melton), who is searching for his daughter, never comes together. In fact, it's a "disaster," according to Variety's Owen Gleiberman, who claims Her Private Hell "practically announces that it's too cool to be coherent." Similarly, IndieWire critic Ryan Lattanzio declares it "one of the most miserable theatrical viewing experiences in years." (Maybe it was his private hell.) For Brian Tallerico at RogerEbert.com, the film offers a "pastiche of imagery that NWR has deployed more effectively at other times in his career." And though Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian admits Hell "resists interpretation," he believes it still "executes a slow dervish swirl of hypnotic strangeness." Maybe just watch 2011's Drive again, for which NWR won this festival's Best Director award.
53 John Lennon: The Last Interview
Documentary | USA | dir. Steven Soderbergh
Is this documentary about John Lennon's final interview, given hours before his death on December 8, 1980, Steven Soderbergh's worst film? Not by Metascore, at least not yet. A few films— Kafka, Schizopolis, Full Frontal, The Good German, Magic Mike's Last Dance —currently have it beat. But those films don't have any AI-generated footage, and this one does. Even though "Meta's AI-generated visuals only make up around 10 per cent of the film," The Telegraph's Tim Robey believes "it utterly breaks any spell he wanted to cast." It's a "disappointment" for Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian as well; he sees a "surprisingly moderate documentary, dominated and frankly marred by uninteresting and pointless AI." In her review for Time, Stephanie Zacharek writes, "Ironically, or not, the very tools Soderbergh has used to make the film distinctive ultimately render it indistinct and unmemorable." Unbothered by the AI images, Variety critic Owen Gleiberman claims "Soderbergh has done an ace job of illustrating The Last Interview by turning it into a dreamy archival collage, accompanying John's words (and Yoko's too) with hundreds of photographs I had never seen before."
41 Parallel Tales (Histoires parallèles)
Drama/Thriller | France/Belgium/Italy | dir. Asghar Farhadi
Given the strength of his previous films (About Elly, A Separation, The Salesman, A Hero), the latest from Asghar Farhadi, a film inspired by A Short Film About Love (the expanded sixth film in Krzysztof Kieslowski's acclaimed Dekalog), was one of the major disappointments of the festival. Isabelle Huppert stars as Sylvie, a novelist who spies on her neighbors. When her manuscript ends up in their hands, all sorts of complications ensue. Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, and Pierre Niney play dual roles. The film "unfolds with little dramatic momentum and negligible intrigue," according to Robbie Collin of The Telegraph," and The Playlist's Rafa Sales Ross declares it a "film that hungrily gorges at greatness only to regurgitate the blandest, most forgettable possible byproduct." For THR critic David Rooney, Parallel Tales "plays less like a lived-in, full-bodied story than a bloated metafiction writing class assignment." And IndieWire's David Ehrlich adds, "Farhadi—dead in the water without the narrative thrust of his signature neorealism—bends over backwards to contrive a flimsy house of mirrors that's ultimately too dim to reflect anything beyond the limits of his own imagination."
49 Propeller One-Way Night Coach
Adventure/Drama/Family | USA | dir. John Travolta
Streams on Apple TV beginning May 29
John Travolta's directorial debut is an adaptation on his own 1997 children's novel set during the birth of commercial aviation, following a young boy and his mother on an eventful cross-country flight to Hollywood. Premiering at Cannes prior to its Apple TV debut next week, Propeller failed to take off for reviewers, who found the hourlong feature way too slight, though some critics appreciated Travolta's enthusiasm for its subject. But as a "genunie oddity of a project" (in the words of Screen's Catherine Bray), it perhaps stands alone among this year's festival entries. While Telegraph's Robbie Collin feels sorry for Travolta and his film—"the viewing of which is like watching a toddler walk into a lamp post"—some reviewers seemed to get a kick out of the film's failures. That group includes Emma Kiely at Collider, who finds the director's "atrocious" debut to be "equal parts heinous and hysterical." (Who said comedies are hard to find at Cannes?)
54 Sheep in the Box
Drama/Fantasy/Sci-Fi | Japan | dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
Japanese writer-director Hirokazu Kore-eda won the Palme d'Or in 2018 for Shoplifters. He returned to the competition in 2022 with Broker and 2023 with Monster. Both were well-received, but this year's film, the story of a grieving couple who accept a humanoid facsimile of their dead son into their lives, finds the filmmaker receiving a rare yellow Metascore. For IonCinema's Nicholas Bell, it's "frustratingly limited and unfortunately banal," and Owen Gleiberman of Variety feels "Kore-eda's attitude toward what he's showing us is so lackluster and noncommittal that it's hard to know how to react to any of it." NBP's Nadia Dalimonte sees "luminous glimmers of promise scattered throughout," but, "unfortunately, those glimmers amount to a disappointingly disorienting feature." More positive is Chase Hutchinson in The Playlist, who admits "Even a lesser Kore-eda is still at least interesting, even frequently insightful, about the ways that we move through a world of pain and loss."
52 Victorian Psycho
Horror/Thriller | UK/Ireland | dir. Zachary Wigon
Opens in theaters on September 25
Director Zachary Wigon's follow-up to 2022's Sanctuary is an adaptation of Virginia Feito's novel. Adapted for the screen by Feito and set in 1858, the story follows Winifred Notty (Maika Monroe) as she becomes governess of the Ensor House, a castle in Yorkshire where Mr. and Mrs. Pounds (Jason Isaacs and Ruth Wilson) and their two children, heir Andrew (Jacobi Jupe), and teenage daughter Drusilla (Evie Templeton) live. The Telegraph's Tim Robey has many questions: "What did the baby ever do to anybody, though? Why is this in Cannes? How is it anyone 's idea of fun? I can't begin to understand." RogerEbert.com critic Brian Tallerico is more understanding but not completely on board, finding it "almost fun enough if you don't think much about how much more fun it should be." Having a little more fun with this "delightfully wacky" play on American Psycho is Savina Petkova at The Film Stage, "More than a well-crafted thriller, Victorian Psycho proves a rousing comedy, its trio of great actors never missing the mark with a stoic line delivery."
Additional content by Jason Dietz
All photos above courtesy of Festival de Cannes, Semaine De La Critique, and Quinzaine 2026.
