It is a very quiet year for UK-Ireland directors and producers in the official selection and parallel sidebars of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Clio Barnard is representing UK filmmakers with the BFI and BBC Film-backed I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, which has been selected for Directors’ Fortnight, produced by Tracy O’Riordan at Moonspun Pictures. Additionally, Amsterdam-based UK-Yemeni filmmaker Sara Ishaq’s The Station has been selected for Critics’ Week.
For Ireland, Alexander Murphy’s feature documentary about Irish travellers, Tin Castle, is also screening in Critics’ Week. The film is produced by Eamon Hughes of Dublin-based Samson Films, with Cosme Bongrain of France’s Goodspeed Productions.
Apart from London-based Mubi, which is credited as a production company on Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski’s Competition title Fatherland, there are no UK or Irish producers or filmmakers in Competition this year. (Mubi is also credited as a producer on Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn’s out-of-competition film Her Private Hell and US filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun’s Un Certain Regard selection Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma.)
The last time there were no UK-Ireland producers with films in Cannes Competition was 2008.
There are no UK directors in Competition for the first time since 2022. Last year, Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love played in Competition, produced by the UK’s Andrea Calderwood, although not through her Potboiler Films. The UK industry was also represented in Competition by Film4, one of the funders of The History Of Sound, which was produced by the UK’s Thérèsa Ryan-van Graan, and by BBC Film, one of the backers of Joachim Trier’s Norwegian title Sentimental Value.
In 2024, there was again one filmmaker, Andrea Arnold’s Bird, and four films from UK-Ireland producers. In 2023, Ken Loach’s The Old Oak and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest both screened in Competition, along with four films from UK-Ireland producers. In 2022, there were two from UK-Ireland producers, including Ruben Ostlund’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle Of Sadness, produced by Mike Goodridge’s Good Chaos.
There are no UK directors in Un Certain Regard this year. This follows a strong 2025 with three prize-winning films from UK directors and UK-Ireland producers: Akinola Davies Jr’s My Father’s Shadow, Harry Lighton’s Pillion and Harris Dickinson’s Urchin, plus Number 9 Films was a producer on Kei Ishikawa’s Japanese-language A Pale View Of Hills.
In 2024, there were three UK-Ireland produced films in this section (On Becoming A Guinea Fowl, Santosh and September Says), and in 2023 there were two (How To Have Sex and The Settlers). In 2022, there was one (Silent Twins); in 2021, there were none.
It is understood there are still more titles to be announced across the 2026 programme, with Werner Herzog’s US-Ireland co-production Bucking Fastard – which shot around Dublin – still a contender.
On screen
UK actors heading to the Croisette include Kenneth Branagh in Directors’ Fortnight selection Atonement, Arthur Conti in Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma, Dougray Scott in Her Private Hell, Rebecca Hall and Tom Sturridge in Ira Sachs’ Competition title The Man I Love, Cara Delevingne in Un Certain Regard selection Club Kid and a largely UK cast in Nigerian filmmaker Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Mrs Dalloway adaptation Clarissa in Directors’ Fortnight, including Sophie Okonedo, David Oyelowo, Toheeb Jimoh, India Amarteifio, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Danny Sapani.
Anthony Boyle, Joe Cole and Jay Lycurgo star in I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, alongside Northern Irish Lola Petticrew and Ireland’s Daryl McCormack. The film is written by Irish playwright Enda Walsh.
Ireland’s Barry Keoghan stars in Directors’ Fortnight opening film Butterfly Jam.
While UK-Irish representation is often slight at Cannes, the absence of recent Croisette stalwarts Good Chaos (with credits spanning Triangle Of Sadness, Club Zero, Santosh and Left-Handed Girl) and Dublin-London Element Pictures (behind Pillion, My Father’s Shadow, Kinds Of Kindness, September Says, On Becoming A Guinea Fowl, The Killing Of A Sacred Deer and The Lobster) can be felt through the programme.
No comments yet