Cannes opens May 12 through May 24

Cannes starts Tuesday, May 12, and runs through May 23 — not May 24. That sounds like a tiny correction, but at Cannes the schedule is the story. Opening night sets the mood, the premieres create the market, and the closing ceremony decides which films leave with momentum and which ones leave with a shrug. This year’s version looks especially auteur-heavy, with 22 films competing for the Palme d’Or and Park Chan-wook chairing the main jury. ### Wait — when does it actually run? The official Cannes site lists the 79th edition from May 12 to May 23, 2026. That means a 12-day festival ending with the Palme d’Or ceremony on Saturday, May 23. If you’ve seen May 24 floating around, that’s the kind of off-by-one festival shorthand that happens when people count both endpoints loosely. ### What’s the headline this year? (festival-cannes.com) Basically, Cannes is betting on directors with very established identities. The competition slate includes new films from Pedro Almodóvar, Asghar Farhadi, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Cristian Mungiu, László Nemes, Paweł Pawlikowski, Ira Sachs and Andrey Zvyagintsev. That is a very specific kind of flex — less “look at the stars” and more “look at the filmmakers.” ### Which films are actually in competition? The official list has 22 titles in competition. A few of the most watched are Almodóvar’s *Amarga Navidad*, Farhadi’s *Parallel Tales*, Hamaguchi’s *All of a Sudden*, Kore-eda’s *Sheep in the Box*, Pawlikowski’s *Fatherland*, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s *El Ser Querido*, and Na Hong-jin’s *Hope*. The opening film is Pierre Salvadori’s *The Electric Kiss*, but that one plays out of competition. (festival-cannes.com) ### Why does the Spanish angle keep coming up? Because it’s real. Almodóvar is in competition. So is Sorogoyen. Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi show up with *La Bola Negra*. Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco are in Cannes Première with *The Match*. France 24 flagged that broader Spanish presence as one of the defining features of the lineup, and you can see it across sections, not just in one prestige slot. (festival-cannes.com) ### Who decides the Palme d’Or? Park Chan-wook leads the main jury, and the rest of the group is stacked in a way Cannes likes — international, prestigious, and a little eclectic. The eight other jurors are Demi Moore, Ruth Negga, Laura Wandel, Chloé Zhao, Diego Céspedes, Isaach De Bankolé, Paul Laverty and Stellan Skarsgård. That’s a mix of actors, directors and writers with very different tastes, which usually makes the final awards less predictable. (festival-cannes.com) ### Is Hollywood sitting this one out? Not fully, but mostly. The AP preview noted that Hollywood studios are largely on the sidelines this year. Cannes still has glamour and red carpets — it always will — but the center of gravity looks more international and filmmaker-led than studio-led. That changes the vibe. The festival becomes less about blockbuster spectacle and more about who might shape the fall awards conversation or land major distribution deals. (festival-cannes.com) ### So what does Cannes still do better than everyone else? It turns a festival slot into a global launch. A Cannes premiere can set reviews, sales, awards buzz and the basic story a film carries for the rest of the year. Think of it like a combination of world’s fair, trade floor and taste-making contest — all compressed into less than two weeks on one stretch of coastline. That’s why the exact lineup matters so much. (toronto.citynews.ca) ### Bottom line? This year’s Cannes looks like a strong test of whether director prestige still moves the culture on its own. The answer probably arrives fast — once the first few competition premieres hit the Croisette. (toronto.citynews.ca)