IndieWire lists Palme d'Or contenders May 17

IndieWire on May 17 published an updated ranking of early Palme d’Or contenders at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, a mid-festival snapshot of which competition titles had gained traction with critics after their first screenings. The report, written by Ryan Lattanzio, said James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” and Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden” had become “the talk of the Croisette” as more of the main competition came into view. The Cannes Film Festival opened on May 12 and runs through May 23, according to the festival and IndieWire’s lineup coverage. Park Chan-wook is serving as jury president for the 79th edition and is due to lead the panel that awards the Palme d’Or at the Grand Théâtre Lumière on May 23. ### Which films did IndieWire place at the top of its May 17 ranking? (indiewire.com) IndieWire’s May 17 update listed Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland” at No. 1 among the films it viewed as the strongest Palme prospects at that stage of the festival. The same ranking placed Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden” second and Gray’s “Paper Tiger” third. The May 17 list then continued with Marie Kreutzer’s “Gentle Monster,” Koji Fukada’s “Nagi Notes,” Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Sheep in the Box,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beloved,” Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet’s “A Woman’s Life,” and Asghar Farhadi’s “Parallel Tales.” IndieWire also separated out a “still to come” group of competition titles that had not yet screened widely enough to judge in the same way. (indiewire.com 1) (indiewire.com 2) ### Which movies did the report say were generating the most immediate buzz? James Gray’s “Paper Tiger” was described by IndieWire as a film that resonated strongly with American and British viewers in Cannes. Lattanzio wrote that the 1980s Queens-set thriller featured “nimbly directed suspense” and standout performances from Adam Driver and Miles Teller that would draw the jury’s attention. (indiewire.com) Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden” was described in the same report as an “epic-length” drama starring Virginie Efira as a nursing-home director who befriends a terminally ill Japanese playwright played by Tao Okamoto. IndieWire said the film had earned rave reviews and was being discussed by many in the press corps as a serious Palme possibility. (indiewire.com) ### How does that ranking fit into the official Cannes competition? The Festival de Cannes said 21 films were selected for the 2026 main competition, including “Paper Tiger,” “All of a Sudden,” “Fatherland,” “Parallel Tales,” “The Beloved,” “Sheep in the Box,” and “Gentle Monster.” The official selection was first announced on April 9 and updated on April 23, the festival said. (indiewire.com) IndieWire’s earlier lineup report said the 2026 competition was heavy with established auteurs, naming filmmakers including Asghar Farhadi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Cristian Mungiu, Pawel Pawlikowski, Ira Sachs and Hamaguchi. That same report said Cannes artistic director Thierry Frémaux had cited 2,541 feature submissions for this year’s festival. ### Which contenders had not fully screened by May 17? (festival-cannes.com) IndieWire’s May 17 piece said films still to come included Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur,” Ira Sachs’ “The Man I Love,” László Nemes’ “Moulin,” Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord,” Emmanuel Marre’s “A Man of His Time,” Léa Mysius’ “The Birthday Party,” Na Hong-jin’s “Hope,” Jeanne Herry’s “Another Day,” Arthur Harari’s “The Unknown,” Valeska Grisebach’s “The Dreamed Adventure,” Lukas Dhont’s “Coward,” and Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s “La Bola Negra.” (indiewire.com) The split between screened titles and upcoming premieres is what made the May 17 ranking provisional rather than final. IndieWire framed it as an update “so far,” reflecting reviews and word-of-mouth midway through the festival rather than a settled prediction of the jury outcome. ### What happens next before the Palme d’Or is decided? (indiewire.com) May 23 is the next fixed date in the awards race. Park Chan-wook and the 2026 Cannes jury are scheduled to present the Palme d’Or that night, after the remaining competition films finish screening during the festival’s closing stretch. (indiewire.com) (indiewire.com)