Cannes selects new titles
The Cannes Film Festival (May 12–23) has added Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell to its Cannes Première strand. (sortiraparis.com) Sortiraparis also lists Quentin Dupieux’s Full Phil for a midnight screening, and Instinct Magazine flags an unusually strong presence of queer stories across this year’s competition. ( )
Cannes has expanded its 2026 lineup, adding Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell and slotting Quentin Dupieux’s Full Phil into a late-night showcase. (festival-cannes.com) The festival’s official 2026 selection, unveiled April 9, lists Her Private Hell in Out of Competition, not Cannes Première, and places Full Phil in Midnight Screenings. The 79th edition runs May 12 to May 23, 2026. (festival-cannes.com) Cannes also says the selection is “regularly updated,” a common practice after the first press conference as late additions and section changes are folded into the lineup before the festival opens. The full screening program is scheduled to appear in early May, with the online ticket office opening May 4. (festival-cannes.com, (festival-cannes.com) The placement matters because Cannes sections signal how the festival wants a film to land. Competition titles chase the Palme d’Or, while Out of Competition, Midnight Screenings, and Cannes Première sit outside the main prize race and frame films by tone, prestige, or audience appeal. (festival-cannes.com) This year’s Competition slate includes Ira Sachs’ The Man I Love and Lukas Dhont’s Coward, two titles highlighted by Instinct Magazine in a piece arguing that queer stories have an unusually visible place in the 2026 lineup. Instinct also points to Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s La Bola Negra in Competition as part of that trend. (festival-cannes.com, (instinctmagazine.com) The official list supports the basic point that queer-themed work is spread across Cannes this year, though festival materials do not frame the selection that way. Cannes’ April 9 release simply groups films by section and names directors, without attaching identity labels or thematic banners to the lineup. (festival-cannes.com) Refn’s addition gives Cannes another high-profile auteur outside the main competition, alongside titles by Pedro Almodóvar, Asghar Farhadi, Hamaguchi Ryusuke, and Kore-eda Hirokazu. Dupieux’s film joins a Midnight slate that also includes Bertrand Mandico’s Roma Elastica and Yeon Sang-ho’s Gun-Che (Colony). (festival-cannes.com) For now, the clearest takeaway is narrower than the early coverage suggested: Cannes is still adjusting its 2026 selection, and the festival’s own lineup page is the cleanest guide to where each film actually stands before opening night. (festival-cannes.com)
