The competition selection for this year's Cannes Film Festival was announced on Thursday, with Iranian director Asghar Farhadi, Spain's Pedro Almodovar and Russia's Andrey Zvyagintsev among the 21 directors vying for the coveted Palme d'Or.
Others in the running for the festival's top prize include Japan's Hirokazu Kore-eda, who won the 2018 competition with Shoplifters, and former winner Cristian Mungiu from Romania, whose new film Fjord is set in Norway and stars Renate Reinsve.
Other regular faces in the mix include Belgian director Lukas Dhont, who took the Grand Prix in Cannes for Close in 2022, with Coward – his third feature film, set during the First World War.
American A-listers will be somewhat thin on the ground at the 79th edition of the festival, although Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart are set to star in the Paris-set Full Phil by French director Quentin Dupieux.
Bohemian Rhapsody star Rami Malek will get his turn on the red carpet too, thanks to the film The Man I Love – an American musical fantasy film co-written and directed by Ira Sachs.
John Travolta will present his directorial debut Propeller One-Way Night Coach out of competition, about a young boy's journey in the "golden age of aviation".
The film, which will receive its world premiere during the festival, is adapted from the 72-year-old star's own 1997 book, inspired by his lifelong passion for aviation.
Festival director Thierry Fremaux noted the high number of historical films at Cannes this year, as well as movies that provide escapism from the grim reality of current affairs.
"We realised that the Western world needs gentleness, songs, nature and that the countries of the Global South, as people say, need security, need prosperity and need to provide care for children and families."
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Football mania
Out of competition, there will be a surprising amount of football at the high temple of French cinema, with documentaries about legendary French player Eric Cantona, and the England-Argentina 1986 World Cup match featuring a notorious handball from Diego Maradona.
Staying with documentaries, there's also John Lennon: The Last Interview by Steven Soderbergh and Avedon, a portrait of American photographer Richard Avedon by Ron Howard.
Hollywood and Broadway legend Barbra Streisand will be awarded the festival's customary Honorary Palme d'Or this year, as will New Zealand filmmaker Peter Jackson, best known for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
South Korean director Park Chan-wook to preside at Cannes Film Festival
Filmmaker Park Chan-wook will head up the jury that will award the Palme d'Or, considered the most prestigious prize in the film industry after the Oscar for best film.
The director of Oldboy and No Other Choice is the first South Korean to hold the position and replaces French acting legend Juliette Binoche, who held the role last year.
The festival's opening and closing ceremonies will be hosted by French actress Eye Haïdara, who was nominated for a César award for her role in Le Sens de la fête, released in English as C’est la vie!
The festival will open with French film La Vénus électrique ("Electric Venus"), a burlesque romantic comedy set in the Roaring Twenties, directed by Pierre Salvadori and starring Pio Marmaï and Anaïs Demoustier (The Count of Monte Cristo).
The Cannes Film Festival runs from 12 to 23 May 2026.
