Variety‘s Esa Keslassy to Cannes topper Thierry Fremaux: “What is the status of the Cannes Film Festival’s selection today?”
Fremaux: “It’s March, and we’re still waiting for many films. We’re seeing some great things. The excitement comes from the artists themselves. The announcement that Peter Jackson or Barbra Streisand are coming, for example, already makes you want to be on the Croisette, doesn’t it?”
A good portion of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival lineup will be revealed in Paris on April 9th. Last-minute additions always pop through between mid and late April.
I’m still hopeful and excited about catching Pawel Pawlikowski‘s Fatherland, which is apparently destined to debut on the Croisette after all; ditto Cristian Mungiu‘s Fjord, Andrey Zvyagintsev‘s Minotaur (a lock), Anton Corbijn‘s Switzerland, Joel Coen‘s Jack of Spades, Pedro Almodovar‘s Bitter Christmas, Asghar Farhadi‘s Parallel Tales, Radu Jude The Diary of a Chambermaid, and possibly James Gray‘s Paper Tiger.
But I’m still horribly bummed out by news that Ruben Ostlund‘s The Entertainment System is Down and Lukas Dhont‘s Coward will be no-shows.
We’re all sensing or intuiting on some level that Steven Spielberg‘s Disclosure Day may be a vague alien programmer of some kind (certainly compared to Close Encounters and E.T.), and we all understand that Chris Nolan‘s The Odyssey was never even on the table (the notoriously reclusive Nolan never unveils his films in Cannes), and that Digger, the Alejandro Inarritu-Tom Cruise collaboration, is being held for Venice.
Jordan Ruimy‘s last spitball rundown included All of a Sudden (d: Ryusuke Hamaguchi), Her Private Hell (d: Nicolas Winding Refn), Out of this World (d: Albert Serra), Butterfly Jam (d: Kantemir Balagov), Wake of Umbra (d: Carlos Reygadas)
Keslassy: “The next season of The White Lotus** will be filmed on the French Riviera, with a plot centered around the Cannes Film Festival. What discussions have you had with Mike White and HBO regarding this?”
Fremaux: “I cannot answer that. You’ll have to ask the production team, who are currently working on it.
Keslassy: “How many films have you already selected for the competition [thus far]?”
Fremaux: “About half.”
Keslassy: “And how many do you have left to watch?”
Fremaux: “As I speak, there are 400 in the screening room. I’m heading back!”
Fremaux: “I’m the first to wonder if Cannes is the right place for a particular film to have its world premiere on the Croisette. If I don’t think so, I’m not going to sacrifice a film’s life for a red carpet.”
Ruimy on Fremaux-Keslassy: “Nothing we didn’t already know. The Inarritu-Cruise is going to Venice. Nolan has never premiered a film at Cannes. Ostlund is nowhere near done editing and will go to Cannes next year.”
HE reply: “The Ostlund is a chamber piece set on an airborne 747, right? Pure dialogue, pure interiors, pure eccentric social conflict. Saying a film is ‘not ready’ can sometimes be a cover term that indicates it’s not currently working and — who knows? — that Ostlund needs to fiddle around a bit more.”
** Season 4 of HBO’s The White Lotus will be filmed at the luxurious Château de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez, France, set within the scenic French Riviera. Filming is scheduled to occur between April and October 2026, featuring a 19th-century palace-turned-hotel known for its expansive gardens and panoramic Mediterranean views. Guaranteed servings of transgressive gay sex.