14/04/2026 - The selection, dominated by Kantemir Balagov, Radu Jude, Lisandro Alonso, Clio Barnard and Quentin Dupieux, includes 19 features, three of which are animations and a further three documentaries

UPDATE (23 April 2026): Bruno Dumont's Red Rocks joins the selection as a Special Screening (read news).

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At midday today, Julien Rejl, the General Delegate of the Directors’ Fortnight, was at Paris’s Forum des Images to unveil the particularly tantalising programme for the 58th edition of the parallel section that will unspool from 13-23 May, as an integral part of the 79th Cannes Film Festival. The selection comprises 19 features (13 fiction films, three animations and three documentaries), including six feature debuts, and brings together ten titles directed by Europeans (helmed by five French, one Italian-Swiss, one English, one Romanian, one Norwegian and one Russian filmmaker), three by Asians (one South Korean, one Japanese and one Thai), two by US directors, three by South Americans (one Argentinian, one Venezuelan and one Chilean) and one by an African duo (hailing from Nigeria).

The showcase includes Diary of a Chambermaid by Romania’s Radu Jude (Golden Bear at the 2021 Berlinale, a festival where he also won the Best Director Award in 2015 and the Best Screenplay Award last year; he also scooped prizes at Locarno in 2016 and in 2023) and Double Freedom by Argentina’s Lisandro Alonso, whose six features so far have been world-premiered on the Croisette (in the Directors’ Fortnight in 2004, 2006 and 2008, in Un Certain Regard in 2001 and 2014, and in Cannes Première in 2023).

Also shining bright on the line-up is Butterfly Jam by Russian helmer in exile Kantemir Balagov (whose first two films were presented in Un Certain Regard in 2017 and 2019), an English-language movie (starring Barry Keoghan, Riley Keough and Harry Melling) that will have the honour of opening the section.

Also worth highlighting are I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning by Brit Clio Barnard (who took part in the Fortnight in 2013 and 2021, and who won a Special Mention in Toronto Platform in 2017) and a surprise animation as the closing film: Vertiginous by highly prolific French filmmaker Quentin Dupieux (who has also been selected for the Cannes Official Selection this year with Full Phil and who will be making his sixth appearance on the Croisette, after having done so in the Critics’ Week in 2010, the Fortnight in 2012, and the Official Selection in 2022 and 2024, not to mention his three selections at Venice, one at Sundance, one at Berlin and two at Locarno).

What’s more, animation will be very well represented, as there will also be screenings of Viva Carmen by France’s Sébastien Laudenbach (who was victorious at Annecy in 2023 and scooped the César Award in his category with Chicken for Linda!, which was premiered in ACID) and We Are Aliens, the feature debut by Japan’s Kohei Kadowaki.

This appealing level of variety is also visible in the documentary domain, with Thanks for Coming by veteran French director Alain Cavalier (in competition at Cannes in 1986, 1993 and 2011, and having taken part in the Official Selection a further three times), Gabin by his young fellow countryman Maxence Voiseux (a feature debut that piqued interest at Les Arcs’ Work in Progress) and Once Upon a Time in Harlem, a posthumous work by the USA’s William Greaves presented at the Sundance Film Festival, co-directed and edited by his son, David Greaves.

Three other well-established filmmakers will also be taking part, with La Perra by Chile’s Dominga Sotomayor Castillo (her fifth feature, following titles such as Thursday Till Sunday, which won at IFFR in 2012; Mar, in the 2015 Berlinale Forum; and Too Late to Die Young, winner of the Best Director Award at Locarno in 2018) and two third fiction features: Dora by South Korea’s July Jung (who rose to fame in Un Certain Regard in 2014 with A Girl at My Door and who was on the line-up of the 2022 Critics’ Week with Next Sohee) and Death Has No Master by Venezuela’s Jorge Thielen Armand (who turned heads in Venice Biennale College Cinema in 2011 with La soledad and did likewise in competition at IFFR in 2020 with Fortitude).

Two sophomore features are also attracting attention: the US production Clarissa by Nigerian twins Arie and Chuko Esiri (who rose to fame in the Berlinale Forum in 2020 with This Is My Desire and who return with a modern reinterpretation of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway, set in Lagos) and Shana by France’s Lila Pinell.

Lastly, among the feature debuts are Atonement by the USA’s Reed Van Dyk (starring Kenneth Branagh and Hiam Abbas), Too Many Beasts by Italian-Swiss director Sarah Arnold, Low Expectations by Norway’s Eivind Landsvik and 9 Temples to Heaven by Thailand’s Sompot Chidgasornpongse (a loyal assistant director to Apichatpong Weerasethakul).

Here is the full selection:

Directors’ Fortnight

Feature films

Butterfly Jam - Kantemir Balagov (France/Germany/Belgium/USA) (opening film)
Double Freedom - Lisandro Alonso (Chile/Argentina/Luxembourg/Germany/UK/Uruguay/USA)
Too Many Beasts - Sarah Arnold (France)
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning - Clio Barnard (UK)
Thanks for Coming - Alain Cavalier (France)
9 Temples to Heaven - Sompot Chidgasornpongse (Thailand/Singapore/France/Norway/China/Hong Kong/Indonesia)
Red Rocks - Bruno Dumont (Portugal/France/Italy/Spain/Mexico/USA)
Clarissa - Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri (USA)
Once Upon a Time in Harlem - William Greaves, David Greaves (USA)
Diary of a Chambermaid - Radu Jude (France/Romania)
Dora - July Jung
We Are Aliens - Kohei Kadowaki (Japan/France)
Low Expectations - Eivind Landsvik
Viva Carmen - Sébastien Laudenbach
Shana - Lila Pinell (France)
La Perra - Dominga Sotomayor Castillo
Death Has No Master - Jorge Thielen Armand (Canada/Venezuela/Italy/Luxembourg)
Atonement - Reed Van Dyk (USA)
Gabin - Maxence Voiseux (France/Germany/Switzerland)
Vertiginous - Quentin Dupieux (closing film)

Short and medium-length films

The Joyless Economy - Marjorie Conrad
Oh Boys - Antonio Donato
In Search of the Green-striped Bird - Saïd Hamich Benlarbi
The Daughters of the Late Colonel - Elizabeth Hobbs
Eri - Yano Honami
Early Morning - Sebastián Lojo
Free Eliza (Notes on an Anatomical Imperfection) - Alexandra Matheou
Nothing Happens After Your Absence - Ibrahim Omar
Pithead - Wannes Vanspauwen, Pol De Plecker

(Translated from French)