Cannes Is Coming, With or Without Hollywood

The Cannes Film Festival announced its list of films today, and it’s noticeably lacking American studio movies. While a few more titles might be added, big Hollywood projects like the Tom Cruise film Digger and Toy Story 5 aren’t included. In fact, only one American director, Ira Sachs, is in competition with his new film, The Man I Love. This large-scale queer musical, set in Brooklyn, features stars like Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge, Rebecca Hall, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Hopefully, Sachs will represent American filmmaking well at the festival.

Cannes Film Festival’s artistic director, Thierry Frémaux, recently expressed a fondness for the past, recalling a time when studios consistently released a high volume of creatively driven films. He told Deadline that it’s difficult to distinguish between traditional studio films and independent American cinema. Frémaux believes it will take at least five years to fully understand the current state of film and the roles of both Cannes and American cinema within it.

Sachs will be up against some major international directors at the competition. Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas, featuring Bárbara Lennie, is one of the films in contention. Also competing are works by two-time Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi (Parallel Tales), Oscar nominee Ryusuke Hamaguchi (All of a Sudden), and Paweł Pawlikowski (Fatherland), starring Sandra Hüller, who recently appeared in Project Hail Mary.

Two promising American directors will showcase their films in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes: Jane Schoenbrun with Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, and Jordan Firstman with Club Kid. Additionally, Andy Garcia’s Diamond will be screened as a special presentation outside of the competition.

The full Cannes lineup can be found here.

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2026-04-09 17:54