The 79th Cannes Film Festival: A Week of Triumphs and Surprises
Cristian Mungiu wins his second Palme d'Or for Fjord, as the festival celebrates a historic streak for distributor Neon and a stacked lineup of international cinema.
The 79th Cannes Film Festival concluded on May 23, 2026, with Romanian director Cristian Mungiu winning the Palme d'Or for his film Fjord. The festival, which ran from May 12 to 23, was presided over by a jury led by South Korean director Park Chan-wook. Earlier, the festival lineup for the 2026 edition had been announced, featuring new works from several international filmmakers.
Palme d'Or Winner
Palme d'Or: Fjord (dir. Cristian Mungiu). This is Mungiu's second Palme d'Or, following his 2007 win for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days. Fjord is his first film shot in English and Norwegian and stars Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan.
Other Competition Awards
- Grand Prize (Grand Prix): Minotaur (dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev)
- Jury Prize: The Dreamed Adventure (dir. Valeska Grisebach)
- Best Director: Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi for The Black Ball, and Pawel Pawlikowski for Fatherland (tie)
- Best Actress: Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto for All of a Sudden (tie)
- Best Actor: Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne for Coward (tie)
- Best Screenplay: Emmanuel Marre for A Man of His Time
Other Official Awards
- Caméra d'Or (Best First Film): Ben'Imana (dir. Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo)
- Short Film Palme d'Or: For The Opponents (dir. Federico Luis)
Honorary Palme d'Or
Honorary Palme d'Or awards were given to Barbra Streisand, Peter Jackson, and John Travolta. Streisand was unable to attend due to a knee injury and accepted via video message.
Sidebar Competitions
- Un Certain Regard: Everytime (dir. Sandra Wollner)
- Directors' Fortnight Best European Film: Too Many Beasts (dir. Sarah Arnold)
- Critics Week: La Gradiva (dir. Marine Atlan)
- Audience Award: I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning (dir. Clio Barnard)
- Queer Palm: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
Award Ceremony and Jury
The awards were presented at the closing ceremony on May 23, 2026. The Competition jury, chaired by Park Chan-wook, included Demi Moore, Stellan Skarsgård, Ruth Negga, Isaach De Bankolé, Chloé Zhao, Diego Céspedes, Laura Wandel, and Paul Laverty. Presenters included Geena Davis, Xavier Dolan, Pierfrancesco Favino, Gael García Bernal, Nadine Labaki, Zoe Saldaña, and Tilda Swinton.
Distribution and Acquisitions
Neon distributed Fjord, marking its seventh consecutive year of distributing the Palme d'Or winner, a streak beginning with Parasite in 2019. In the days following the festival, MUBI acquired Coward and Netflix acquired The Black Ball.
Festival Lineup (2026 Edition)
The official lineup for the 79th edition was announced earlier in 2026. Key films in the Competition section included:
- Minotaur (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
- The Beloved (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)
- The Man I Love (Ira Sachs)
- Fatherland (Paweł Pawlikowski)
- Moulin (László Nemes)
- The Birthday Party (Léa Mysius)
- Fjord (Cristian Mungiu)
- Notre Salut (Emmanuel Marre)
- Gentle Monster (Marie Kreutzer)
- Hope (Na Hong-jin)
- Nagi Notes (Kôji Fukada)
- Sheep in the Box (Hirokazu Kore-eda)
- Garance (Jeanne Herry)
- The Unknown (Arthur Harari)
- All of a Sudden (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
- The Dreamed Adventure (Valeska Grisebach)
- Coward (Lukas Dhont)
- The Black Ball (Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo)
- A Woman’s Life (Charline Bourgeois-Taquet)
- Parallel Tales (Asghar Farhadi)
- Bitter Christmas (Pedro Almodóvar)
- Paper Tiger (James Gray)
The festival reported 2,541 feature film submissions for official selection. Additional titles were added in a second wave of announcements on April 9 and April 16.
Opening and Closing Films
The festival opened with The Electric Kiss (La Vénus électrique) by Pierre Salvadori.