From May 12 to 23 in Cannes shows new films by Pedro Almodovar, Asghar Farhadi, Pavel Pawlikowski, Valeska Grisebach and other leading authors of world cinema. However, the program does not include American studio releases of the level of last year or recent festival premieres, designed for the mass audience, notes DW.
At the same time, American cinema has not completely disappeared. In the competition and parallel sections presented independent projects. Among them – Ira Sachs film “The Man I Love” with Rami Malek and James Gray crime drama “Paper Tiger” with Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Miles Teller. Out of competition, John Travolta makes his directorial debut and Andy Garcia presents a noir drama he has been working on for over a decade.
Big projects – big risks
The lack of major studio projects is not just a trend at Cannes. At the Berlin Film Festival in 2026, there were also no major Hollywood releases. According to Berlinale management, studios are increasingly avoiding festival premieres because of the risks: negative reviews and media coverage can affect future box office receipts even before the films are released.
Past experience is also illustrative. The Joker: Madness for Two, presented at Venice, received poor reviews and failed to live up to expectations at the box office. Similarly, festival reactions to certain major projects, including “Indiana Jones and the Wheel of Fate,” have been discussed, increasing the studios’ caution.
An additional factor is the increasing politicization of festivals. Film screenings in Europe are increasingly accompanied by protests and heated debates, where the conversation about movies drifts toward global politics. For the major studios, this means additional reputational risk.
The main trend is auteur cinema
Against this background, Cannes is increasingly shifting towards auteur cinema. The competition includes social dramas, historical paintings and chamber psychological stories. Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur” explores the theme of corporate downsizing and personal crisis, Pawlikowski turns to the figure of Thomas Mann, Almodovar – to the theme of loss and internal disintegration.
The festival was opened by the French tragicomedy Electric Venus by Pierre Salvadori, while works by Kantemir Balagov and Nicolas Winding Refn were presented out of competition and in parallel programs.
As a result, Cannes 2026 looks less and less like a showcase for the Hollywood industry and more and more like a space for auteur cinema, where the focus is not on box office potential, but on the director’s style and festival prestige.
