Nepal makes history as Cannes Film Festival reveals 2026 line-up

The 79th Cannes Film Festival has unveiled its 2026 Official Selection, revealing a star-studded line-up of veteran auteurs and marking a historic milestone for regional cinema with the selection of “Elephants in the Fog” as the first Nepali feature in Un Certain Regard section.

Festival director Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch announced the selection during a press conference held today at the Pathé Palace cinema in Paris, confirming the event will run from May 12 to 23.

During the announcement, Frémaux noted that 2,541 feature films were submitted for consideration this year. While this figure represents a slight decline from the record 2,909 submissions received in 2025, it remains significantly higher than the submission levels seen a decade ago.

The main Competition currently consists of 21 titles, with Frémaux hinting that one final film by a high-profile male director will likely be added to the roster before the festival begins. South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook has been named as the jury president for this edition.

Nepal makes history with ‘Elephants in the Fog’

In a momentous achievement for South Asian filmmaking, Abinash Bikram Shah’s debut feature, Elephants in the Fog (Tiniharu), has been selected for the Un Certain Regard section.

This selection represents the first time a feature film from Nepal has entered this category, which is widely considered the festival’s second most prestigious platform after the main Competition. The film is set to compete for the Un Certain Regard Prize, Best Director, and the Jury Prize.

Shah, whose short film Lori earned a Special Mention at the 75th edition of Cannes in 2022, described the selection as the fulfilment of a long-held personal goal.

Elephants in the Fog explores the lives of a family in a settlement frequently affected by elephant attacks, with a primary focus on a mother-daughter relationship. Notably, the film is a significant work of representation, featuring lead actors from sexual and minority communities, including Pushpa Thing and Deepika Yadav.

Veteran auteurs return to the Croisette

The 2026 Competition is dominated by a “heavyweight” class of returning directors. Leading the pack is Spanish master Pedro Almodóvar, whose latest work, Bitter Christmas, marks his eighth time in the main Competition.

The film, which follows an advertising director named Elsa who travels to Lanzarote to process the death of her mother, stars Almodóvar’s long-time collaborator Penélope Cruz.

Iranian filmmaker and two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi also returns with his fifth Competition entry, Parallel Tales. This project marks Farhadi’s first French-language film and features an expansive French cast, including Isabelle Huppert, Catherine Deneuve, Vincent Cassel, and Virginie Efira.

Similarly, Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who won the Palme d’Or in 2018, presents Sheep in the Box, a near-future narrative about a couple who adopt a humanoid robot as their son.

Other notable returns include Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski, who won Best Director at Cannes in 2018.

His new film, Fatherland, stars Sandra Hüller and Hanns Zischler in a road-trip drama centring on the relationship between the writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika in the ruins of post-war Germany.

Hungarian filmmaker László Nemes also returns with Moulin, a biopic of French resistance leader Jean Moulin, played by Gilles Lellouche.

Global diversity and international debuts

The 2026 selection showcases a strong international spread, with three films each from Japan and Spain, and five from the host nation, France.

South Korean director Na Hong-jin makes his English-language debut with the sci-fi thriller Hope, which boasts a global cast including Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Taylor Russell, and Hoyeon.

From Japan, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi presents All Of A Sudden, his first film shot outside of Japan. This Japan-France co-production stars Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto. Meanwhile, Koji Fukada returns with Nagi Notes, a story about a sculptor living in the shadow of a past romance.

Spain is further represented by Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, starring Javier Bardem, and the filmmaking duo Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo with The Black Ball, a queer-themed historical drama.

Lukas Dhont’s First World War drama Coward was a surprise late entry, with programmers reportedly viewing the film only one day before the announcement.

Shot on location near the battlefields of Ypres, the film examines the concepts of heroism and cowardice through the eyes of young soldiers.

Additionally, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu premieres Fjord, starring Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan as religious parents relocating to a Norwegian village.

Female voices and rising directors

Five female filmmakers have secured spots in the 2026 main Competition, representing a diverse range of narrative styles. German director Valeska Grisebach makes her Competition debut with The Dreamed Adventure, a story set in the border regions of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey.

Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer presents Gentle Monster, a drama starring Léa Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve about a pianist who uncovers a life-altering secret after moving to the countryside.

The French contingent of female directors includes Léa Mysius with Stories Of The Night, starring Monica Bellucci and Hafsia Herzi, and Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet with A Woman’s Life, an 11-chapter portrait of a woman in her fifties.

Jeanne Herry also joins the Competition with Garance (also titled Another Day), reuniting her with actress Adèle Exarchopoulos.

Sidebars, special screenings, and honorary awards

The festival is set to open with Pierre Salvadori’s The Electric Kiss, screening Out of Competition. Other high-profile non-competing titles include Andy Garcia’s Diamond and John Travolta’s Propeller One-Way Night Coach in the Cannes Première section.

The Special Screenings category features several notable documentary and biographical projects, including Ron Howard’s Avedon and Steven Soderbergh’s John Lennon: The Last Interview.

John Lennon: The Last Interview. Image: Collected

In the Un Certain Regard section, alongside the historic Nepali entry, are titles such as Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma and Sode Yukiko’s All the Lovers in the Night.

In a highlight of the festival’s closing ceremonies, legendary director Peter Jackson and iconic performer Barbra Streisand will both receive the honourary Palme d’Or in recognition of their monumental contributions to world cinema.

Despite the dense selection, several anticipated films from regulars such as James Gray and Ruben Östlund were notably absent from the initial line-up.