By Rohan Coleman
April 9th saw the announcement of the official lineup for the 79th Cannes Film Festival, taking place from May 12th to May 23rd this year. Festival Director Thierry Frémaux and President Iris Knobloch revealed the 21 films competing in competition for the Palme d’Or alongside the 40 other titles screening across the prestigious festival. This year’s line-up was vastly different from previous years, however, with no British films being included and only a handful of indie films being plucked from the U.S, unlike the 2025 programme which featured a myriad of blockbusters, directorial debuts and beloved directors from North America. Why this swift change in programming? Have global politics and international conflicts informed the festival’s selection?
Among the 21 Official Competition announcements, only one film was created by an American filmmaker, with The Man I Love from indie legend Ira Sachs making the cut. Aside from this film, the line up consists of 3 Spanish films, including 2-time Oscar winner Pedro Almodóvar, 3 Japanese films, including previous Cannes contender Ryusuke Hamaguchi, and 5 French films. The remaining selection includes films from Poland, Romania, Russia, Iran, Hungary, Belgium, Germany, South Korea and Austria. These films tackle a wide variety of topics and themes in an even wider variety of genre, though an interesting pattern of response to war, conflict and oppressive governments appears across the selection.
Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur is a political thriller following a privileged Russian oligarch. The film was shot in Latvia, as Zvyagintsev is exiled from Russia due to his outspoken criticism of the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, though he was once adored by Vladimir Putin. Similarly, both Fatherland and Coward depict reactions to WWII from German and French citizens fleeing Europe and drafted into the war effort respectively. Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Tales is featured in the official selection. This is Farhadi’s second movie filmed in France due to his refusal to work in Iran in protest of the Iranian government. This goes along with the Iranian Palme d’Or winner from the 2025 festival, It Was Just An Accident directed by Oscar-nominee Jafar Panahi, who has been detained multiple times in Iran as a result of the criticisms of the oppressive government in his films.
While the recognition and celebration of Iranian cinema in the last few festival programmes may be a self-contained action, it feels decidedly poignant as the United States threatens brutal war against Iran, who has already faced ongoing attacks from Israel.
While Festival Director Thierry Frémaux has stated that “more than ever, as the American market shrinks, these films must find a global audience. Festivals are also there to support this movement,” the almost complete disregard of American filmmakers holds a lot of weight in this year’s programme. The handful of American creatives featured in the upcoming festival screenings include the previously mentioned Ira Sachs, the upcoming indie superstar Jane Schoenbrun with upcoming horror film Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, John Travolta’s directorial debut Propellor One-Way Night Coach, Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid and Steven Soderbergh’s documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview.
Similarly, no British films have been included in the selection this year. This incredibly small collection of American films is a huge contrast from last year’s festival, which included large blockbusters such as the final Mission Impossible instalment, Eddington starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, and Emma Stone, and Denzel Washington and Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest. A variety of directorial debuts premiered at the 2025 festival, such as Kristen Stewarts Chronology of Water and Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor the Great. A large number of celebrated American filmmakers premiered their latest titles at the previous festival also, including Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Ethan Coen’s Honey Don’t!, and Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague.
The almost complete disregard of American and British filmmaking within the 95% international programme shows a clear pivot away from the North American focus that was seen in previous years programming. Frémaux highlighted the importance of international films and audiences, stating “we are dependent on nothing other than the films themselves, and the world of cinema is vast. The proof is that non-U.S. films from Cannes are increasingly present on the American market…and at the Oscars!” which is in reference to the slew of nominations received by various Cannes films at the most recent Oscars ceremonies, including both Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent receiving Best Picture and various acting nominations, and Sirât receiving a Best Sound nomination, proving that international films “are no longer competing solely for the Best International Feature Film Oscar but in all categories. A run at Cannes is increasingly effective, both commercially at the box office and symbolically at the Oscars” as Frémaux wants to “reiterate this to American producers.”
While there has been no direct correlation between current global affairs and the hugely decreased number of American films, both Festival Director and President highlighted the lack of North African and Middle Eastern films in the programme as a “knock-on effect from global conflicts.” Furthermore, the only American films to be included being from notable indie filmmakers may point to a general distrust or distaste for larger U.S. studios. This year alone saw the long-lasting buying race for Warner Bros. between Netflix and Paramount, with the CEO of Paramount, and close friend of Donald Trump, David Ellison ultimately purchasing the studio which produced critically acclaimed original films like Sinners and One Battle After Another just last year. Though it may not have been explicitly stated, the prioritisation of independent creators in contrast with last year’s blockbuster-heavy programme certainly presents itself as a response to Trump’s presidency and its detrimental impacts on most every impact of global trade, economics and politics.
As the festival comes closer and the selected few films are distributed among global audiences, the mindset of the Cannes Jury may become clearer, though from the programme announcement alone there seems to be a clear reshifting of focus from American studio dealings to international, independent and politically outspoken stories. Could these choices be in response to the increasing rise of far-right politics globally, acting as a direct response to the oppression of free speech and thus filmmaking? Are the films included simply the best of the best, or will this festival line-up be regarded as an act of protest in years to come?