The Cannes Film Festival on Tuesday unrolled its red carpet, with 22 films vying for the big prize – the Palme d'Or. Meanwhile behind the scenes, artificial intelligence and the absence of major American studios are what's got everyone talking.
Franco-Malian MC Eye Haïdara will get the party started at the opening ceremony, accompanied by singers Theodora and Oklou in a Beatles number in honour of Peter Jackson, who has made a documentary about the Fab Four.
The New Zealand director, of The Lord of the Rings fame, is to receive the lifetime achievement award as part of the extravaganza on Tuesday evening.
The ceremony will be followed by the screening of French film La Vénus électrique (The Electric Kiss) by Pierre Salvadori, a burlesque comedy set in 1920s Paris starring Anaïs Demoustier as a fake fortune teller who helps a struggling artist, played by Pio Marmaï, get his mojo back.
The main competition begins in earnest on Wednesday, judged by South Korean director Park Chan-wook and his eclectic team of jury members.
South Korean director Park Chan-wook to preside at Cannes Film Festival
Focus on Asia
"I cannot help but feel a sense of emotion, realising that for the first time a Korean has become the head of the jury," Park told French news agency AFP on Monday in Cannes. "The moment has finally come."
Films from Asia are prominent this year across several categories. South Korea is represented by Nah Hong-jin's Hope, starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander, and Japan by Ryusuke Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden (filmed in France and starring Virginie Efira), Hirokazu Kore-eda's Sheep in the Box and Koji Fukada's Nagi Notes.
"I think the prizes need to go to films that will stand the test of time, and ones that everyone can agree on in 50 or 100 years," Park told RFI's sister TV channel France 24.
In the main competition, a total of 22 films are vying for the prestigious Palme d'Or prize for best film, won last year by the politically charged Iranian movie It Was Just an Accident by Jafar Panahi.
Iran is present again this year with Parallel Tales by Asghar Farhardi, filmed in France with a star-studded French-speaking cast.
China and India are conspicuously absent from the main competition, as is the African continent. However, three of the 19 films in the prestigious parallel section, Un Certain Regard, hail from Africa.
Strawberries, by Moroccan director Laïla Marrakchi, tells the story of the exploitation of Moroccan seasonal workers in greenhouses in Spain, while Congo Boy is an autobiographical narrative by Central African filmmaker Rafiki Fariale about his life in exile.
Meanwhile Ben'Imana, by Rwandan director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, addresses post-genocide Rwanda from the perspective of reconciliation.
Historical conflict
In contrast to last year's edition, none of the films in competition in 2026 deal with current global crises – the conflicts taking place in Ukraine, Iran, Gaza, the Middle East, Sudan and Democratic Republic of Congo won't be seen on Cannes' screens.
The exception is 62-year-old Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev's film Minotaur. Set in Russia but filmed in Latvia, it explores how the Russian middle classes are grappling with military conscription.
However, several films have used historical conflicts as their backdrop.
Belgium's Lukas Dhont revisits the First World War in Coward, while Hungary's Laszlo Nemes celebrates the charismatic French Second World War Resistance fighter Jean Moulin.
Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski presents Fatherland, about writer Thomas Mann's return to Germany in 1945, and Belgian Emmanuel Marre turns his lens on the civil servants who governed occupied Vichy France in A Man of his Time.
AI present, Hollywood absent
Although several American film makers are present in the main competition – notably James Gray with Paper Tiger, starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, and Ira Sachs' The Man I Love with Rami Malek – the big Hollywood studios have stayed away.
The fact that no major United States studio agreed to launch a blockbuster at Cannes this year, nor at the Berlin International Film Festival in February, has raised eyebrows – and questions over why giants such as Universal, Disney and Warner are dodging European events.
"I really hope that the studios come back," Cannes director Thierry Frémaux said on Monday, attributing their absence to scheduling issues and industry turmoil.
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The other big off-screen talking point is how the industry copes with changes wrought by artificial intelligence.
Frémaux has sharply criticised its effect, with job losses mounting for dubbing artists and translators, while writers and actors fear for their livelihoods.
"What is certain... is that here in Cannes we stand with the artists, we stand with the screenwriters and we stand with everyone in these professions, with actors and voice actors alike," he told a press conference on Monday.
He suggested that in the future, films could be given labels stating "this film has been made without artificial intelligence".
French actors slam 'systematic plundering' of voices and images by AI tools
There is controversy around director Steven Soderbergh, who is premiering his documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview in the Special Screenings section at Cannes.
Soderbergh partnered with Meta – the parent company to Facebook and Instagram, and also also an official partner of the Cannes Festival – to obtain AI-generated video of the late Beatle and his wife Yoko Ono in order to recreate a conversation between them hours before his death in 1980.
The use of AI was central to the 2023 strikes that shut down Hollywood, as actors and writers warned that unchecked technology was a threat to the industry. Thousands of French actors and filmmakers warned in an open letter in February that AI tools were "plundering" talent across the industry.
While the Marché du Film, the business wing of the festival, will be hosting a number of debates on the subject, the A-listers on the red carpet remain reassuringly real... this year.
