Cannes festival opens May 12 with 22 premieres, runs through May 24

Cannes is the movie world’s biggest annual sorting machine. It decides what feels important, what gets bought, what becomes an awards-season obsession, and which directors suddenly own the conversation for the next six months. This year’s edition starts Tuesday, May 12, and the big thing to know is simple — the 79th festival looks unusually concentrated around filmmakers’ filmmakers, not blockbuster bait. ### What actually opens this year? The festival runs from May 12 to May 23, with the closing ceremony and Palme d’Or presentation on Saturday, May 23. The official selection page lists Pierre Salvadori’s *The Electric Kiss* as the opening film, and the main Competition field now stands at 22 titles after additions announced in late April. (festival-cannes.com) ### Why do people care so much about Cannes? Because Cannes is not just a festival — it is a market signal. A premiere on the Croisette can turn a difficult art film into a global event, reshape distribution deals, and set the early hierarchy for the rest of the year. If Venice and Toronto help finish the awards race, Cannes often starts it. That’s especially true when the lineup is packed with directors who already carry serious prestige. (festival-cannes.com) ### Who’s in the main race? The Competition slate is stacked with heavyweights: Pedro Almodóvar, Asghar Farhadi, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Cristian Mungiu, László Nemes, Paweł Pawlikowski, Ira Sachs, Rodrigo Sorogoyen, and Andrey Zvyagintsev all have films in the field. That is a very Cannes kind of roster — less “surprise celebrity launch,” more “global auteur summit.” (festival-cannes.com) ### What does Park Chan-wook change? A lot, symbolically. Park is the first Korean filmmaker to preside over the Cannes feature-film jury, which is a real marker of how central Korean cinema has become to the festival’s idea of world cinema. He is joined by Demi Moore, Ruth Negga, Laura Wandel, Diego Céspedes, Isaach De Bankolé, Paul Laverty, Chloé Zhao, and Stellan Skarsgård — a jury with art-house credibility but also enough mainstream recognition to keep attention high. (festival-cannes.com) ### Why does the lineup feel different? Because the balance appears tilted away from Hollywood tentpoles and toward director-led prestige films. You can feel that just by scanning the names. Cannes always sells glamour, but this year the glamour is attached more to auteurs and cinephile anticipation than to giant studio launches. Basically, the red carpet is still the red carpet — but the center of gravity is the films themselves. (festival-cannes.com) ### Is it only about the Palme? Not even close. Competition gets the headlines, but Cannes also uses side sections to introduce future major directors and test stranger work that may not fit the main race. Un Certain Regard opens with Jane Schoenbrun’s *Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma*, while Out of Competition, Midnight Screenings, and Cannes Premiere give the festival room to mix prestige, genre, and discovery. (festival-cannes.com) ### So what should people watch for this week? Watch the first reviews, the acquisition deals, and whether one film quickly separates from the pack. Cannes can look chaotic from the outside, but the pattern is usually clear within a few days — one or two titles become the must-see events, and everyone else starts reacting to them. With 22 competition films and a jury led by Park, this year’s version could reward bold formal filmmaking over safer consensus picks. (festival-cannes.com) That last part is an inference, but it fits both Park’s track record and the shape of the lineup. ### Bottom line Cannes opens this week looking a little less like a movie-industry parade and a little more like a concentrated argument about what serious cinema should be in 2026. That usually makes for a better festival — and a more interesting prize race. (festival-cannes.com)