Cannes unveiled its 2026 lineup on Thursday, its star power juiced up by beloved international auteurs Pedro Almodovar, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Asghar Farhadi.
And while there is some prominent Hollywood talent — such as Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve for Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord, Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder for Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, and Cara Delevingne for Jordan Firstman‘s Club Kid — they’re going with the likes of indie outfits Neon, Mubi, and UTA behind them.
Where are the studios? Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day at Universal was never a sure bet, and The Hollywood Reporter definitely wasn’t feeling too hopeful about Tom Cruise’s Digger (Warner Bros.) or Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey (also Universal). The same goes for Disney and the hotly anticipated Toy Story 5.
It’s also worth remembering that not every movie has been announced yet, with artistic director Thierry Fremaux likely to confirm some later additions in the coming weeks. That said, the recent studio tentpoles to play at Cannes — think Top Gun: Maverick, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — were announced in advance of the main selection press conference, which this year took place on Thursday morning French time. So, it’s notable that we haven’t had wind of any yet.
Fremaux even addressed the studio no-show at the top of the lineup conference. “The United States will be present [at this year’s festival],” he said, “Studios less [so]. When the studios are less present in Cannes, they are less present full stop.”
“Tom Cruise and Paramount came two years ago, for Mission: Impossible and Top Gun,” he continued. “Besides the studios and Los Angeles… [cinema] does exist and this selection will be testimony [to] that. The art of cinema will be present this year on the Croisette.”
Historically, screening at Cannes and other major film fests (Venice, Toronto, Berlin) has always been a mixed bag for the studios. The Croisette undoubtedly boasts the most glamorous red carpet on the planet (is there a more photographed set of stairs than those leading up to the Palais?) with big stunts garnering serious buzz, like Top Gun: Maverick‘s 2022 jet flypast blanketing the waterfront in red and blue smoke.
But the festivals are subject to some of the most notoriously fickle critics, as explored by THR at the Berlinale this year, an event that also failed to lure studio interest. Berlin director Tricia Tuttle traced the trend back to the 2024 Venice festival launch of Joker: Folie à Deux, Todd Phillips’ follow-up to Joker, which was swiftly trashed by festival critics and declared dead on arrival. It limped its way to a meager $200 million worldwide (its predecessor, for comparison, accrued over $1 billion, but it also won the Golden Lion).
And this isn’t to say it’s not an exciting lineup in Cannes: Ira Sachs’ musical fantasy The Man I Love with Rami Malek, John Travolta’s directorial debut Propeller One-Way Night Coach, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Kokurojo: The Samurai and the Prisoner, and Hirokazu Koreeda’s Sheep in the Box are all headed for the Palais, with documentaries from Ron Howard and Steven Soderbergh too.
However, the distinct lack of Hollywood is so prominent that even Fremaux felt he must address it before diving into the 2026 slate. Is it safer to dodge the harsh Cannes critics? Has excitement around major festivals dwindled? Is it harder to market a film out of a fest, or attract audiences weeks after its world premiere? If Fremaux doesn’t have a tentpole up his sleeve, such questions will only become more urgent when Cannes gets underway in May.
