Cannes Is in Its Flop Era

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This year’s Cannes Film Festival used a promotional image from the movie Thelma & Louise, which also closed the festival in 1991. Everywhere you looked – on buildings, theaters, and even lampposts – Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon, looking effortlessly cool in their classic 1966 Ford Thunderbird, seemed to watch over the bustling crowds. While the festival felt urgent and exciting, the films themselves didn’t always match that energy. Looking back from 2026, Thelma & Louise feels special because it was both a critical and commercial success – a rare combination today. It earned six Academy Awards, made Davis and Sarandon even bigger stars, and sparked important conversations about feminism. But every time I saw their faces on the posters, I couldn’t help but remember the film’s famous ending, with the characters driving off a cliff.

There’s been a lot of discussion about the noticeable absence of major Hollywood films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Some suggest the big studios, facing creative constraints, financial difficulties, and internal restructuring, didn’t want to risk debuting their big-budget movies to Cannes’ famously critical audience. However, looking closer at potential blockbusters that might have been considered, their absence seems more about release timing than a complete Hollywood boycott. Christopher Nolan hasn’t shown a film at a festival since 2002, and Steven Spielberg likely avoided Cannes after receiving mixed reviews for his 2008 film, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. (I heard a rumor that The Mandalorian and Grogu was submitted but rejected, which feels fitting – while Cannes sometimes includes ambitious TV projects, it generally doesn’t consider extended TV episodes presented as a movie.) Despite all this, the lack of big American marketing campaigns left me feeling surprisingly sentimental.

Cannes isn‘t about over-the-top promotional stunts like Jerry Seinfeld’s zipline for The Bee Movie or seeing familiar ads for movies already everywhere else. But those moments, however unusual, contributed to the feeling that for eleven days in May, Cannes is the center of the movie world. It’s a place where big-budget marketing meets serious, artistic filmmaking – a showcase of everything cinema can be. The festival’s prestige was enough to draw Hollywood to the French Riviera, and that mattered. Without that industry presence, the films themselves are left to carry the weight of the festival’s expectations and attention. Sadly, this year’s selection didn’t live up to last year’s strong lineup, with many highly-regarded filmmakers delivering disappointing work and a lack of truly exciting, memorable movies – even beyond the usual self-promotion.

Asghar Farhadi’s Parallel Tales was a lighthearted French film that didn’t delve deeply into the ethics of basing stories on real lives. Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas explored similar ideas, but only became truly compelling when it started to critically examine itself. The two American filmmakers in the competition, James Gray and Ira Sachs, presented well-made but fairly unremarkable films, Paper Tiger and The Man I Love, revisiting familiar territory. Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Sheep in the Box offered a new take on the ‘artificial child’ concept seen in A.I. Artificial Intelligence, though it didn’t rank among his strongest works. Finally, Na Hong-jin contributed Hope, an alien invasion film with impressive action, but its message about xenophobia felt heavy-handed – it might have been better suited for a late-night showing.

Despite a generally underwhelming selection of films, the only one to receive noticeable boos at Cannes was The Unknown, directed by Arthur Harari, who also co-wrote Anatomy of a Fall. And it truly earned those boos, telling a disappointingly uninspired story about people switching bodies. Interestingly, even the usually critical Cannes audience seemed more understanding this year, perhaps recognizing the uncertain future of cinema itself. The one thing that consistently drew jeers was the logo for Canal+, the media company owned by conservative billionaire Vincent Bolloré, especially after its CEO announced they would punish the hundreds of people who signed a petition protesting the company’s political interference in film. However, there were still strong performances to admire, even in weaker movies. While this year’s festival might not produce as many Best Picture contenders as last year, several actors could still be nominated in other categories.

Léa Seydoux, who had a limited role in The Unknown, delivers a strong performance in Marie Kreutzer’s Gentle Monster, a somewhat flawed film about a woman dealing with the shocking news that her husband is under investigation for possessing illegal images. Javier Bardem is excellent as a troubled filmmaker in The Beloved who attempts to mend his relationship with his daughter by casting her in his latest project – it avoids being overly sentimental, but doesn’t fully deliver a satisfying conclusion. Several other films featured notable performances – Swann Arlaud in A Man of His Time as an ambitious man in wartime France, and Rami Malek in The Man I Love as a performance artist battling AIDS – though they may not gain widespread attention. However, Sandra Hüller truly shines as Erika Mann in Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, a standout film that offers a compelling look at post-war Germany.

While skillfully made, Fatherland is a restrained film, deliberately avoiding excessive ambition and aiming for solid impact rather than spectacle. It shares this quality with Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur. These films, like Fatherland, prioritize thoughtful storytelling. It’s understandable that audiences craving a bolder experience were captivated by The Black Ball, a sweeping Spanish film that blends historical drama, flamenco, poetry, and a century-spanning LGBTQ+ story. However, The Black Ball might face a more critical reception on Netflix, where it will be released. This year’s Cannes Film Festival featured a strong representation of queer cinema, including prominent competition films like The Black Ball and Coward, as well as other notable titles like Nagi Notes, Club Kid, Clarissa, and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s earlier film, All of a Sudden, was a festival favorite and won Best Actress for its two stars. It’s a long movie – over three hours – and features extensive conversations between the two leads, Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto. Efira plays the director of a French retirement home, and Okamoto plays a Japanese theater director on tour. After a brief meeting, they form a deep, platonic connection. I’m still considering my overall impression of the film, as it challenges viewers with its sincerity and straightforward approach. There’s a moment where Okamoto’s character even uses a whiteboard to explain her ideas about capitalism during a discussion about the difficulties of doing good work in a world dominated by money. However, I believe this kind of openness and vulnerability is especially valuable and courageous in uncertain times, and deserves recognition.

One of the most genuinely joyful moments at this year’s Cannes Film Festival happened early on, with Schoenbrun’s film, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, which opened the Un Certain Regard section. It was strong enough to have competed for the top prize, but it felt perfect as a showcase for rising talent. The film wasn’t amateurish – it was the director’s third – but it beautifully captured the mind of a young person struggling to reconcile their passions with their beliefs. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is packed with ideas about horror movies, complicated feelings about the past, anxieties about intimacy, and features a fantastic use of Counting Crows music. Ultimately, it’s a film about freeing yourself to react honestly to art, and it feels creatively vibrant and full of life. The fact that it’s an American film, supported by the UK’s Mubi, is a welcome bonus. Despite the challenges facing the United States, this film proves we still have something unique to offer.

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2026-05-27 17:55