Pawel Pawlikowski wins best director

Paweł Pawlikowski was named a best director winner at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival for “Fatherland,” according to the festival’s winners list and multiple trade reports. The directing prize was shared this year, with Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi also honored for “The Black Ball,” listed in some reports as “La Bola Negra.” The awards were announced at Cannes’ closing ceremony on Saturday, May 23, at the end of the festival’s 79th edition. Festival de Cannes said the winners list was published the same day. (festival-cannes.com) “Fatherland” marked Pawlikowski’s return to Cannes competition eight years after he won best director there for “Cold War” in 2018, according to the festival’s own profile of the filmmaker. Festival materials describe the new film as a black-and-white period drama centered on Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika during a 1949 road trip through postwar Germany. The official Cannes page lists the film as a 2026 co-production involving Poland, Germany, Italy and France. (festival-cannes.com) ### Why was the best director award split between two entries? The 2026 Cannes winners list included two best director recipients rather than one. IndieWire’s awards roundup named Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi for “The Black Ball” and Pawlikowski for “Fatherland” in the same category, while Deadline reported that the Spanish directing duo and Pawlikowski “jointly won” the prize. (festival-cannes.com) Festival de Cannes’ awards page says the 79th edition’s winners were to be revealed on Saturday, May 23, during the closing ceremony. Reuters-style confirmation from the festival site is limited in the search snippets, but the official awards page and several contemporaneous reports align on the shared directing honor. ### What is “Fatherland” about? “Fatherland” follows Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika Mann as they travel across a divided Germany in the summer of 1949, according to the Cannes film page. (indiewire.com) Festival de Cannes says the story begins after 16 years of exile in the United States and unfolds against the early Cold War, moving from Frankfurt to Weimar in a black Buick. Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler, August Diehl, Devid Striesow and Anna Madeley are listed in the film’s credits on the Cannes site. (festival-cannes.com) The festival page also credits Pawlikowski as director, co-writer and editor of the 82-minute film. ### How does this fit into Pawlikowski’s Cannes history? Festival de Cannes said Pawlikowski previously won the festival’s best director award in 2018 for “Cold War.” Its profile of the director also notes that “Ida” was honored at Cannes in 2013 before his return to the main competition this year with “Fatherland.” (festival-cannes.com) That makes the 2026 prize a return to a category in which Pawlikowski has already been recognized by Cannes juries. (festival-cannes.com) The 2026 jury was headed by South Korean director Park Chan-wook, according to Cannes coverage from RogerEbert.com and other winner roundups. ### What else happened at the closing ceremony? Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord” won the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize, on the same night Pawlikowski received the directing award. (festival-cannes.com) The Grand Prix went to Andrei Zviaguintsev’s “Minotaur,” according to Cannes roundups from RogerEbert.com, Deadline and other outlets. The 79th Cannes Film Festival ran from May 12 to May 23, according to the festival site, with the closing ceremony and winners announcement held on the final day. (rogerebert.com) The full awards list remains on Cannes’ official awards page, where the festival posts the 2026 laureates by category. (festival-cannes.com)