06/05/2026 - Bérenger Thouin’s fiction feature The Golden Age and Jean-Gabriel Périot’s documentary A Life, A Manifesto will have their world premieres in the strand that celebrates works from the past

Alongside 22 feature films in restored prints (from Guillermo del Toro to Luchino Visconti, via Akira Kurosawa, Vittorio De Sica, Andrzej Wajda, Jerzy Skolimowski and Orson Welles), six documentaries about cinema (including The Story of Documentary Film by Brit Mark Cousins) and three shorts (including a 32-minute flick by Jia Zhang-Ke), the Cannes Classics programme of the 79th Cannes Film Festival (12-23 May) will also present two contemporary works.

On the slate is the fiction feature The Golden Age, the debut narrative feature by French filmmaker Bérenger Thouin. Starring Souheila Yacoub, Vassili Schneider, Yile Yara Vianello and Pierre-Antoine Billon, the film (scripted by the director with Mehdi Ben Attia, Virginie Legeay and Rémi Langlade) retraces the extraordinary life of Jeanne Lavaur, which spanned the 20th century. She defied her destiny, and the movie looks at everything from her childhood in her parents’ butcher’s shop to her dream of becoming a countess. From one war to the next, from Roaring Twenties Paris to Brazil, her path collides with history and embraces the world, torn between her two loves, Count Guillaume de Barante and the intrepid Italian revolutionary Céleste… The Golden Age was produced by GoGoGo Films (France) and Graffiti Film (Italy), in association with Les Films de La Chapelle (France) and Lesterfilm (France), with Films Boutique handling international sales.

After A German Youth (Berlinale Panorama 2015), Summer Lights (San Sebastián New Directors 2016), Our Defeats (Berlinale Forum 2019), Returning to Reims (Fragments), unveiled in the 2021 Directors’ Fortnight, and Facing Darkness (Karlovy Vary 2023), French documentarian Jean-Gabriel Périot returns with A Life, A Manifesto, centred on Michèle Firk, a film critic, aspiring director and revolutionary activist who tirelessly championed justice and freedom. Produced by Envie de Tempête and Les Films de Pierre, and co-produced by Arte France and the INA, the film traces the extraordinary fate of a woman completely liberated from the rules of her era — a free lover, who was passionate about cinema and revolution.

Here is the list of the newly selected films:

Cannes Classics (new films)

The Story of Documentary Film - Mark Cousins (UK)
Nostalgia for the Future - Brecht Debackere (Belgium)
My Coluche - Michel Denisot, Camille Bruere, Julie Lazare (France)
Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern - Mike Mendez (USA)
A Life, A Manifesto - Jean-Gabriel Périot (France)
Playground (Zamine Bazi) - Amirhossein Shojaei (Iran/France, short film)
Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean - Barnaby Thompson (UK/USA)
The Golden Age - Bérenger Thouin (France/Italy)
Goodnight Lamby - Dustin Yellin (United States, short film)
Torino Shadow - Jia Zhang-Ke (Italy/China, short film)
Vittorio De Sica – La Vita in Scena - Francesco Zippel (Italy)

(Translated from French)