Cannes parallel section ACID unveils selection for 2026

By Ben Dalton2026-04-14T11:00:00+01:00

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'Living Twice, Dying Thrice'

Source: Repassfilm

‘Living Twice, Dying Thrice’

France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (ACID) has selected nine world premieres for its 2026 edition, which will run from May 13-22.

The nine films include six debut features. Four titles are fiction films, with three documentaries, one animation, and one hybrid film.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

The titles include Living Twice, Dying Thrice, the fifth film from Iranian filmmaker Karim Lakzadeh. It follows three miners who survived the collapse of a mine but hide their survival so their families can claim compensation, leading to family crises.

Ebrahim Naeej, Mehdi Rashidi and Hojjat Hosseini are among the cast of the film, which is produced by Repassfilm. Lakzadeh’s previous features include 2023’s Dark Matter, which debuted at Karlovy Vary.

Also in the ACID 2026 selection is Ivan Markovic’s Promised Spaces, a co-production between France, Germany, Serbia and Cambodia. The second feature for Serbian director Markovic, it follows Sokun, who lives in a community of workers in an unfinished high-rise block, and Seda, who feels trapped in a luxury home.

Markovic’s From Tomorrow On, I Will debuted in Berlin’s Forum section in 2019, co-directed with Wu Linfeng.

The ACID debuts include Paul Nouhet’s Rewind Barcelona, following a group of skateboarders in both the summer of their 18^th birthdays and 10 years later; and Celine Carridroit and Aline Suter’s Summer Drift, a hybrid feature about a young woman in Geneva who attempts to bring her old VW Beetle back to life.

The section will open with Lola Cambourieu and Yann Berlier’s debut Born Under A Bad Star, a local title set in a suburban neighbourhood in the south of France.

The ACID section is independent to the Cannes official selection, and was programmed this year by a committee of 13 filmmakers.

Filmmakers who have previously shown their work in ACID include Kaouther Ben Hania, Claire Denis, Jim Cummings and Radu Jude.