Historical Achievement for Spain: Three Films to Compete for the Palme d'Or at Cannes 2026

The 79th Cannes Film Festival will take place from 12 to 23 May 2026. This year marks a historic milestone for Spain, with three Spanish films selected for the Main Competition to vie for the prestigious Palme d'Or. The contenders include Pedro Almodóvar’s Bitter Christmas (Amarga Navidad), Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved (El ser querido), and the directorial debut in competition for Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, The Black Ball (La bola negra). The international jury will be headed by the renowned South Korean director Park Chan-wook (Oldboy, Decision to Leave).

Cannes 2026 Main Competition

• PARALLEL TALES by Asghar FARHADI
• A WOMAN’S LIFE by Charline BOURGEOIS-TACQUET
• LA BOLA NEGRA by Javier CALVO & Javier AMBROSSI
• COWARD by Lukas DHONT
• DAS GETRÄUMTE ABENTEUER by Valeska GRISEBACH
• ALL OF SUDDEN by HAMAGUCHI Ryusuke
• THE UNKNOWN by Arthur HARARI
• ANOTHER DAY by Jeanne HERRY
• SHEEP IN THE BOX by KORE-EDA Hirokazu
• HOPE by NA Hong-jin
• NAGI NOTES by FUKADA Koji
• GENTLE MONSTER by Marie KREUTZER
• NOTRE SALUT by Emmanuel MARRE
• FJORD by Cristian MUNGIU
• THE BIRTHDAY PARTY by Léa MYSIUS
• MOULIN by László NEMES
• FATHERLAND by Pawel PAWLIKOWSKI
• THE MAN I LOVE by Ira SACHS
• EL SER QUERIDO by Rodrigo SOROGOYEN
• MINOTAUR by Andrey ZVYAGINTSEV

Un Certain Regard will feature Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (Jane Schoenbrun), Les Eléphants dans la Brume (Abinash Bikram Shah), Le Corset (Louis Clichy), Benimana (Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo), Congo Boy (Rafiki Fariala), Club Kid (Jordan Firstman), Ulya (Viesturs Kairishs), La más dulce (Laïla Marrakchi), The Meltdown (Manuela Martelli), Forever Your Maternal Animal (Valentina Maurel), Yesterday The Eye Didn’t Sleep (Rakan Mayasi), I’ll Be Gone in June (Katharina Rivilis), Words of Love (Rudi Rosenberg), Everytime (Sandra Wollner), and All the Lovers in the Night (Yukiko Sode).

Out of Competition screenings include Her Private Hell (Nicolas Winding Refn), Diamond (Andy Garcia), Karma (Guillaume Canet), The Object of Offence (Agnès Jaoui), De Gaulle: The Age of Iron (Antonin Baudry), and Abandonment (Vincent Garenq).

Midnight Screenings include Roma Elastica (Bertrand Mandico), Full Phil (Quentin Dupieux), Colony (Yeon Sang-ho), Jim Queen (Nicolas Athane and Marco Nguyen), and Sanguine (Marion Le Coroller).

Cannes Premiere highlights include Propeller One-Way Night Coach (John Travolta), The Samurai and the Prisoner (Kiyoshi Kurosawa), Visitation (Volker Schlöndorff), The Match (Juan Cabral and Santiago Franco), and The Third Night (Daniel Auteuil).