Cannes Film Festival played out with barely a hitch, in a refreshingly understated year that mostly omitted Hollywood in favour of global auteurs.
In the past, the festival has provided a launchpad for films including Rocketman, Top Gun: Maverick and Elvis, but 2026 was more muted than usual, with the A-list provided by James Gray’s middling 1980s-set New York gangster film Paper Tiger, starring Miles Teller and Adam Driver. Their fellow star Scarlett Johansson not only shunned the premiere, but didn’t answer Gray’s phone call during the film’s standing ovation.