Two days ago I forgot to post about the official 2026 Cannes Film Festival slate. In truth I couldn’t find the energy or intrigue. I kept telling myself “I need to tap out something about this” but since I’d re-posted Jordan Ruimy’s mostly accurate projections two or three times over the past couple of months, I couldn’t think of anything fresh to say. I tried but couldn’t get it up.
On one hand I feel fine about the lack of big American marquee names and a coarse, time-wasting American megaplex title or two. The cowardly Chris Nolan has always ducked Cannes, and we all know for a nearly certifiable fact that if shown on the Croisette, The Odyssey would encounter critical resistance (and perhaps even Tomahawk missiles). Likewise Steven Spielberg‘s alien flick, Disclosure Day…nuff said.
On the other hand Sasha Stone recently joked that Cannes ‘26 feels like an honorary Guy Lodge & David Ehrlich International Film Festival. A critic friend says “I agree with Sasha…for once.”
I honestly don’t feel this way. At the very least I’m very, VERY high on some of the obvious big ones, the top five being Cristian Mungiu‘s Fjord (except for Sebastian Stan‘s shaved bald head), Pawel Pawlikowski‘s Fatherland, Asghar Farhadi Parallel Tales, Pedro Almodovar‘s Bitter Christmas and Andrej Zvyagintsev‘s Minotaur. Take these five to the bank!
Laszlo Nemes‘ Moulin is going to be a grueling WWII Nazi torture drama. Read the synopsis…pure stomach acid. Lars Eidinger as Klaus Barbie? Say no more.
It has long been my view that director Ira Sachs lacks a certain decisive, snap-crackle-ish, go-for-broke quality. I’m not calling him weak tea — I’m calling him mild sauce. I know that The Man I Love, a Rami Malek-led musical set in 1980s New York against the enfolding of the AIDS crisis, is going to be a tough sit. Okay, I don’t know this but I fear it.
Jane Schoenbrun‘s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (Gillian Anderson, Hannah Einbinder)…sure, fine, let’s go.
I’m strangely intrigued by John Travolta‘s Propeller One-Way Night Coach, his directorial debut about a uyoung guy and his mother flying to Hollywood, possibly over an extended period. (I did this in a Beechcraft Bonanza in ’74 or thereabouts.)
What could Steven Soderbergh possibly say that isn’t lamentably familiar and over-saturated with John Lennon: The Last Interview?
Ron Howard‘s Avedon doc…fine.
I’m wondering which Director’s Fortnight films will wow everyone in Cannes (gloriously received!) only to fizzle upon opening in the States. What Quinzaine des cinéastes title will be this year’s The President’s Cake, which wasn’t even nominated for Best Int’l Feature and thereafter died theatrically…totally failed to catch on. (It’s now streaming.)
Whatever happened to Thomas Ngojil’s first-rate Untamable, which also played at Director’s Fortnight last year?
I’m wondering which titles are going to be the most difficult to endure. Which feminist male-hating endurance test will be this year’s Sound of Falling? If and when such a film turns up, you can bet Guy Lodge will drop to his knees with gushing, rhapsodic praise.
Which Asian film[s] will make me feel as if my soul particles are leaking out of my Wizard of Oz hourglass? Top contender: Ryusuke Hamaguchi‘s All of a Sudden, which has an official runtime of 3 hours and 16 minutes. Will the incessant smoking of Parliament cigarettes be a prominent feature in this fresh effort from the helmer of Drive My Car? I can already feel my aching ass muscles. I don’t want to die while watching this film…please.
I’m disappointed, of course, about the absence of James Gray’s Paper Tiger (a possible last minute inclusion?), not to mention Ruben Ostlund’s The Entertainment System Is Down. Shot between January and May of last year, Ostlund has been preparing and talking about this film since ‘22 but he can’t finish the editing in time? Something is wrong.
I’m not looking forward to the inevitable freeze-outs. Being told, I mean, that a certain highly coveted title is “complet” at the stroke of 7 am (i.e., sign-in time). I really hate that.
I was infuriated by the difficulties I encountered in trying and finally failing to see Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor the Great (the June Squibb film that pretty much fizzled) last May. I took an Uber all the way to Cannes le Bocca to see Spike Lee’s Highest to Lowest…couldn’t get in. Not to mention Kristen Stewart’s The Shape of Water, which I still haven’t seen. (Because I don’t want to…be honest.) Hell, I’ve never even gotten around to streaming the Johansson.
Primeiro teaser de ‘All of a Sudden’, dirigido por Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) e estrelado por Virginie Efira e Tao Okamoto.
O longa deve ter sua estreia mundial no Festival de Cannes. #AllOfASudden pic.twitter.com/M2nUcrcgtY
— VHS CUT (@vhscut) April 1, 2026
HE’s 2025 Cannes wrap-up, posted on 5.26.05.