It's so much fun to see a film push back against the macho man culture taking over the world again now. The delightfully amusing film Jim Queen is one of the handful of prestigious animated premieres at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. The fest programmed it as a Midnight screening premiere – which is the perfect place for it. It's destined to become a cult classic, though with the right push and…

Are film festivals still important? How relevant are they nowadays? Is there something strange going on with film festivals worldwide that no one is talking about? These are some of the prominent questions on my mind in 2026 as the year rattles on. From Sundance to Berlinale to SXSW to Cannes and eventually right to Telluride/TIFF/Venice in the fall, there's always another edition of each…

When Jury President Park Chan-wook rose to announce the Palme d'Or winner at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival awards, he spoke of a competition selection defined by its disparate themes — and of the one work that supposedly unified them: Cristian Mungiu's social drama, Fjord. Accepting the honour, the Romanian auteur proclaimed a predictably somber diagnosis of a fractured, radicalized society.…

A fresh new vision of cinema unfolds in front of our eyes. Emerging from the cinema, you will never see the world the same way again. Wow. This here is real, profound, bold cinema. It left me totally shaken, boasting a handful of entirely unforgettable shots (you'll notice them as soon as they arrive). Everytime is the latest feature from acclaimed Austrian filmmaker Sandra Wollner, a remarkably…

One of the standout debuts hidden within the 2026 Cannes Film Festival emerged from the Critics' Week (Semaine de la Critique) sidebar: Chinese director Zou Jing's film titled A Girl Unknown. It chronicles the life of Wang Juan (starring Cao Ruofan), tracing her journey from a rural childhood to city adulthood as she is shuffled through three different foster families. In her masterful debut, Zou…

This is the story of two brothers in the big city, and their undoing thanks to their ambition to make some extra money on top. James Gray's latest film is a New York City crime thriller titled Paper Tiger, which just premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival in the Main Competition vying for the Palme d'Or. It didn't take home a single award at the end of the festival, though that doesn't really…

"Let the star through!" Screen Daily has revealed the first official trailer for an African movie called Congo Boy, made by Congolese filmmaker Rafiki Fariala as his first narrative feature. It's one of the few African films playing at this year's 2026 Cannes Film Festival, which just wrapped up in France last week. The film is set in Bangui, in Central African Republic (aka CAR), which neighbors…

File this one under "WTF did I just watch?!" One of the most completely bonkers films to ever premiere at the Cannes Film Festival dropped midway through the 2026 edition. Cannes decided to premiere Hope, the latest by acclaimed Korean genre filmmaker Na Hong-jin, his fourth film so far, in the Main Competition at the prestigious festival (where it was competing for the Palme d'Or but it didn't…

Winners of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival awards, including the coveted Palme d'Or, were revealed at a glamorous ceremony in Cannes, France this weekend. The awards this year were again entirely surprising and a bit strange, with many films both loved and hated winning awards and the jury picking a few that no one thought would get much. The top prize Palme d'Or went to Romanian filmmaker Cristian…

After a 7-year hiatus, Paweł Pawlikowski — one of the most prominent Polish filmmakers working today — returns to the Cannes Film Festival with a concise drama that elegantly caps off his unofficial black-and-white trilogy. He began this thematic journey with Ida (2013), a haunting exploration of a young Polish nun unearthing her family's Holocaust tragedy; then continued with Cold War (2018 -…

Get a look at one of the most talked about films of the festival this year. Movistar has revealed the first look teaser trailer for La Bola Negra, one of the biggest surprise hits from the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. The title La Bola Negra means The Black Ball in English, a reference to an actual event and story that the film is inspired by (and tells within the story in the film as well). The…

"I'm the most sane person I know." Well, time to find out if that's true! Because even though she may indeed be insane, pretty much everyone else is even more insane than she is. There's a new horror film premiering at the Cannes Film Festival this year and it's an underrated little genre creation from the UK (produced by Anton based in the UK). Victorian Psycho is a dark comedy ensemble feature…

"Love not war." Who are the real cowards of war? Is it the soldiers? Is it the men who get too scared to fight and run away because they want to live? Or is it the generals and the captains and all the warlords dictating orders from a safe distance? Or is it the politicians sending their citizens to death? It doesn't matter who is labeled a "coward" and why – these soldiers don't deserve to go…

Whether you like it or not, we live in perilous times. But it still seems hard to talk about this, to talk about what's broken, what's happening to humanity, what's going on all over the world, how rotten it has become. The easiest way to exist peacefully is to shut up, conform to the new rules, do what you're told, don't cause any trouble, and just stay in line. And this is what leads us even…

There's nothing wrong a good film offering an uncomplicated narrative look at how someone can get better from being unhealthy or being addicted to something harmful. Not every film needs to be overly complex and nuanced, sometimes a good story with some cliche scenes can actually have an impact. Some viewers need this. Maybe not you or I, but that doesn't matter, because I can appreciate the film…

I'm always on the lookout for dog movies. I will watch each and every one of them. But that also means they better not do anything off-putting or annoying or upsetting. If a dog character is important to the plot in a film, the filmmakers better handle this story (and the dog/all the dogs) with care and concern. Or it will ruin the film. On one hand, this Chilean film is quite beautiful and…

"I am made of stardust... The moment you forget that, is the moment you disappear..." Um sure, okay? Neon has revealed the first look teaser trailer for the brand new neon-drench Nicolas Winding Refn film titled Her Private Hell – his first feature film in 10 years since he last made The Neon Demon. This just premiered today at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival in France, playing in the Midnight…

Who would've thought that a truck drivers gay romance film would end up being one of my favorites at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival? You never know which films will be any good until see them and they win you over. At last year's Cannes, Norwegian director Joachim Trier (director of Sentimental Value) proclaimed that "tenderness is the new punk." This slogan took off big time and cinema lovers the…

DJ Night Shift is taking the world by storm! One of the many surprises at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival is this delightful discovery playing in the Un Certain Regard section. Club Kid is the feature directorial debut of actor / filmmaker Jordan Firstman, and it's such a fantastic story of growing up in the big city. It plays a bit like Mike Mills' C'mon C'mon (a highly underrated film) but with…

Is anyone truly normal? Aren't we all flawed? How do we evolve humanity knowing this truth? Can a bit of compassion save us? These are a few of the philosophical questions introduced in this phenomenal film. Walking out of my afternoon screening of this sublime film at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, I couldn't stop talking about it. Shaking with energy and excitement, I just blurted out sentence…

"Animation is cinema. Animation is not a genre for kids. It's a medium for art, it's a medium for film." –Guillermo del Toro. This animated film from the 2026 Cannes Film Festival is one of the highlights of 2026 so far when it comes to animation. Tangles is the feature directorial debut from up-and-coming filmmaker Leah Nelson, adapting a graphic novel by Sarah Leavitt. Her book is subtitled "A…

"There is a hole at the bottom of the lake where the movies come from." Wait, for real? Sex and horror go together like peanut butter and jelly. This has been the case since the origins of the horror genre. This film isn't so much about horror, it's much more about someone obsessed with horror, and also a little bit about how this has screwed with their mind. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma…

"Long live Carmen!" A first look teaser trailer has been unveiled for the animated film titled Viva Carmen, premiering soon at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. This is the latest feature film made by the very talented French animation filmmaker Sébastien Laudenbach, who also made the vibrant Chicken for Linda!, too. This one is premiering in the Directors Fortnight sidebar at Cannes (and also at…

It's time to dive into the world of cinema once again. The 79th Festival du Film de Cannes has officially begun. A boat load of critics & filmmakers are back in the South of France this May for yet another cinema celebration in the sun on the Mediterranean coast. It's always so warm and wonderful. The next 12 days in Cannes are dedicated to discovery and storytelling as film lovers from around…

This is for all the dog lovers out there! And cinema lovers, too. Launching at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival is a new edition of a cinema 'zine called Cannes Dogs (photos below). If you're in town locally at the film festival in France this May, you can pick up a copy from the creator himself - Kyle Greenberg. The concept of Cannes Dogs is both a sketchbook and 'zine featuring images of dogs…

"How can I imagine make a movie about you, while knowing that you were deliberately elusive?" Visual Antics has debuted the the first official trailer for the festival premiere of the unique documentary film titled Nostalgia for the Future, made by Brussels-based visual artist Brecht Debackere. It's premiering soon at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival in the Cannes Classics section, as it's a film…

"We don't really care, right?" Let the kids play! The Film Stage has revealed the first look trailer for the film titled Red Rocks, the latest creation from the mind of singular French filmmaker Bruno Dumont (he last made the sci-fi The Empire). This is premiering this month at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival playing in the Directors Fortnight sidebar where they're also hosting a retrospective on…

"Stop mixing everything up, I'm not the girl in your story." Memento in France has unveiled the first trailer for the drama film titled Parallel Tales, also known as Histoires Parallèles in French. It's the next film from Oscar-nominated Iranian filmmaker Asghar Farhadi, made in France and filmed in Paris after his many years playing in Cannes. It's actually his second French film - in 2013 he…

Every year, cinephiles wake up early for the announcement from France of the films playing at the Cannes Film Festival. For the 79th Cannes Film Festival taking place this May, they have revealed an intriguing selection of very diverse international films, featuring new works from well-established filmmakers (they love them), as well as some newcomers getting their chance to shine on the…