Cannes opens amid thin Hollywood turnout, main slate light on big-studio stars

Cannes is open, but this year’s story is less about giant studio premieres and more about who still treats the festival as a serious movie market. The 79th edition runs from May 12 to May 23, and the official selection is packed with heavyweight directors — Pedro Almodóvar, Asghar Farhadi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Cristian Mungiu, Paweł Pawlikowski. But the usual Hollywood overload looks thinner. That matters because Cannes works best when it is two things at once — a glamour machine and a place where films actually get bought, sold, and crowned. This year, the second job looks more important. ### What opened Cannes this year? The festival opened on May 12 with Pierre Salvadori’s *The Electric Kiss* as the opening film, playing out of competition. The broader official selection had already been unveiled in April and then updated on April 23, with competition, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Premiere, midnight screenings, and out-of-competition titles all in place before opening day. So the big change now is not the lineup itself — it is the market finally starting to react to it. (festival-cannes.com) ### Why are people saying Hollywood looks thin? Because the competition slate is loaded with auteurs and international prestige names, while major U.S. studio titles are notably scarce. Even trade coverage framing the lineup in April pointed to a smaller-than-usual American presence and an absence of major-studio movies. There are still U.S. filmmakers around — James Gray, Ira Sachs, Jane Schoenbrun, Andy Garcia, Steven Soderbergh, Ron Howard — but that is not the same thing as Cannes being overrun by studio launch vehicles. (festival-cannes.com) ### So who is actually drawing attention? The directors, first. Farhadi, Almodóvar, Kore-eda, Mungiu, Hamaguchi, Nemes, Zvyagintsev, and Dhont give the main slate a very high-prestige feel. The stars are there too, just in a more selective way — Sandra Hüller in Pawlikowski’s *Fatherland*, Sebastian Stan in Mungiu’s *Fjord*, Charles Melton in Nicolas Winding Refn’s *Her Private Hell*, plus Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, Woody Harrelson, Kristen Stewart, Javier Bardem, and Renate Reinsve across the lineup. (thewrap.com) It is not star-free. It is just not built around blockbuster-style celebrity traffic. ### Why does Neon keep coming up? Because Neon has already done a lot of the shopping before the festival even properly got going. It bought eight films premiering at Cannes this year — six in competition, one in Directors’ Fortnight, and Refn’s *Her Private Hell* out of competition. The company has also released the last six Palme d’Or winners, which means its buying strategy now shapes how people read the whole festival. If Neon already grabbed many of the crown-jewel titles, other buyers have fewer obvious targets. (festival-cannes.com) ### Does that make Cannes weaker? Not really — but it makes Cannes different. A thinner studio presence can mean fewer giant red-carpet moments, yet it can also make the festival feel more like a pure prestige arena. Buyers and sales agents are still busy. Screen’s market tracker was already filling with new packages tied to stars like Florence Pugh, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Hannah Waddingham, Jessie Buckley, and Paul Mescal as the Marché du Film opened from May 12 to May 20. Basically, the commerce is there. (thewrap.com) It is just happening through indie and international channels more than studio muscle. ### What is the real split this year? The split is between movies that are screening and movies that are for sale. Cannes always has both, but 2026 seems tilted toward that marketplace identity. TheWrap’s pre-festival buyer chatter focused less on giant gala premieres and more on which unsold packages could still break out. That is a sign the Croisette is functioning less like Hollywood’s fanciest billboard and more like a prestige trading floor. (screendaily.com) ### Why should anyone outside Cannes care? Because Cannes still helps decide what the next year of prestige cinema looks like. The festival can launch awards contenders, set acquisition prices, and tell distributors which filmmakers still command heat. When the biggest story is not “which studio won the carpet” but “which buyers locked up the auteurs,” that says something broader about the movie business right now — the center of gravity for serious film culture is still international, still festival-driven, and still not fully dependent on Hollywood studios. (thewrap.com) ### Bottom line Cannes 2026 did not open empty. It opened narrower. Fewer studio fireworks, more auteur prestige, more buying strategy — and that may end up being the point. (festival-cannes.com) (screendaily.com)