Cannes Festival 2026: From Asghar Farhadi to Rodrigo Sorogoyen, regulars but also new names in the running for the Palme dOr.

The end of the suspense but also the beginning of the wait for movie lovers. According to Iris Knobloch, the president of the Cannes Film Festival, Thierry Frémaux, the general delegate of the global cinema event, unveiled on Thursday, April 9, the official selection of films that will be competing for the Palme d’Or from May 12 to 23. In total, 2,541 feature films were submitted to the selection committee from 141 different countries.

Among the 21 selected films: “Amarga Navidad” (Pedro Almodovar), “L’Inconnue” (Arthur Harari), “Minotaure” (Andrei Zviaguintsev), “El ser querido” (Rodrigo Sorogoyen), “Moulin” (László Nemes), “Histoires de la nuit” (Léa Mysius) and “Histoires parallèles” (Asghar Farhadi). Find out the main official selection as well as the films selected out of competition in our live coverage.

– Stars to Look Forward To At Cannes, filmmaker Peter Jackson and actress-director-singer Barbra Streisand, each coming to receive an honorary Palme. Another Hollywood star, actor John Travolta, who directs “Night Flight to Los Angeles,” will present his first film as a director.

– Eye Haïdara to Host Ceremonies French actress Eye Haïdara will host the opening and closing ceremonies. Known for her role in “Le Sens de la fête,” which earned her a nomination for Best Female Newcomer at the César Awards in 2018, she will succeed Laurent Lafitte who hosted the ceremony in 2025.

– Seven Awards at Stake While the Palme d’Or attracts all the attention, about one-third of the official selection will end the festival with an award. In 2025, “The Secret Agent” won two awards: Best Director for Kleber Mendonça Filho and Best Actor for Wagner Moura, boosting its successful run in theaters where it approached half a million admissions. The Palme d’Or winner, “A Simple Accident,” by Iranian director Jafar Panahi, exceeded 700,000 tickets sold. The jury president, South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, and the jury members, whose names are not yet known, will have to evaluate the selected films.