Kantemir Balagov’s New Jersey-set drama Butterfly Jam, starring Barry Keoghan and Riley Keough, will open the 58th edition of Cannes Directors’ Fortnight.
It is among 19 features, selected from 1,800 submissions, and nine short and medium-length works announced on Tuesday by the parallel section for its 2026 edition running from May 13 to 23, alongside the Cannes Film Festival.
Butterfly Jam revolves around a teenager growing up in New Jersey’s Circassian community, with dreams of becoming a wrestler, whose life takes an unexpected turn when one of his father’s misguided schemes goes wrong.
It is exiled Russian director Balagov’s first English-language feature after his 2019 Cannes breakout Beanpole.
It is produced by Alexander Rodnyansky’s AR Content, Pascal Caucheteux’s Why Not Productions (Emilia Pérez) and Goodfellas, which is also handling sales. Harry Melling, seen recently opposite Alexander Skarsgård in Pillion, also features in the cast.
Artistic Director Julien Rejl and his team have delivered one of the most high-profile and starriest Directors’ Fortnight selections since he took first took the helm for the 2023 edition.
Atonement
Star Thrower
Aside from Butterfly Jam, with Keoghan and Keough, the lineup also features Reed Van Dyk’s Iraqi war veteran drama Atonement, with Kenneth Branagh, Hiam Abbass and Boyd Holbrook; Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri’s ‘Mrs Dalloway’-reimagining Clarissa with Sophie Okonedo, David Oyelowo and Ayo Edebiri, and July Jung’s Dora, starring Japanese actress Sakura Ando (Shoplifters) and K-pop star and actress Kim Do-yeon.
Shot in 35mm in Nigeria, Clarissa is the second feature from the Esiri brothers after debut Eyimofe (This Is My Desire), which premiered in Berlin and went on to win five African Movie Academy Awards.
Neon acquired U.S. rights to the film earlier this year and is also handling international sales. It one of two Neon pre-buys in this year’s selection alongside documentary Once Upon A Time In Harlem, which debuted in Sundance this year. Read Deadline’s deep dive into the film here.
Rejl, who marked his early editions with a desire to showcase true discoveries, that had not even been scouted by development labs, appears to have changed his approach for this edition.
A number of films by established directors have made the cut this year including Clio Barnard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning; Radu Jude’s The Diary of a Chambermaid; Alain Cavalier’s Thanks for Coming (Merci d’être venu); Lisandro Alonso’s Double Freedom and Quentin Dupieux‘s Le Vertige.
Starring Anthony Boyle, Joe Cole, Jay Lycurgo, Daryl McCormack and Lola Petticrew and adapted from the book of the same name by Keiran Goddard, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning marks Bernard’s third time Directors’ Fortnight in Ava & Ali and The Selfish Giant.
Cavalier’s Thanks for Coming (Merci d’être venu) continue his series of works documenting his life and thoughts on filmmaking as he ages, and could be the last work of the 94-year-old director.
Jude’s adaptation of Octave Mirbeau’s classic The Diary of a Chambermaid, starring Ana Dumitrascu alongside Vincent Macaigne and Mélanie Thierry, marks the Romanian director’s first time in Cannes.
A late submission, Argentinian director Alonso’s new film Double Freedom is described as a demi-remake of his 2001 breakthrough film Freedom revisiting the protagonist Misael in a different time of Argentina’s history.
Rejl told the announcement press conference in Paris on Tuesday that Dupieux’s film Le Vertige had been another late unexpected entry, with the director already selected for this year’s Official Selection with Full Phil, starring Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart.
He kept details of the film under wraps, apart from the fact that it is a 3D motion capture animation featuring the voices of Dupieux’s frequent collaborators Alain Chabbat, Jonathan Cohen and Anaïs Demoustier.
Other animations in the lineup include animated Bizet adaptation Viva Carmen by Sebastien Laudenbach, whose last film Chicken for Linda! went on to win best film at Annecy in 2023 and a César the following year.
There is still space for first films in the section, which last year debuted Iraqi drama The President’s Cake. That film went on to win the Cannes Caméra d’Or prize, open to all first films playing across the Official Selection and parallel sections, and then made it to the short list in the International Feature Film category 98th Academy Awards as Iraq’s submission.
Six first films are in the mix this year including 9 Temples To Heaven by Thai director Sompot Chidgasornpongse, a long-time collaborator of Apichatpong Weerasethakul who previously took assistant director credits on Memoria and Cemetery of Splendour.
Other debuts include Atonement, Norwegian director Eivind Landsvik’s Low Expectations, French filmmaker Maxence Voiseux’s documentary Gabin, Swiss-Italian director Sarah Arnold’s Too Many Beasts and Japanese director Kohei Kadowaki’s animation We Are Aliens.
Second and third films in the lineup include Chilean director Dominga Sotomayor’s upcoming film La Perra, Venezuelan filmmaker Jorge Thielen Armand’s Death Has No Master and French director Shana Pinell’s Shana.
Adapted from Colombian writer Pilar Quintana, La Perra stars Manuela Oyarzún as a solitary woman with a painful past living on a remote Chilean island, who rescues an abandoned puppy and names her Yuri — the name she once chose for the daughter she never had. She is joined in the cast by Selton Mello, star of Walter Salles’s Oscar-winning political drama I’m Still Here.
Pinell’s second film after Kiss and Cry, Shana stars her regular collaborator Éva Huault as a woman in her thirties navigating dead-end jobs, drug deals and an impossible relationship with a toxic thug, Moïse. Adding to her woes, her Moroccan Jewish grandmother has just passed away, leaving her with only a family ring with mysterious powers.
As previously announced, Directors’ Fortnight will fete Claire Denis the honorary Golden Carriage (Carrosse d’Or) at the opening ceremony on May 13.
Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2026 Edition
Feature Films
(*denotes first film and eligibility for Caméra d’Or)
Butterfly Jam (opening film)
Dir: Kantemir Balagov
9 Temples To Heaven *
Dir: Sompot Chidgasornpongse
Atonement *
Dir: Reed Van Dyk
Clarissa
Dirs: Arie Esiri & Chuko Esiri
Death has no master (La muerte no tiene dueño)
Dir: Jorge Thielen Armand
The Diary of a Chambermaid
Dir: Radu Jude
Dora
Dir: July Jung
Double Freedom (La libertad doble)
Dir: Lisandro Alonso
Gabin * – documentary
Dir: Maxence Voiseux
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Dir: Clio Barnard
Low Expectations (Lave Forventninger) *
Dir: Eivind Landsvik
Once Upon A Time In Harlem – documentary
Dirs: William Greaves & David Greaves
La Perra
Dir: Domingo Sotomayor
Shana
Dir. Lila Pinell
Thanks for Coming (Merci d’être venu) – documentary
Dir: Alain Cavalier
Too Many Beasts (l’Espèce Explosive) *
Dir: Sarah Arnold
Viva Carmen (Carmen, L’Oiseau Rebel) – animation
Dir: Sebastian Laundenbach
We Are Aliens (animation) *
Dir: Kohei Kadowaki
Le Vertige – animation (Closing Film)
Dir: Quentin Dupieux
Short and Medium-Length Films
The Joyless Economy – documentary
Dir: Marjorie Conrad
Oh Boys
Dir: Antonio Donato
Early Morning
Dir. Sebastián Lojo
Eri – animation
Dir: Yano Honami
Pithead
Dir: Wannes Vanspauwen & Pol De Plecker
The Daughters Of The Late Colonel
Dir: Elizabeth Hobbs
Nothing Happens After Your Absence
Dir: Ibrahim Omar
Free Eliza (Notes On An Anatomical Imperfection)
Dir: Alexandra Matheou
In Search of the Green-striped Bird
Dir: Saïd Hamich Benlarb
