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Cannes Film Festival · 2026

Cannes Film Festival 2026

Critics' Week

Programme

11 films · 5 reviews

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Alive (Viva)

After coming face to face with death, 40-year-old Nora is consumed by an urgent need to feel alive. She dives into passionate relationships with two very different men... but she will have to confront a deeper fear.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2026; Director: Aina Clotet; Writer: Aina Clotet, Valentina Viso; Stars: Aina Clotet, Naby Dakhli, Marc Soler, Willy Toledo, Lloll Bertrán)

Dua

Review preview for Dua

Matoshi is brilliantly cast, her expressive performance showing the many facets of fear.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Prishtina, Kosovo, late 1990s. As war looms and ethnic tensions escalate, 13-year-old Dua struggles to find her place among her peers and within her changing body.

(Country: France, Kosovo, Switzerland; Year: 2026; Director: Blerta Basholli; Writer: Blerta Basholli, Nicole Borgeat; Stars: Pinea Matoshi, Arben Bajraktaraj, Yllka Gashi, Kushtrim Hoxha, Fiona Abdullahu, Labinot Lajçi, Kaona Sylejmani, Mila Savic)

Full review

Flesh And Fuel (Du Fioul dans les artères)

Review preview for Flesh And Fuel

The unassuming love story serves a second purpose, employing a personal lens to explore the European Union’s troubling status quo.

Lukasz Al-Darawsheh · 4 out of 5
Étienne is a lorry driver. Fastened to the road, his love life is reduced to fleeting, nameless encounters in parking lots. When he meets Bartosz, a Polish lorry driver, his loneliness is turned upside down.

(Country: France, Poland; Year: 2026; Director: Pierre le Gall; Writer: Pierre le Gall; Stars: Alexis Manenti, Julian Świeżewski, Armindo Alves de Sa, Mohamed Makhtoumi, Stéphanie Chamot)

Full review See: Director Pierre Le Gall on the themes of Flesh and Fuel , Julian Swiezewski on trucking, gay romance and the power of normality in Flesh And Fuel , Interview with Alexis Manenti about Flesh And Fuel and Too Many Beasts

A Girl Unknown (Wu ming nü hai)

A Chinese girl grows up from the age of 6 to 18 across three families, each giving her a new name and a different life. As she searches for belonging and the possibility of love, she must face the weight of her past and and the uncertainty of her future - until she finds her own way.

(Country: China, France; Year: 2026; Director: Zou Jing; Writer: Zou Jing; Stars: Li Gengxi, Zu Feng, Shen Jiani, Cao Ruofan)

Goodbye Cruel World (Adieu Monde Cruel)

Review preview for Goodbye Cruel World

Goodbye Cruel World shifts the narrative away from the bleakness one might expect, showing that it’s possible to make a film about a difficult and sensitive subject with tenderness, humour and sprinkles of hope.

Carla Pantilie · 4 out of 5
Otto Vidal, 14, disappears after writing a farewell letter to his classmates. While everyone believes he is dead, Léna, a girl from his high school, spots him one night roaming the streets of the city.

(Country: Belgium, France; Year: 2026; Director: Félix de Givry; Writer: Marie-Stéphane Imbert, Félix de Givry; Stars: Milo Machado-Graner, Jane Beever, Emmanuelle Destremau, Maïa Sandoz, Erwan Kepoa Falé, Catherine Artigala)

Full review

La Gradiva

Review preview for La Gradiva

Pompeii becomes a place where fantasy is tested against historical violence, and where looking too closely can break the story one came to preserve.

Edin Custo · 4 out of 5
A group of French high-school students travel to Naples on a school trip to discover the ruins of Pompeii and the bodies petrified by Vesuvius. There, they are drawn into a dizzying descent.

(Country: France, Italy; Year: 2026; Director: Marine Atlan; Writer: Marine Atlan, Anne Brouillet; Stars: Antonia Buresi, Julie Sokolowski)

Full review

In Waves

In Los Angeles, AJ, a shy teenager, meets Kristen. She lives for surfing; he loves skateboarding and drawing. They fall madly in love, and a happy future seems within reach. But everything changes when Kristen faces a sudden illness.

(Country: France, Belgium, US; Year: 2026; Director: Phuong Mai Nguyen; Writer: Samuel Doux, Fanny Burdino; Stars: Rio Vega, Lyna Khoudri, Paul Kircher, Birane Ba, Gauthier Battoue)

Six Months In A Pink And Blue Building (Seis meses en el edificio rosa con azul)

Mexico City, early 90s. The day Bruno turns 11, his growing feelings for his best friend Vladimir clash with the sudden announcement that his father has HIV. Like in salsa songs, his family tries to sing and dance their pain away. Thirty years later, Bruno films and reimagine the memory of what he could not quite perceive as a child.

(Country: Mexico, Brazil, Denmark; Year: 2025; Director: Bruno Santamaría Razo; Writer: Bruno Santamaría Razo)

The Station (Al Mahattah)

Layal runs a women-only petrol station in Yemen, a rare safe haven in a war-torn country. There, the rules are simple: no men, no weapons, no politics. When Layal’s younger brother faces enlistment, she reunites with her estranged sister to save the one life they still can.

(Country: Yemen, Jordan, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Qatar; Year: 2026; Director: Sara Ishaq; Writer: Sara Ishaq; Stars: Manal Al-Mulaiki, Abeer Mohammed, Rashad Khaled, Saleh Al-marshahi, Fariha Hassan Amal Esmail, Shorooq Mohammed, Randa Mohammed, Fatima Muthanna)

Stonewall (La Frappe)

Enzo, 19, and his sister Carla, 20, have been fending for themselves for years. When their father, Anthony, is released from prison, Enzo sees the fleeting promise of rebuilding a family, while it is inconceivable for Carla. As his past catches up with him, Enzo must confront a reality he has kept to himself for far too long.

(Country: France; Year: 2026; Director: Julien Gaspar-Oliveri; Writer: Julien Gaspar-Oliveri, Claudia Bottino; Stars: Diego Murgia, Bastien Bouillon, Romane Fringeli, Héloïse Volle)

Tin Castle (Irish Travellers)

Review preview for Tin Castle

Murphy lets the family’s lives shine out without romanticising the situation.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
Along a long-forgotten road, the O’Reillys live in a rundown trailer stranded in the middle of the fields. Pa’, Lisa, and their ten children weather the seasons in their tin castle, heirs to a way of life on borrowed time. Under threat of eviction, their tenuous balance falters, yet – steadfast in their tradition – they resist.

(Country: Ireland, France; Year: 2026; Director: Alexander Murphy; Writer: Alexander Murphy, Jean-Baptiste Plard)

Full review