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Over the years, Cannes has taken a special place in the cultural mind – not only as a festival of the most famous films in the world, but as the most beautiful place in Hollywood overseas.
From Grace Kelly on the Croisette, Quentin Tarantino and Uma Thurman at the Pulp Fiction premiere, Julia Roberts walking barefoot on the red carpet, to Tom Cruise closing the Riviera with warplanes overhead, Hollywood has made its mark in Cannes.
But the 2026 festival, which opens on Tuesday and runs until 23 May, tells a very different story. When the list was announced last month, one side immediately appeared: the complete absence of major Hollywood films.
“There is no big American movie this year,” said Scott Roxborough, the Hollywood Reporter’s European bureau chief and festival veteran. “Usually there is one big topic of tentpoles in Cannes or using the festival to set it up in Europe.”
In recent years, Cannes has hosted the premieres of Mission: Impossible – the Final Reckoning, Top Gun: Maverick, Elvis and Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny. This year there is no major studio blockbuster on the slate.
Only two American films are competing for the Palme d’Or: Ira Sachs’s Aids-era fantasy The Man I Love, starring Rami Malek and Rebecca Hall, and James Gray’s crime drama Paper Tiger, starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson – both grossers outside the US.
Meanwhile, in the Un Certain Regard section, there will be the debut of Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, with Gillian Anderson, and Jordan Firstman’s directorial debut Club Kid. Hollywood star Andy García’s noir-ish Diamond, starring Bill Murray and Dustin Hoffman, will be screened out of competition, as will John Travolta’s portrayal of Propeller One-Way Night Coach, based on his 1997 novel about a young aviator.
The director of the festival, Thierry Frémaux, said that Cannes is only showing a big change in the industry. “Increasingly, studios are making fewer blockbusters and fewer films than before,” he said recently.
Roxborough believes that studios will also be wary of the risks that festival premieres carry. “The studios have found that you can put out a big movie without the support of a major film festival,” he said, pointing to contenders that have bypassed festivals and still won, such as One Battle After Another and Sinners.
There is also the issue of authority. At the festival, the critics decide how your film will be edited. This can return spectacularly – Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny did not work well at the box office after being rejected by the critics of Cannes in 2023. “These days, a bad review can have a virus immediately,” said Roxborough.
Then there is politics. This year’s Berlinale has been dogged by questions about the political climate – prompting the German government to intervene. For studios, viral moments from press conferences can be devastating.
In fact, this year’s competition marks a return to the kind of global auteur Cannes has built its reputation on. Pedro Almodóvar returns with Bitter Christmas, about a group of film-making friends who sacrifice their lives for their work.
Almodóvar criticized the Oscars for being too political before his Cannes appearance. He told the Los Angeles Times that “it was interesting to watch an Oscar movie where there weren’t many anti-war or anti-Trump protests”.
Iranian Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi brings Parallel Tales, starring Isabelle Huppert and Vincent Cassel.
Hungarian director László Nemes returns with French protest drama Moulin, Romanian director Cristian Mungiu returns with Norwegian Fjord, and exiled Russian novelist Andrey Zvyagintsev portrays political activist Minotaur.
Sandra Hüller stars in Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, set around the return of novelist Thomas Mann from exile in America after World War II. Japanese artists Hirokazu Kore-eda and Ryusuke Hamaguchi have new films competing.
The jury, headed by South Korean director Park Chan-wook as well as Demi Moore and Chloé Zhao, reflects the country’s progress.
“Funnily enough, I’ve never been happy with the Cannes crowd,” said Chris Cotonou, deputy editor of A Rabbit’s Foot magazine. “Sometimes Cannes can fall into the trap of industry. This year we are focusing on films made by international artists.”
Cotonou said that the young audience – created by platforms such as Letterboxd and Mubi – was more attracted by international directors who were considered niche: “Many young viewers are more interested in Hamaguchi’s film than Coppola or Tarantino.
The shortage is not unique to Hollywood. In British cinema they have a surprisingly muted look this yearwithout UK leaders in the main competition. Clio Barnard premieres I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning in Directors’ Fortnight, while Yemeni-Scottish filmmaker Sara Ishaq brings The Station to Critics’ Week. Barnaby Thompson’s documentary Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean is featured in Cannes Classics.
The UK is also represented through BFI and British Council “Great 8” exhibitionwhich showcases new projects from original filmmakers.
Mia Bays, director of the BFI Filmmaking Fund, said the UK still had a “strong showing” across the program and noted that festival decisions are often time-sensitive.
“On the back of Berlin in February being one of the strongest film festivals in the UK for many years and looking forward to the autumn festivals which we hope will celebrate the upcoming films in the UK, we believe there is much to be excited about and look forward to,” he said.
But neither Hollywood’s flight nor a slow year for British cinema can tarnish Cannes’ reputation as the industry’s biggest fan. From Anora to last year’s non-English language such as Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent and It Was Just an Accident, films released on the Croisette dominate the awards calendar long after the boats have gone home.
