Workers install the official 2026 festival poster (Aurore Marechal/Getty Images)
The red carpet is rolled out on the Croisette, and the American footprint is thin this year. Of 22 competition films, only two are from US filmmakers: Ira Sachs's 'The Man I Love' and James Gray's 'Paper Tiger.' The rest leans heavily international. Steven Spielberg's 'Disclosure Day' skipped Cannes; Alejandro G. Iñárritu's 'Digger' (with Tom Cruise) is likely skipping the festival circuit altogether. No studio tentpoles made the cut. The festival’s director had this to say:
"When the studios are less present in Cannes, they are less present full stop."
Thierry Frémaux, director of the Cannes Film Festival
Pierre Salvadori's 'The Electric Kiss' takes the opening honors tonight. Check out the full festival lineup here. 👈👀
Park Chan-wook is running the jury this year (a Cannes first for a Korean director), backed by Demi Moore, Stellan Skarsgård, Chloé Zhao, Ruth Negga, Isaach De Bankolé, Diego Céspedes, Laura Wandel, and Paul Laverty.
There is American action on the buyer side, though. Neon has distributed the last six Palme d'Or winners in a row ('Anora,' last year's 'It Was Just an Accident,' and four more before that), and they're back this year hunting for number seven, arriving with nine films already in the official selection. Warner Bros.' new specialty label Clockwork makes its Cannes debut with a 4K restoration of Ken Russell's banned 1971 fever dream 'The Devils.'
On the market floor, packages like Park Chan-wook's western 'The Brigands of Rattlecreek' and Kitty Green's 'The Spacesuit' are drawing early heat. Check out some of the top packages here. 👈👀
One thing won’t be on the table: generative AI is banned from the Palme race. Films where AI handles scripting, visuals, or performance synthesis can't compete. Standard tech like sound restoration is fine. Over at the Marché, there's an "AI for Talent" summit on the schedule. Cannes contains multitudes.
Looking ahead… The festival runs through May 23. The Palme d'Or ceremony closes things out. Brace for headlines reporting standing ovation times with the precision of an Olympic event and the accuracy of a fishing story.
