Cannes Film Festival general delegate Thierry Fremaux and president Iris Knobloch unveiled the Official Selection lineup for the event’s 79th edition that will be heavy on returning auteurs, English-language indies and, as always, a flock of fresh faces on the international scene.
Knobloch, now in her fourth year as president, kicked off the anticipated unveiling by addressing the current tense geopolitical climate during a press conference in Paris today (April 9). It was held for the first time at Pathe’s recently revamped swank multiplex, Pathe Palace.
“We know that the news around the world is anything but reassuring,” she began, and referenced the festival’s 1939 debut, saying it was “born during a period of uncertainty. It’s precisely for this reason it was created.” She added: “In this moment, assembling films and artists from all over the world isn’t a luxury - it’s a necessity.”
She said the festival is tasked with “defending what humanity holds to be the most precious, namely the capacity to think and express freely” and added: “Cinema doesn’t ask us to be in agreement - it asks us to be present.”
Knobloch added: “Now more than ever, we are loyal to our values – the freedom to create and to express, and sometimes to disturb.”
She also said that giving films a platform to be seen by global audiences is “not enough” in the age of AI and political unrest, calling Cannes “a milestone in the hurricane, not a closed fortress but a place where the values are not adjusting according to the wind.”
Fremaux on “very high level” of submitted films
All eyes were on Fremaux as he announced this year’s Croisette-bound crop of titles after last year’s selection went on to garner 19 nominations across 12 categories at the 2026 Oscars.
Fremaux said the festival received 2,541 feature films - “1,000 more than a decade ago” - from 141 countries. “We’re flirting with Olympic figures, but also a desire to submit films to a place where they will be seen by people all over the world.”
He also made sure to specify, “Cannes Film Festival is not a French festival - it is a festival that takes place in France”.
Fremaux said he and his selection committees are seeing more and more documentaries and animated films, and said that in general. “We have seen very intelligent films - films at a very high level”, and added later in the conference: “When I talk about intelligent films, I also mean films that make us more intelligent - that inspire us.”
This year, big studio titles appear to be skipping splashy Croisette premieres but as Fremaux pointed out: ”The US is present, though studios less so,” and insisted “There is an independent cinema outside of Los Angeles that still exists. Cinema artists will be there.”
Per usual, the festival will roll out its signature red carpets for Hollywood star power, including Barbra Streisand, who will receive an honorary Palme d’Or, John Travolta will present his directorial debut Propeller One-Way Night Coach; Steven Soderbergh and Ron Howard will screen films out of competition, namely John Lennon, The Last Interview and Richard Avedon, respectively.
Gender balance
Of the total films submitted for the festival, Fremaux said between 25-28% were by female directors and suggested the five women directors in this year’s competition as “a high figure for the competition”. However, although this is in line with the five-year average of 5.4 films directed by a woman filmmaker, in 2023 and 2025 there were seven films by women directors in the Competition.
Auteurs are returning in droves, including many with films not in their native tongue, including Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s French-language Parallel Tales and Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s debut French feature All Of A Sudden, Laszlo Nemes with French historical drama Moulin, plus Quentin Dupieux with the English-language Full Phil starring Kristen Stewart and Woody Harrelson that Fremaux called a “very Dupieuxien film”.
Further returning auteurs include Rodrigo Sorogoyen with The Beloved, Cristian Mungiu with Fjord, Paweł Pawlikowski with 1949, and Hirokazu Kore-eda with Sheep In The Box and Lukas Dhont with last-minuteentry Coward, that Fremaux said he watched “just last night”.
After a Berlin Film Festival where politics dominated on and off screen, this year’s selection features several titles that should spark conversations.
Fremaux said that Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur is “a film that talks about Russian society in a way we aren’t used to” and, out of competition, Agnes Jaoui’s Crescendo about accusations of sexual assault during an opera production.
Fremaux said the official selection is not complete, with organisers expected to unveil latecomers to the line-up in the days ahead.
The Competition presently features 21 films, but Fremaux added his traditional twist of uncertainty, telling a multiplex packed to the brim with media “you may notice there is a film that isn’t on this list, but it should be there,” and assured, “it’s not false suspense”.
As previously announced, South Korean auteur Park Chan-Wook will preside over the competition jury.
The 79th Cannes Film Festival runs May 12-23.
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