Screen International’s network of international correspondents selects a snapshot of arthouse and independent films from around the globe that are poised for selection by A-list film festivals.
This list is not exhaustive and is intended as a taster of festival films to look forward to this year, post the Berlinale.
1949 (It-Pol-Ger-Fr)
Dir. Pawel Pawlikowski
Set at the height of the Cold War, 1949 centres on the relationship between the writer Thomas Mann, played by Hanns Zischler, and his actress, journalist and rally driver daughter Erika, played by Sandra Huller, as they embark on a road trip across a Germany in ruins. 1949 continues Oscar winner Pawlikowski’s exploration of the era, following 2018 Cannes Competition title Cold War. Italy’s Our Films, Poland’s Extreme Emotions, Germany’s Nine Hours, France’s Chapter 2 and Italy’s Circle One produce alongside Mubi.
Contact: Mubi
9 Temples To Heaven (Thailand)
Dir. Sompot Chidgasornpongse
Palme d’Or winner Apichatpong Weerasethakul produces the narrative feature debut of Sompot, his assistant director on Cannes titles Memoria and Cemetery Of Splendor. The story follows a family of nine who set out on a temple-hopping pilgrimage for their ailing grandmother. Thailand’s Kick the Machine Films, Singapore’s E&W Films and France’s petit chaos are backers.
Contact: Kick the Machine Films
The Adventures Of Cliff Booth (US)
Dir. David Fincher
There’s only one Quentin Tarantino… and there’s only one David Fincher. So when Fincher, the director of Fight Club and The Social Network, agreed to direct a follow-up to Tarantino’s 2019 tentpole Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood, chronicling the ongoing exploits of Cliff Booth, naturally, there was a lot of excitement. Brad Pitt once again channels Booth’s effortless charm and badassery as we catch up with the ex-stuntman of Rick Dalton (Leonardo DiCaprio in the first film) eight years later, plying his trade as a fixer. The 1977-set film is scripted by Tarantino and also stars Elizabeth Debicki, Scott Caan and Carlo Gugino.
Contact: Netflix
The Age Of Goodbyes (Taiwan)
Dir. Edmund Yeo
Adapted from Li Zishu’s Malaysian-Chinese novel, Yeo’s drama weaves the past and the present as a lonely boy from the 1990s discovers a novel about a woman’s tragic love affair in the 1970s. Producers are Taiwan’s Renaissance Films and Malaysia’s Happy Together Pictures. Malaysian director Yeo won best director at the 2017 Tokyo film festival for We, The Dead (aka Aqerat) and also directed the 2021 Japanese drama Moonlight Shadow.
Contact: Renaissance Films
All Of A Sudden (Japan-Fr)
Dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
The latest from the Oscar-winning director of Drive My Car was shot in France and is based on a collection of letters by two women who corresponded about topics including illness and death. All Of A Sudden stars Virginie Efira (Benedetta) and Tao Okamoto (The Wolverine). Hamaguchi won the grand jury prize at Venice in 2023 with Evil Does Not Exist and the grand jury prize at the Berlinale in 2021 with Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy.
Contact: Cinefrance International (international); Bitters End (Asia)
Arrested Memory (Taiwan)
Dir. Sabu
Japanese director Sabu, who previously played in Berlinale Competition with Chasuke’s Journey and Mr. Long, returns with this Taiwan-set, Chinese-language action thriller. Ethan Juan plays a detective who races against time to save a kidnapped boy before losing his own memory. The cast also includes Shinichi Tsutsumi, and producers are Shozo Ichiyama, Roger Huang and Justine O.
Contact: LHB x An Attitude
Awaiting Birds (Madre Pájaro) (Costa Rica-Arg)
Dir. Sofia Quirós
Quirós, whose debut feature Land Of Ashes was the first film by a Costa Rican director to compete in Cannes Critics’ Week in 2019, is in post on her coming-of-age feature, in which she reunites with producers Murillo Cine of Cecilia Salim and Mariana Murillo from Sputnik Films. The story takes place in a cattle farming community where the son of an ailing woman bonds with his young aunt as she starts to develop maternal feelings.
Contact: Sputnik Films
Being Heumann (US)
Dir. Sian Heder
Heder’s Coda won the best picture Oscar in 2022 and turned Apple into the first streamer to win awards season’s ultimate prize. Filmmaker and company reunite on the story of Judy Heumann, a disability activist who led a 28-day sit-in at the San Francisco Federal Building. UK actress Ruth Madeley stars, with a supporting cast that includes Mark Ruffalo and Dylan O’Brien. Heder is producing through Permut Presentations, The Walsh Company and Gravity Squared Entertainment.
Contact: Apple TV
The Beloved (Sp-Fr)
Dir. Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Javier Bardem stars in Sorogoyen’s The Beloved (El Ser Querido), playing a celebrated filmmaker shooting a 1930s-set drama in the Sahara Desert, who is reunited with his estranged daughter, a struggling actress played by Vicky Luengo. Sorogoyen co-wrote the script with regular collaborator Isabel Peña. The film is a Movistar Plus+ original, co-produced by Caballo Films and France’s Le Pacte. Sorogoyen’s previous features include Cannes Premiere title The Beasts, which went on to win nine Goya awards in Spain in 2023.
Contact: Goodfellas
Bitter Christmas (Spain)
Dir. Pedro Almodóvar
Almodóvar returns to Spanish-language filmmaking with Bitter Christmas, following 2024 Golden Lion winner The Room Next Door. Produced by Pedro and his brother Agustín through their Madrid-based company El Deseo in collaboration with Movistar Plus+, the film stars Bárbara Lennie as an advertising executive who suppresses grief after her mother’s death, until a breakdown sends her to Lanzarote. Her story intertwines with that of a film director, played by Leonardo Sbaraglia. The film shot last summer in Madrid and the Canary Islands.
Contact: Film Factory Entertainment
The Black Ball (Sp-Fr)
Dirs. Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo
The second feature from Spanish filmmaking duo Calvo and Ambrossi, aka Los Javis, after 2017’s Holy Camp! is inspired by an unfinished play by Federico García Lorca and Alberto Conejero’s stage production La Piedra Oscura. Exploring what it means to be gay in Spain, it spans three years in Spanish history – 1932, 1937 and 2017 – and features an ensemble cast including Penélope Cruz, Glenn Close, Lola Dueñas, Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González and singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente in his screen debut. A Movistar Plus+ original, The Black Ball is produced with Suma Content Films in Spain and France’s Le Pacte.
Contact: Goodfellas
Blood On Snow (US)
Dir. Cary Fukunaga
Fukunaga directs Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Tom Hardy and Benedict Cumberbatch in the adaptation of ‘Nordic Noir’ maestro Jo Nesbo’s crime thriller set in 1970s Oslo. Blood On Snow is about a hitman who refuses orders to execute the wife of his boss and is forced into an uneasy gangland alliance with a rival clan. Nesbo co-wrote the screenplay with Ben Power. Hardy Son & Baker is producing with Department M, which is fully financing. The project is in post.
Contact: WME Independent
Brace Your Heart (Swe-Ice-Bul-Nor)
Dir. Amanda Kernell
Drawing on the superstitions that Sami people have about curses, Kernell (whose credits include Sami Blood) offers this original story about a young reindeer herder, grieving her father, who suspects an older man with a crush on her has put a curse on her. The film already won the pitch prize in Haugesund 2023. Nordisk produces.
Contact: TrustNordisk
Bucking Fastard (US)
Dir. Werner Herzog
Real-life sisters Rooney and Kate Mara make their on-screen debut together as inseparable twins who become obsessed with their next-door neighbour. Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson also star. The US-produced feature shot in Ireland and Slovenia, with producers including German filmmaker Herzog’s frequent collaborator Ariel Leon Isacovitch. Herzog has been a career regular at Cannes and Venice and received the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the latter in 2025.
Contact: HanWay Films
Butterfly Jam (Fr-US)
Dir. Kantemir Balagov
Russian filmmaker Balagov won the Un Certain Regard best director award in 2019 for Beanpole, his drama about war and trauma. Now based in the US, his follow-up is this English-language film starring Riley Keough and Barry Keoghan, about a tight-knit US community of Circassian immigrants and a complicated relationship between a father and son. Alexander Rodnyansky is producing through AR Content, alongside Pascal Caucheteux for Why Not Productions and Vincent Maraval for Goodfellas.
Contact: Goodfellas
A Child Of My Own (Un Hijo Propio) (US-Mex)
Dir. Maite Alberdi
The two-time Oscar-nominated Chilean documentarian behind The Mole Agent and The Eternal Memory took a sabbatical from non-fiction with the period drama In Her Place. Now she is back in the documentary fold with a Mexican production about a woman who longs to become a mother and fakes her pregnancy in a series of events that create a national scandal.
Contact: Netflix
Chork (UK)
Dir. Shane Meadows
This Is England and Once Upon A Time In The Midlands filmmaker Meadows is a contender with his first film in 12 years, co-written with Adolescence scribe Jack Thorne. Two young girls leave their foster home and trek across the English coastline with hopes of a brighter future. 42 and Unified Productions have produced the film, with BFI, BBC Film and Screen Yorkshire among the financiers.
Contact: Altitude
Circles (Mexico)
Dir. Michel Franco
The prolific Mexican filmmaker is expected to have his new feature ready by late spring. Details remain under wraps on his latest but all of Franco’s previous nine features, bar one, have premiered at A-list festivals, including Chronic and April’s Daughter at Cannes, New Order at Venice, and last year’s Dreams in Berlin competition. The director is again exploring the topic of the never-ending circle of violence that has plagued humanity throughout its history. Alexander Rodnyansky of AR Content produces and the French distributor is Metropolitan.
Contact: AR Content
Coward (Belg-Fr-Neth)
Dir. Lukas Dhont
Dhont’s most ambitious film yet, the First World War drama Coward explores what heroism and cowardice mean from the perspectives of young soldiers. Partially shot on the actual battlefields near Ypres, the film is produced through The Reunion, the company Lukas runs with his brother Michiel. Both of Dhont’s previous features premiered at Cannes, Girl (2018) in Un Certain Regard and Close (2022) in Competition, with the latter also nominated for an Oscar.
Contact: The Match Factory
The Death Of Robin Hood (US)
Dir. Michael Sarnoski
Hugh Jackman portrays the medieval outlaw immortalised in English myth for robbing from the rich and giving to the poor. Now ageing and reflecting on a life of crime and murder, Hood finds himself in the hands of a mysterious woman played by Jodie Comer and gets a chance of salvation. Sarnoski makes his latest feature after A Quiet Place: Day One and Pig. Lyrical Media is fully financing and produces with the Ryder Picture Company. A24 holds US rights.
Contact: WME Independent
Digger (US)
Dir. Alejandro G Iñárritu
Mexican auteur Iñárritu, a two-time best director Oscar winner, has teamed up with Tom Cruise on a comedy drama about the most powerful man in the world who races to undo a potential disaster he has caused. The cast includes Jesse Plemons, Sandra Huller, Riz Ahmed and Sophie Wilde and the film is scheduled to open through Warner Bros on October 2, 2026. This suggests an autumn festival slot following Iñárritu’s last film, 2022 Venice premiere Bardo. Cruise was last seen in action in the 2025 summer tentpole Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
Contact: Warner Bros
Don’t Let The Sun Come Up On Me (Mor-Fr-Chile-Den)
Dir. Asmae El Moudir
Moroccan filmmaker El Moudir’s follow-up to The Mother Of All Lies, which premiered in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2023, is another hybrid doc, this time featuring a community of young adults called Children of the Moon, living by night due to a genetic disease. The result of a chance encounter with her subject’s father, the film is produced by El Moudir’s company Insight Films, with French, Chilean and Danish co-producers.
Contact: Autlook Filmsales
The Entertainment System is Down (Swe-Ger-Fr-Nor-Den-UK)
Dir. Ruben Ostlund
Two-time Palme d’Or winner Ostlund’s feature is set on a long-haul flight between the UK and Australia, where the entertainment system fails and passengers are forced to face the horror of being bored. Kirsten Dunst, Daniel Brühl and Keanu Reeves lead the cast. Producers are Sweden’s Plattform Produktion, Germany’s Essential Films and France’s Parisienne de Production, with the UK’s Good Chaos among the co-producers and support from BBC Film.
Contact: Coproduction Office
Everest North (US)
Dirs. Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
Vasarhelyi and Chin have been co-directing for years: they shared the documentary feature Oscar for Free Solo in 2019 while their previous film Love+ War, about war photographer Lynsey Addario, premiered at TIFF. Now the married filmmakers are set to return to one of their favourite topics, mountaineering, in Everest North, which follows Jim Morrison as he becomes the first person to ski down the Hornbein Couloir on the direct north face of Mount Everest.
Contact: National Geographic Documentary Films
Fief (France)
Dir. Thomas Vernay
This coming-of-age drama is based on a prize-winning French novel of the same name about a promising young boxer who must start to accept responsibility for his life. Tipped for Cannes, the film features a young cast of rising French talents led by Sayyid El Alami, Panayotis Pascot, Sami Outalbali and Birane Ba. Producers are Middlemen and Iconoclast Films.
Contact: Best Friend Forever
The First Taste Of Loneliness (China)
Dir. Gu Xiaodong
Starring Zhou Xun as a woman grieving her father’s death, this drama depicts life’s cycles over three generations and marks the final chapter of Gu’s Landscape trilogy, which began with Cannes Critics’ Week 2019 title Dwelling In The Fuchun Mountains. It is produced by Shan Zuolong, who also produced Bi Gan’s 2025 Cannes Competition title Resurrection, and backed by Hangzhou Enlightenment Films, with France’s Tandem Films co-producing.
Contact: Losange Film
Fjord (Nor-Swe-Den-Fin-Fr-Rom)
Dir. Cristian Mungiu
Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan play Mihai and Lisbet, religious parents of five children, who move from Romania to a small Norwegian village. A debate erupts in the town when the school suspects them of disciplining their children by slapping. Romanian director Mungiu is a Cannes favourite whose credits include Palme d’Or winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days, as well as Graduation and Beyond The Hills. Neon has pre-bought rights for North America, the UK, Australia and New Zealand.
Contact: Goodfellas
Flies (Moscas) (Mexico)
Dir. Fernando Eimbcke
Mexican filmmaker Eimbcke’s last film Olmo premiered at last year’s Berlinale. He follows up with Flies, the winner of the WIP Latam Industry Award at San Sebastian. Produced by Kinotitlán and Michel Franco for Teorema, the drama centres on a reclusive woman dealing with trauma who finds a way back to emotional connection when she encounters a young boy.
Contact: Teorema
Full Phil (France)
Dir. Quentin Dupieux
Cannes regular Dupieux is in line for another appearance with his latest, which features a starry international cast led by Kristen Stewart, Woody Harrelson, Emma Mackey and Charlotte Le Bon. The 1950s-set film follows a wealthy US industrialist trying to reconnect with his daughter during a trip to Paris, with their plans disrupted by a horror film shoot and an intrusive hotel employee. Dupieux opened Cannes in 2024 with The Second Act. Mediawan-owned Chi-Fou-Mi produces.
Contact: Studiocanal
Fuxi: Joy In Four Chapters (Hong Kong)
Dir. Qiu Jiongjiong
Following 2021’s Locarno jury prize winner A New Old Play, Chinese director Qiu is back with an ambitious epic told through surreal feasts over four millennia and shot entirely inside a hand-painted studio. Lee Kang-Sheng, Lee Hong-Chi, Annie Chen Ting-ni and Fan Guang-Yao head the cast. Hong Kong’s Uluka Studio and Taiwan’s Rise Pictures are the producers.
Contact: Uluka Studio
Gentle Monster (France)
Dir. Marie Kreutzer
Austrian director Kreutzer’s follow-up to Corsage unites Lea Seydoux and Catherine Deneuve for a drama about a renowned pianist who relocates her family to the countryside and uncovers a life-shattering truth. Austria’s Film AG Produktion produces with Germany’s Komplizen Film and France’s Kazak Productions. Gentle Monster is the first project to emerge from mk2’s IPR.VC fund and won the ArteKino International prize at last year’s Cannes Investors Circle.
Contact: mk2 Films
A Girl’s Story (France)
Dir. Judith Godreche
Godreche’s feature directing debut is based on Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel Mémoire De Fille about an author who revisits a pivotal summer in 1958 at a summer camp where she first experienced sexual violence. Tess Barthelemy, Valerie Dreville and Maiwene Barthelemy star in the film, which is produced by Carole Lambert at Windy Production and Marc Missonnier of Moana Films. Godreche has become a key figure in France’s MeToo movement and, in addition to several appearances as an actress in Cannes, premiered her short film Moi Aussi (Me Too) to open 2024’s Un Certain Regard.
Contact: Paradise City Sales
Here Comes The Flood (US)
Dir. Fernando Meirelles
The Brazilian filmmaker’s heist thriller is based on a screenplay by Simon Kinberg and stars Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones in the story of a bank guard, a teller and a master thief who get sucked into a game of deceit. Meirelles has been busy making TV shows including The Sympathizer and Sugar in recent years and his last feature was 2019 drama The Two Popes, which was also at Netflix.
Contact: Netflix
Hope (South Korea)
Dir. Na Hong-jin
Originally expected last year, this highly anticipated feature marks the latest from the director of The Wailing and Cannes selections The Chaser and The Yellow Sea. Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender and Hwang Jung-min star in the sci-fi thriller set in a remote harbour town where a mysterious discovery is made that threatens the residents.
Contact: Plus M Entertainment
Hot Spot (Poland)
Dir. Agnieszka Smoczyńska
Polish director Smoczyńska’s latest is set in a dystopian future where a global AI system keeps everyone in check. A detective summoned to investigate a ritual murder in a refugee camp meets a woman with the ability to hack the ruling system of control. Noomi Rapace stars in the Madants film production.
Contact: New Europe Film Sales
Ink (UK)
Dir. Danny Boyle
Guy Pearce plays Rupert Murdoch in this adaptation of James Graham’s play about the media mogul, which is understood to be eyeing an autumn festival slot. Jack O’Connell and Claire Foy also star. Boyle produces alongside Tessa Ross of House Productions, Michael Ellenberg of Media Res and Tracey Seaward. Studiocanal has fully financed.
Contact: Studiocanal
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning (UK)
Dir. Clio Barnard
Anthony Boyle, Joe Cole, Jay Lycurgo, Daryl McCormack and Lola Petticrew star in Barnard’s next feature, following her 2021 Cannes Directors’ Fortnight selection Ali & Ava. Five childhood friends face the realities of life as they turn 30. Tracy O’Riordan produces for the UK’s Moonspun Films with backing from BBC Film and the BFI. It is written by Ireland’s Enda Walsh, who co-wrote the screenplay for Lynne Ramsay’s Die My Love.
Contact: Charades
It’s All Going Very Well No Problems At All (Australia)
Dir. Tilda Cobham-Hervey
Cobham-Hervey writes, directs, stars in and produces her feature debut, which follows a young artist teetering on the edge of a quiet collapse, who finds solace and understanding through a profound connection with Harold, an elderly resident at the care home where she works.
Contact: Mad Ones Films
Karma (France)
Dir. Guillaume Canet
Canet steps back behind the camera to direct his longtime former partner Marion Cotillard in this psychological thriller whose plot has been kept under wraps. Denis Menochet and Leonardo Sbaraglia co-star. Producers are rising French production house Iconoclast and Canet’s label Caneo. Signs point to a Cannes bow, although the film’s slated late October release in France means it could also land at a later festival.
Contact: Pathe
La Mas Dulce (France)
Dir. Laïla Marrakchi
Marrakchi’s third feature also marks the Marock and Rock The Casbah director’s return to filmmaking, following several years spent working in television. Written by Marrakchi and Delphine Agut, the film follows a woman who leaves Morocco for the promise of a better life among Spain’s seasonal fruit pickers. It is produced by Juliette Schrameck, whose credits include Sentimental Value and Cold War, for her Lumen banner, and co-produced by Adria Mones Murlans of Spain’s Fasten Seat Belt, Mont Fleuri Production’s Saïd Hamich Benlarbi in Morocco and Mirage Films’ Elisa Heene in Belgium.
Contact: Lumen
Leila Et La Nuit (Fr-Braz-Mor)
Dir. Fellipe Barbosa
This French-language co-production from Brazilian director Barbosa stars veteran actors Marina Fois, Roschdy Zem and Francoise Lebrun alongside rising talents Sayyid El Alami and Oulaya Amamra. It is about a family getting ready for a holiday in their Moroccan home, who find out their daughter has been seriously injured on assignment and are determined to bring her home. Barbosa’s Gabriel And The Mountain premiered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2017 and Domingo at Venice’s Giornate degli Autori in 2018.
Contact: Lucky Number
Let Love In (Belg-It-US)
Dir. Felix van Groeningen
Van Groeningen’s Mubi-backed Let Love In, about a couple trying to save their relationship after an affair, is described by its director as “auto-fiction” and is understood to draw on the director’s real-life relationship with Charlotte Vandermeersch, who co-wrote the screenplay and co-stars alongside Luca Marinelli. The Eight Mountains, the previous collaboration between van Groeningen and Vandermeersch, won the jury prize in Cannes in 2022.
Contact: The Match Factory
A Long Winter (UK-Can)
Dir. Andrew Haigh
An October shoot suggests All Of Us Strangers filmmaker Haigh’s latest should just about be ready for a spring festival launch. A family prepares for the long winter ahead in a mountainous setting, with a cast including Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Caitriona Balfe, Kit Connor and Fred Hechinger. Producers are Tristan Goligher for The Bureau, Michael Elliott for EMU Films, and Chad Oakes and Mike Frislev for Canada’s Nomadic Pictures. Mubi and Film4 are co-financing.
Contact: Mubi
Look Back (Japan)
Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
Japanese auteur Kore-eda has shot this live-action adaptation of the manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto (Chainsaw Man) about a pair of aspiring manga artists, which was previously adapted into an award-winning animated feature in 2024. Kore-eda is a regular at Cannes with titles including Monster, Broker and Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters, which went on to secure an Oscar nomination. A release is planned later this year as the second of two films from the director in 2026 (see Sheep In The Box below).
Contact: Goodfellas (international); K2 Pictures (Asia)
The Lost Children Of Tuam (Ire-US)
Dir. Frank Berry
Element Pictures, the Ireland-UK producer behind recent Cannes premieres Pillion, My Father’s Shadow, Kinds Of Kindness, On Becoming A Guinea Fowl and September Says, will be targeting a 2026 festival launch for this drama based on the true story of a history enthusiast who uncovers some devastating truths about a mother and baby home in Galway, Ireland. Monica Dolan stars, with Liam Neeson’s El Paso Films among producers, and funding from BBC Film and Screen Ireland.
Contact: mk2 Films
Mariage Au Gout d’Orange (France)
Dir. Christophe Honore
Honore reteams with Les Films Pelleas, renowned for Anatomy Of A Fall and It Was Just An Accident, for his 17th feature, a 1970s-set family drama centred around the wedding of the youngest son. The film’s ensemble cast includes Vincent Lacoste, Paul Kircher, Adele Exacharpoulos and Nadia Tereszkiewicz. Honore has a long history with Cannes with six of his films premiering in official selection to date.
Contact: Pyramide International
Milo (working title) (France)
Dir. Nicole Garcia
Marion Cotillard and Theodore Pellerin star in Garcia’s 10th feature as a writer-director. The film centres on a woman with a mysterious past who takes a waitressing job in a small southern French town to get closer to the titular Milo, a young man working in a garage who seems oblivious to her existence. The cast also includes Artus and Laure Calamy. Alain Attal produces via Tresor Films, alongside Studiocanal.
Contact: Studiocanal
Mimesis (Tun-Fr)
Dir. Kaouther Ben Hania
Oscar-nominated filmmaker Ben Hania’s seventh feature takes place in Tunisia in the 1990s, beginning with a woman’s struggle to prevent the family mausoleum from being turned into a mosque. The film began shooting in September 2025 while Ben Hania was still promoting her awards season contender The Voice Of Hind Rajab, and is produced by frequent Ben Hania collaborator Nadim Cheikhrouha for Tanit Films.
Contact: The Party Film Sales
Minotaur (Fr-UK-Latvia)
Dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
Exiled Russian filmmaker Zvyagintsev looks a strong bet to be back in Cannes with this drama. One of the giants of contemporary arthouse cinema (The Return, Leviathan, The Loveless), it’s his first feature since 2017, and is produced by Charles Gillbert of CG Cinéma and Nathanaël Karmitz for mk2. The film, which shot in Latvia, is a political fable about a Russian businessman confronting crisis and trauma in his professional and personal life. Co-producers are Germany’s Razor Film and Forma Pro Films in Latvia, with Arte France Cinéma among the backers.
Contact: mk2 Films
Orient Adagio (Palestine-Fr)
Dir. Maha Haj
Haj’s third fiction feature (following 2016’s Personal Affairs and 2022’s Mediterranean Fever) is produced by Tony and Jiries Copti’s Palestinian outfit Fresco Films and Michel Zana of France’s Blue Train Films. It follows a heartbroken Palestinian filmmaker longing to make his first film in Paris, and is, according to Haj, “a parody of filmmaking and filmmakers and a love letter to art in general”.
Contact: Fresco Films
Out Of This World (Sp-Fr-Ger-Latvia-Port)
Dir. Albert Serra
Before winning the Golden Shell at San Sebastián 2024 with bullfighting documentary Afternoons Of Solitude, Cannes regular Serra had wrapped his first English-language project, which filmed in Latvia over that summer. Riley Keough, F Murray Abraham and Liza Yankovskaia star in the film set against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine as a US delegation travels to Russia to resolve a sanctions-linked economic dispute. The multi-territory coproduction is between Serra and Montse Triola’s Andergraun Films, France’s Les Films du Losange and Ideale Audience, Germany’s Pandora Film Produktion, Latvia’s Forma Pro Films and Rosa Filmes from Portugal.
Contact: Losange Films
Paper Tiger (US)
Dir. James Gray
The director of Ad Astra and We Own The Night is in post on a crime drama starring Adam Driver, Scarlett Johansson and Miles Teller. The story is about brothers who get involved with a Russian mafia plot that terrorises their family and tests their loyalty. The Veterans showed buyers a teaser at the AFM and producer Rodrigo Teixeira of RT Features is aiming for a splashy festival berth.
Contact: The Veterans
Paradise Lost (South Korea)
Dir. Yeon Sang-ho
This mystery thriller marks the latest from the director of zombie blockbuster Train To Busan, which premiered at Cannes in 2016. It follows a mother, played by Kim Hyun-joo (Hellbound), whose son returns after being missing for nine years, leading dark secrets to surface. Yeon is also known for Peninsula, which received a Cannes label in 2020, and The Ugly, which played at last year’s Toronto.
Contact: CJ ENM
Parallel Tales (Fr-US-Belg-It)
Dir. Asghar Farhadi
Two-time Oscar-winning Iranian filmmaker Farhadi has assembled an all-star French cast including Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, Adam Bessa and Catherine Deneuve for this French-language co-production, lead-produced by France’s Memento Production in co-production with Anonymous Content. The film shot in Paris and the plot remains under wraps. A Cannes bow looks likely.
Contact: Charades (international), UTA (US)
Place To Be (US)
Dir. Kornél Mundruczó
Prolific Hungarian director Mundruczo has two films primed for festival premieres in 2026. The first, At The Sea, stars Amy Adams and is anticipated to show up in Berlin. The second, Place To Be, has Cannes in its sights with Mundruczo a regular visitor to the festival, including three appearances in Competition with Delta (2008), Tender Son (2010) and Jupiter’s Moon (2017). He also won the Un Certain Regard award in 2014 for White Dog. Co-writing with regular collaborator and partner Kata Weber, Place To Be’s cast is led by Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi, Pamela Anderson, Murray Bartlett and Maika Monroe, and follows an elderly woman and a middle-aged man on a journey from Chicago to New York with a lost racing pigeon for company. Alexander Rodnyansky, Megan Wynn and Jomon Thomas produce.
Contact: WME Independent/CAA Media Finance
Possible Love (South Korea)
Dir. Lee Chang-dong
South Korean filmmaker Lee, whose last three films played in Competition at Cannes, returns with his first feature since 2018’s Burning, which made the Oscars shortlist. Possible Love centres on two married couples whose worlds collide, creating fractures between them. The cast includes Jean Do-yeon, who won best actress at Cannes in 2007 for her role in Lee’s Secret Sunshine.
Contact: Netflix
Rosebush Pruning (UK-Ger-It)
Dir. Karim Aïnouz
Elle Fanning, Callum Turner, Riley Keough, Jamie Bell and Pamela Anderson star in this adaptation of Marco Bellocchio’s 1965 Fists In The Pocket, a dark satire of family and social values. Brazilian director Aïnouz is a Cannes regular: most recently, Firebrand played in Competition in 2023 and Motel Destino in 2024. Rosebush Pruning shot in 2024 and was on Screen’s 2025 festival bait list, so has undergone an extensive post-production.
Contact: The Match Factory
Safe Exit (Egypt-Tunisia)
Dir. Mohammed Hammad
The second fiction feature from the director of Withered Green, which premiered in Locarno in 2016, Safe Exit deals with the lingering effects of trauma and how a simple friendship between two very different people, a Christian man and a Muslim woman, can help break down walls. The film is produced by Dora Bouchoucha of Tunisia’s Nomadis Image, who has helped shepherd features including Souad, Behind The Mountains and Aisha Can’t Fly Away to major festival berths, along with Hammad and Kholoud Saad for Pareidolia Productions.
Contact: Mad Solutions
The Sea Speaks His Name (Indonesia)
Dir. Yosep Anggi Noen
Reza Rahadian and Dian Sastrowardoyo star in this political drama about an activist who has gone missing in the 1990s during a dark chapter of Indonesian history. Gita Fera produces for new production outfit Pal8 Pictures from the Tempo Media group. Yosep’s previous credits include Locarno 2019 prize-winner The Science Of Fictions and 2023 Busan premiere 24 Hours With Gaspar.
Contact: Pal8 Pictures
Sheep In The Box (Japan)
Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda
Palme d’Or-winning filmmaker Kore-eda writes and directs this feature set in the near future about a couple who take a humanoid robot into their home as their son. It stars Haruka Ayase of Kore-eda’s Our Little Sister and comedian Daigo in his first lead role. A Cannes regular, Kore-eda has also played in competition at Venice on three occasions.
Contact: Goodfellas (international), Gaga (Asia, North America)
Sweet Milk Lake (Australia)
Dir. Harvey Zielinski
Theatre and TV actor and two-time Heath Ledger Scholarship finalist Zielinski plays twin brothers in Sweet Milk Lake, his off-kilter debut as a writer/director. One brother is mistaken for the other by his dying dad and plays along. Being trans, as Zielinski is, informs the consequences. Shot in Victoria’s magnificent high country, the cast includes Hunter Page-Lochard and Kieran Darcy-Smith.
Contact: North South East West
Sweetsick (UK-US)
Dir. Alice Birch
Cate Blanchett and Spike Fearn lead the cast of Birch’s directorial debut feature, produced by Searchlight Pictures, House Productions and Pillion and Bird producer Lee Groombridge, with Film4 co-financing. Blanchett plays a woman with a gift for seeing what others most desperately need, often at great personal cost. Birch’s screenwriting credits include Lady Macbeth, Succession and Normal People.
Contact: Searchlight Pictures
Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma (US)
Dir. Jane Schoenbrun
After establishing themselves as one of the most original US voices to emerge in recent years with Sundance 2021 breakout We’re All Going To The World’s Fair and Sundance and Berlin 2024 follow-up I Saw The TV Glow, Schoenbrun’s new feature will be on the radar of every major festival head. Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder star in the story of the director of a slasher reboot who obsesses over the reclusive actress who played the “final girl” in the original film, as a new kind of slasher emerges from the bottom of the lake. Plan B produces; Mubi is financing and distributes directly in select territories.
Contact: The Match Factory
Trinity (Singapore)
Dir. Boo Junfeng
This Taiwan-set, Mandarin-language drama marks the latest from Singaporean director Boo, whose Sandcastle played in Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2010 and Apprentice screened in Un Certain Regard in 2016. The story follows a charismatic pastor who becomes infatuated with his disciple. The cast includes Leon Dai, Yeo Yann Yann, Tseng Jing-Hua and Will Or. It is a 10-country collaboration led by Singapore’s Peanut Pictures, Taiwan’s Filmagic Pictures and France’s Gaïjn.
Contact: Peanut Pictures
The Unknown (France)
Dir. Arthur Harari
The Oscar-winning co-writer of Anatomy Of A Fall is back behind the camera for the third time, after Onoda opened Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2021 and his 2017 debut feature Dark Inclusion. Lea Seydoux and Niels Schneider lead the cast of the film, about a man who wakes up in the body of an unknown woman. Harari collaborated on the script with Justine Triet, Vincent Poymiro and his brother Lucas Harari, who co-authored the comic book on which the film is based.
Contact: Pathe
Untitled Musical Comedy From Jesse Eisenberg (US)
Dir. Jesse Eisenberg
Expectations are high for Eisenberg’s directorial follow-up to his 2024 Oscar-winning A Real Pain, which was on the campaign trail this time last year and eventually garnered the supporting actor Oscar for Kieran Culkin. It’s about a shy woman who loses herself in the high-stakes world of community theatre. Cara Buono, Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti star. A24 has US rights.
Contact: WME Independent/CAA Media Finance
Vagabonds (Ghana-France)
Dir. Amartei Armar
The first feature by Ghanaian-American filmmaker Armar, which picked up buzz at the recent Atlas Workshops in Marrakech, is the follow-up to his 2022 Cannes-selected short Tsutsue. Vagabonds is based on Armar’s 2019 short by the same name, and follows an unlikely pair on an eventful and at times dangerous voyage through Ghana. It is produced by Ike Yemoh of A.K.A Entertainment and co-produced by Sébastien Hussenot of French outfit La Luna Production.
Contact: A.K.A. Entertainment
Violette (France)
Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Amelie director Jeunet adapts Valerie Perrin’s best-selling book Fresh Water For Flowers, starring Leila Bekhti as a caretaker at a cemetery in a small town whose routine is disrupted by the arrival of a local police chief as secrets of her past resurface. Matthias Schoenaerts, Melvil Poupaud, Anouk Grinberg, Sergio Castellitto and Alban Lenoir round out the cast. The film is produced by Mediawan-owned production houses Palomar and 24 25 Films alongside Studiocanal.
Contact: Studiocanal
We Are All Strangers (Singapore)
Dir. Anthony Chen
Following Cannes Camera d’Or winner Ilo Ilo and Wet Season, Chen returns with the final chapter of his Growing Up trilogy, which stars Golden Horse Awards-winning actress Yeo Yann Yann and Koh Jia Ler. The intimate drama follows a group of strangers who are forced to become a family, and offers a poignant portrait of modern-day Singapore.
Contact: Giraffe Pictures
Weird Elliot (Swe-Neth)
Dir. Johannes Nyholm
Inventive Swedish writer-director Nyholm follows The Giant (Toronto) and Koko-di Koko-da (Sundance) with this story about an autistic vlogger who finds traces of a dead body captured on an old videotape and tries to solve the mystery while confronting his own traumas. Sweden’s Hobab produces alongside the Netherlands’ Baldr Film and the project was presented at Les Arcs Works in Progress in December.
Contact: Hobab
Werwulf (US)
Dir. Robert Eggers
After scoring the biggest hit of his career with Nosferatu ($181m worldwide), Eggers’ latest gothic horror is about a creature that terrorises a foggy countryside in 13th-century England. The cast includes Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Willem Dafoe. Production took place in the UK in September 2025 and Focus Features has scheduled a December 2026 release. Having bypassed major festivals with Nosferatu, Focus may be planning to do the same with Werwulf, although A-list festivals will surely be knocking on its door. Universal Pictures International will distribute outside North America. Working Title Films is an executive producer.
Contact: Focus Features
Wild Horse Nine (UK-US)
Dir. Martin McDonagh
Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich, Parker Posey, Steve Buscemi and Tom Waits are among the cast of McDonagh’s dark comedy drama, which shot last spring in Easter Island, Chile. Producers are Searchlight Pictures and Blueprint Pictures, with backing from Film4. McDonagh’s last feature, The Banshees Of Inisherin, premiered at Venice 2022 and won four Baftas. His 2017 Oscar and Bafta winner Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri also first landed at Venice.
Contact: Searchlight Pictures
The Wolf Will Tear Your Immaculate Hands (Swe-UK-Belg-Ice)
Dir. Nathalie Alvarez Mesen
Swedish-Costa Rican filmmaker Mesen, who launched her debut Clara Sola in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2021, makes her first film in English. She co-wrote the script with Icelandic poet Sjon, who also worked on Lamb and The Northman. Alexander Skarsgard, hot from Pillion’s success, stars opposite Darla Contois and Pernilla August in the feature, which shot mostly in Belfast to stand in for the US Pacific Northwest in the 1880s. It is about a British widower who hires a Native American governess to educate his two daughters, as tension rises in the household when one faces a forced marriage.
Contact: Hobab
Wolves (Leb-Braz)
Dir. Rami Kodeih
The debut feature by Lebanese filmmaker Kodeih, following several short films, tells the story of two women who attempt an all-night heist to retrieve their life savings during Lebanon’s corruption-induced bank crisis. It is co-written by Nora Mariana and produced by Rodrigo Teixeira of RT Features, the powerhouse Brazilian producer behind films including Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name and Walter Salles’s Oscar-winning I’m Still Here.
Contact: CAA Media Finance
Woman, Unknown (Den)
Dir. May el-Toukhy
Danish filmmaker el-Toukhy returns with a film following three days in the life of Marie, a young housekeeper in post-Second World War Denmark, trying to escape the shame of her past. El-Toukhy co-writes the script with Maren Louise Käehne after the pair also collaborated on 2019 hit Queen Of Hearts. Mikael Christian Rieks (Land Of Mine) produces for Nordisk.
Contact: TrustNordisk
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