From James Gray, Ruben Östlund & Paweł Pawlikowski To Iñárritu’s Tom Cruise-Starrer, ‘Cliff Booth’ & Judith Godrèche’s Directorial Debut: 79 Films That Could Light Up Festivals In 2026

Happy New Year! Goodbye 2025 and hello 2026. As the Deadline team catches its breath before hitting the global film festival circuit again later this month, here is our annual (non-exhaustive) list of U.S. and international movies we believe/hope will make the cut. As in our previous prediction lists, we’ve focused on titles that have already started filming or are in post-production and which haven’t yet been announced for a festival.

There’s always great interest in which studio movies could grace Cannes, Venice and other A-list festivals. We hear movies unlikely to debut on the Croisette, despite their early summer launch dates, include Steven Spielberg’s UFO film Disclosure Day (June 12 launch) and Disney/Pixar sequel Toy Story 5 (June 19). Christopher Nolan’s red-hot epic The Odyssey (July 17) is surely opening as a stand-alone summer blockbuster, with the director eschewing festival launches for many years. And just imagine the studio costs associated with getting all that talent to the Riviera! That leaves Cannes potentially short-handed in terms of major studio launches. But Thierry Frémaux often works magic, so let’s see. There will still be plenty of high-profile pictures to choose from, as our list below reveals.

Looking to the fall festivals, Alejandro González Iñárritu’s newly titled Digger, starring Tom Cruise, looks possible for Venice, while Dune: Part Three has been dated for December 18, so seems to be removed from festival contention. There’s also a question mark over Netflix’s anticipated The Adventures of Cliff Booth. David Fincher is reportedly still filming into January so he’d have to go some to be ready for a summer release (which was reported in one trade), but we hear that Venice or another fall fest isn’t off the table. Netflix often has a healthy contingent on the Lido, and Fincher’s last film (also for Netflix), The Killer, launched at the Italian jamboree, while two of his last five films debuted at the New York Film Festival. Tom Ford’s starry drama Cry To Heaven is due to film into the early spring and hasn’t set a studio partner yet so seems unlikely to be ready for a 2026 launch.

Check out our list below.

Paper Tiger

Adam Driver, Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson star in James Gray’s New York-set crime drama about two brothers whose pursuit of the American Dream puts them on the wrong side of the Russian mafia. Expectations are high for a premiere in Cannes, where Gray has already debuted five features including last film Armageddon Time. Producer Rodrigo Teixeira proclaimed to Deadline in December that Paper Tiger is Gray’s best film ever.

The Entertainment System is Down

Ruben Östlund’s new film is one of the most anticipated independent pictures of the year thanks to its high-profile ensemble cast and the Swedish director’s Cannes Palme d’Or and Oscar nomination track record. The dark satire is set on a flight between England and Australia on which the entertainment system fails, forcing the passengers to keep themselves occupied over the course of the long-haul journey. The large ensemble cast features Kirsten Dunst, Daniel Brühl, Keanu Reeves, Nicholas Braun and Tobias Menzies.

A Girl’s Story

Judith Godrèche rocked the French cinema world in 2024 with sexual abuse accusations against directors Benoît Jacquot and Jacques Doillon, turbo-charging France’s MeToo movement in the process. She is now gearing up to unveil her feature directorial debut adapted from Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux’s autobiographical novel. Valérie Dréville, Tess Barthélémy, Maïwène Barthélémy and Anna Mouglalis lead the ensemble cast bringing Ernaux’s flashbacks to life as she reminisces during a book-signing trip that triggers memories of the pivotal summer of 1958. Godrèche, who has been a regular guest in Cannes as an actress, hit the festival as a director in 2023 with short film Moi Aussi.

1949

After a lengthy break, Oscar-winning Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski is back with this Cold War drama co-starring Hanns Zischler and Sandra Hüller as writer Thomas Mann and his daughter Erika, an actress, journalist and rally driver. Based on the 2021 novel The Magician by Colm Tóibín, the feature follows the Manns on a road trip they took across Germany in 1949 from Frankfurt in West Germany to Weimar, East Germany. Pawlikowski was last on the festival in 2018 with Cold War which played in competition in Cannes and was nominated for three Oscars.

Out of This World

After Tahiti-set Pacification and bullfighting doc Afternoons of Solitude, Cannes and San Sebastian regular Albert Serra delves into geopolitics with this tale of an American delegation on a mission to Russia during the Ukrainian war. Riley Keough features in the cast alongside F. Murray Abraham, Evgeniya Gromova and Liza Yankovskaia.

The Adventures Of Cliff Booth

First revealed by Deadline in June, Netflix’s film continues the story of Brad Pitt’s character from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. David Fincher directs, with Quentin Tarantino’s blessing and the latter’s script. Also in the cast are Yahya Abdul-Mateen, Elizabeth Debicki, Carla Gugino and Scott Caan. What’s not to like? The fall festivals would kill to have the movie. Netflix always has a healthy contingent on the Lido. Could this be part of the 2026 class?

Digger

Warner Bros and Legendary’s new Tom Cruise movie directed by four-time Oscar winner Alejandro González Iñárritu has newly been titled Digger and will hit theaters on October 2, 2026 — that’s the prized frame where Warner Bros/DC’s Joker bowed in 2019 after world premiering in Venice. Expectations are high for the film described as “a comedy of catastrophic proportions.” Fall festivals are likely in the discussion at the moment.

The Unknown

French director Arthur Harari drew widespread praise for Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle, which premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2021 and then shared the Best Original Screenplay Oscar with Justine Triet for Anatomy of a Fall in 2024. His third feature adapts his graphic novel The Case of David Zimmerman, co-written with brother Lucas Harari. The fantasy drama revolves around the titular David, a reclusive photographer who wakes up on New Year’s Day to find himself in the body of a woman he clocked at a party the previous night. The cast features Léa Seydoux and Niels Schneider.

Gentle Monster

Austrian director Marie Kreutzer won acclaim for historical drama Corsage, starring Vicky Krieps as Empress Elisabeth of Austria, or Sisi, which played in Un Certain Regard in 2022 and was then Austria’s Oscar entry. Her new drama stars Léa Seydoux as a renowned pianist who relocates with her family to the countryside and then uncovers a life-shattering truth that forces her to confront the complexities of love and trust. The cast also features Jella Haase (Chantal in Fairyland), Laurence Rupp (Veni, Vidi, Vici) and Catherine Deneuve.

Misty Green (working title)

Rosalind Eleazar (Slow Horses) stars as talented actress Misty Green, who is attempting to re-set a career derailed by her vices in this original feature written and directed by Chris Rock. The stand-up and actor also appears in the role of film director Jordan, who offers Misty a role that would be perfect for her if it were not for their contentious past. The cast also features Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya and Anna Kendrick.

Parallel Tales

Iranian director Asghar Farhadi returns to France for a second time after 2013 couple drama The Past. His new French-language drama gathers a high-profile ensemble cast topped by Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney and Adam Bessa, with Catherine Deneuve also putting in a brief appearance. The film’s storyline is under wraps. Farhadi, who won Oscars for his Iran-set features A Separation (2012) and The Salesman (2018,) vowed in 2024 that he would no longer make films at home until the country’s Islamic Republic government lifts draconian rules around women’s rights and attire.

Fjord

Romanian director Cristian Mungiu’s English-language debut co-stars Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice) and Renate Reinsve (Sentimental Value) as a Romanian and Norwegian couple whose plans for a new life in the wife’s native fjord village come up against neighbors with a very different outlook on life. The film, which features some Romanian dialogue, also marks a first for Stan who was born in Romania but has never acted in his native language, having grown up in Austria and then the U.S. Mungiu has played in competition at Cannes four times, winning the Palme d’Or for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in 2007; Best Screenplay for Beyond The Hills in 2012; and Best Director for Graduation in 2016. He told Deadline in December that he is aiming for a Cannes berth once again.

It’s All Going Very Well No Problems At All

Australian writer, director, producer and actor Tilda Cobham-Hervey stars in her feature directorial debut as a young artist teetering on the edge of a quiet collapse, who finds solace and understanding through a profound connection with Harold, an elderly resident at the care home where she works. Cobham-Hervey previously made waves with short film A Field Guide to Being a 12-Year-Old Girl which won the Crystal Bear for Best Short Film at the Berlinale in 2018.

At The Sea & Place To Be

Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó’s Hollywood currency rose in 2020 with English-language debut Pieces of a Woman after Vanessa Kirby was Oscar-nominated for her performance. It remains to be seen whether Amy Adams will enjoy a similar trajectory as the star of his latest movie about a woman who takes refuge in her family’s beach home after a major life setback. Mundruczó is set for a high-profile 2026 with a second film, Place to Be, starring Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi, also currently in post-production.

A Family
Carice van Houten, Pieter Embrechts and rising young talents Celeste Holsheimer and Finn Vogels co-star in this intimate Dutch-language portrait of two siblings caught in the emotional crossfire of their parents’ divorce. The story unfolds from mirrored perspectives as they navigate loyalty, heartbreak and the fragile path back to love. It is the second feature from Netherlands filmmaker Mees Peijnenburg, whose debut Paradise Drifters premiered at the 2020 Berlinale.

Wolfram

Indigenous Australian filmmaker Warwick Thornton’s new movie is billed as a period Western set on the 1930s colonial frontier. It follows three Aboriginal children who escape brutal servitude in the wolfram mines and embark on a dangerous journey across Central Australia in search of safety and a future they can call their own. Thornton won the Cannes Caméra d’Or for his first film Samson and Delilah in 2009 and was back at the festival in 2023 with The New Boy starring Cate Blanchett. 

Love Is Not the Answer

Juno and Superbad star Michael Cera makes his feature directorial debut with this absurdist comedy exploring modern loneliness and the search for connection. Pamela Anderson, Steve Coogan and Jamie Dornan star with further cast members including Lucas Hedges, Julia Best Warner and Shirley Henderson. Deadline is told it could be ready in time for a 2026 festival splash.

Deli Love

A regular on the festival circuit with her short films such as Chopping Onions, Cheer Up Baby and Moving, New York-based filmmaker Adinah Dancyger taps into her Korean and Polish roots for this debut feature revolving around an unlikely bond forged between a Korean deli owner and a Polish-Jewish artist in her home city in the 1980s and continued against the odds across decades.

Love Lessons

Fabrice Luchini, who won Best Actor in Venice for his performance in 2015 courtroom drama Courted, stars as a lonely retired literature teacher who reinvents his life in French writer-director Martin Provost’s eighth movie. Other cast include Chiara Mastroianni, Emmanuelle Devos and Carole Bouquet. Provost, whose credits include Séraphine, The Midwife and How to Be a Good Wife, was last in Cannes in 2023 with artist biopic Bonnard, Pierre & Marthe.

Hot Spot

Set in a near future world ruled by AI, Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Smoczyńska’s sci-fi thriller stars Noomi Rapace as a private investigator who stumbles upon a rebel group capable of undermining the digital overlord while investigating a murder case.  She is joined in the cast by Andrzej Konopka (Kler) and Reika Kirishima (Shoplifters). Smoczyńska’s last film The Silent Twins played in Cannes Un Certain Regard.

A Long Winter

Riding high on the reception for All of Us Strangers, Andrew Haigh has gathered one of his buzziest casts to date — featuring Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear), Caitriona Balfe (The Amateur), Fred Hechinger (Marty Supreme), Kit Connor (Warfare), and D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai (Caught Stealing) — for this mountain-set tale of a family preparing for a long winter ahead, against a backdrop of absence and regret. Adapted from the eponymous novella by Colm Tóibín (Brooklyn, Return to Montauk), the drama began filming last October and hopes are high that it will be ready for a 2026 festival splash.

Les Misérables

France’s Fred Cavayé has promised an action-skewed revisiting of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables with his French-language adaptation of the 1862 classic novel. Vincent Lindon co-stars as ex-convict and parole breaker turned benevolent industrialist Jean Valjean, opposite Tahar Rahim as his nemesis, Inspector Javert. Further cast members include Camille Cottin, Benjamin Lavernhe and Noémie Merlant.

The Beloved

Javier Bardem stars as an acclaimed film director who reunites with his unsuccessful actress daughter on a movie after years of estrangement in Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s first movie in four years. Victoria Luengo (The Room Next Door) plays the daughter, with other cast members including Raúl Arévalo (Pain and Glory) and Marina Foïs, who starred in the Sorogoyen’s 2022 Goya Best Film breakout The Beasts (As Bestas). In between times, the director made TV drama The New Years.

Four Seasons in Java

Indonesia director Kamila Andini’s sixth feature revolves around a woman who returns home after spending more than a decade in prison for killing the man who raped her. Finding herself unwelcome and marginalized, she unites with other outcasts as she reconciles with her past and carves out a new life. Andini has shown nearly all her films at the Berlinale, with her last feature Before, Now & Then premiering in competition in 2022. In between times, she made the award-winning Netflix show Cigarette Girl.

Jia Zhangke Untitled Project

Speaking with Deadline’s Asia correspondent Liz Shackleton at the Pingyao Film Festival in September, Chinese auteur Jia Zhangke revealed he had written a screenplay for “a road movie without cars” following a journey across China. He did not divulge further details but said he aimed to begin shooting in December 2025. The director was last on the festival circuit with Caught By the Tides which played in Cannes in competition.

Rosebush Pruning

Callum Turner and Riley Keough top the cast of Karim Aïnouz’s remake of Marco Bellochio’s 1965 satirical drama Fists in the Pocket about family dysfunction. Aïnouz is directing script written by longtime Yorgos Lanthimos colloborator Efthimis Filippou. Brazilian and Algerian filmmaker Aïnouz’s last three films — Motel Destino, Firebrand and The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmao — all debuted in Cannes.

La Bola Negra

Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who are known collectively as Los Javos, first made waves with genre-bending thriller La Mesias. Their second feature is based on an unfinished play by Federico García Lorca and revolves around the interconnected stories of three men across three different eras. Penélope Cruz features in the cast alongside singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente, in his big-screen debut, and Cannes Best Actress winner Lola Dueñas (Volver).

A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra

Greek director Jacqueline Lentzou’s second feature takes its cue from the unexpected death of a teenager in Athens, whose light does not go out. Lentzou previously made waves with 2021 first feature Moon, 66 Questions, which premiered in Berlin’s Encounters section.

Fleur

French animation director Rémi Chayé’s last film Calamity, a Childhood of Martha Jane Cannary won Best Film at the Annecy International Animation Festival in 2020. With animation increasingly getting a splash in mainstream festivals, we’ve included his third animated feature in our list. Set in the beginning of the 20th century, the work revolves around the fortunes of titular Fleur, a young girl who rebels against her life in a slum on the outskirts of Paris and seeks out the bright lights of the Belle Epoque capital.

Yellow Letters

Deadline’s Baz Bamigboye reported in July 2024 that Ilker Çatak had wrapped production on his next feature Yellow Letters. Çatak shot the film in secret and has been in post-production since then and is expected to hit the festival circuit this year. The film follows a married actress and a professor of dramatic arts at the university in Ankara, whose lives are sent into a tailspin when they both lose their jobs due to “state arbitrariness.”

Ink

Hot on the heels of 28 Years Later, Danny Boyle delves into the events surrounding Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of UK newspaper The Sun in 1969 and drive to make the then-failing broadsheet into one of the country’s most read newspapers. He directs from James Graham’s adaptation of his Tony-nominated play of the same name. Guy Pearce plays Murdoch opposite Jack O’Connell as so-called tabloid king Albert “Larry” Lamb, the Yorkshire native hired to spearhead the newspaper’s transformation. Boyle has debuted multiple films at festivals but not all.

Bitter Christmas

After winning the Golden Lion in Venice with The Room Next Door, legendary Spanish filmmaker Pedró Almodóvar got straight back to work with Bitter Christmas, a film about a woman who is abandoned by her partner during Christmas time. Almodóvar reunites with Milena Smit and Rossy de Palma on the film, which is the Spanish giant’s 25th feature project. The film is set for a March 20 launch in Spain, so could play Berlin and would be a significant coup for Berlin head Tricia Tuttle, although the Spanish release does not exclude it from a Cannes splash.

Coward

Set during World War I, Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont’s latest feature follows soldiers trying to keep up their morale in the trenches. Stirred by wartime rhetoric, each of them seeks their own path. The film is currently set for a May 2026 release in the filmmaker’s home country, so a Cannes debut is theoretically on the cards. Dhont was last at the festival in 2022 with Close, which debuted in competition and was then Oscar nominated as Belgium’s entry that year.

De Gaulle: Tilting Iron & De Gaulle: The Sovereign Edge

Diplomat-turned-director Antonin Baudry revisits decisive episodes of World War II through the eyes of Gen. Charles de Gaulle. Simon Abkarian plays de Gaulle and is joined by an ensemble that includes Benoît Magimel, Mathieu Kassovitz, Niels Schneider and Karim Leklou, Florian Lesieur and Anamaria Vartolomei. Dated for release in France on June 10 and July 3, 2026, respectively, we would not be surprised to see at least the first part play Out of Competition in Cannes. Pathé released a teaser in late December that promises a polished, high-octane movie.

All of a Sudden

Japanese Oscar-winning director Ryusuke Hamaguchi followed in the footsteps of compatriots Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Hirokazu Kore-eda to shoot his latest picture in Paris, with some scenes shot in Kyoto. French-Belgian actress Virginie Efira stars opposite Japanese actress Tao Okamoto in this tale of the bond between a Japanese theater director and the French head of a nursing home. The drama is loosely based on published letters written by late philosopher Makiko Miyano in the wake of her diagnosis with breast cancer.

It Will Happen Tonight

Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca co-star in Italian director Nanni Moretti’s romance unfolding in Rome, Turin and San Sebastian among other locations. The film is adapted from short story Hungry Heart by Israeli author Eshkol Nevo, whose work previously inspired Moretti’s 2021 film Three Floors Up. Cannes would be an obvious berth for Moretti, who has debuted 11 films at the festival beginning with Ecce Bombo in 1978 and including Dear Diary, for which he won best director in 1993, and Palme d’Or-winning The Son’s Room in 2001.

Where To?

After a series of award-winning shorts including Auschwitz on My Mind and Seven Minutes, Israeli director Assaf Machnes makes his feature debut with this timely Berlin-set drama about a series of encounters between a reserved 55-year-old Palestinian Uber driver and a young, outspoken Israeli who keeps getting lost in the city.

The Uprising

Set during the English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381, Paul Greengrass’ period drama stars Andrew Garfield as legendary laborer-turned-rebel leader Wat Tyler. Principal photography began in September 2025, with filming taking place across multiple Bavarian and Franconian locations, as well as at the newly established Penzing Studios in Munich. Garfield is joined in the cast by Jamie Bell and Thomasin McKenzie among others.

Soumsoum

Chadian director Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s new film unfolds in a village where a young woman named Kellou is troubled by haunting visions. Feeling different from everyone around her, her world shifts the day she meets outcast Aya. As the villagers turn against their budding friendship, Kellou must stand up for Aya and face the hostility of her own people, while fighting to hold on to her freedom. Haroun is one of Africa’s most feted directors with notable films including A Dry Season, A Screaming Man and Lingui.

Artificial

Fresh from their collaboration on After the Hunt, Luca Guadagnino and Andrew Garfield have reunited on this comedy drama set in the world of artificial intelligence. It is reportedly inspired by the company OpenAI and the tumultuous few days in 2023 in which founder and CEO Sam Altman was fired and then promptly rehired. Garfield is joined in the cast by Yura Borisov, Monica Barbaro, Jason Schwartzman, Cooper Hoffman, Ike Barinholtz, Cooper Koch, Billie Lourd, Zosia Mamet and Chris O’Dowd among others.

Jesse Eisenberg Untitled Musical

Jesse Eisenberg planted his flag as a serious director with 2024’s A Real Pain, which won an Oscar after its Sundance debut. He returns to director’s chair with this untitled musical project starring Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti. A24 has picked up world rights on the project, which has largely been kept under wraps. We know nothing of its plot. However, production began in early 2025, so the film is theoretically prime for a 2026 debut. 

Sheep In The Box & Look Back

Japanese Cannes regular Hirokazu Kore-eda has two potential festival titles in the works. Sheep in the Box is set in the near future in which a couple adopts a state-of-the-art humanoid as their son, while Look Back is adapted from Tatsuki Fujimoto’s eponymous bestselling manga about two girls pursuing their dreams of becoming manga artists. Kore-eda is a regular at Cannes with Monster, Broker, Like Father, Like Son and Palme d’Or winner Shoplifters, which went on to secure an Oscar nomination.

By Any Means

The cast for Elegance Bratton’s latest feature is ridiculously stacked. The ensemble includes Mark Wahlberg, Nicole Beharie (The Morning Show), Giancarlo Esposito (Captain America: Brave New World), Josh Lucas (Palm Royale), David Strathairn (The Luckiest Man in America), Ethan Embry (Scream 7), LisaGay Hamilton (The Dropout) and LaChanze (The Outsiders). The film’s plot follows a notorious mafia hitman and a young Black FBI agent who team to investigate the murders of civil rights leaders in 1966 Mississippi. By Any Means will be one of the hottest fall 2026 titles. 

Enemies

American filmmaker Henry Dunham is in a prime position to hit the fall festivals with his second feature. The film began shooting in May 2025, so it will likely be in a strong position by the new year. The film also stars contemporary leading men Jeremy Allen White and Austin Butler. It follows a relentless detective and an infamous contract killer who collide in a deadly game of cat and mouse. Dunham’s film was The Standoff At Sparrow Creek which premiered at TIFF in 2018.

I Play Rocky

The tumultuous 1970s production of Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky is getting the biopic treatment in I Play Rocky from Amazon MGM. The film stars Anthony Ippolito as a young Stallone. The film was deep in production in October 2025, according to Amazon, so it could be ready in time for a late fall festival debut. 

Last Days

Following successful runs at the Royal Opera House in London and the L.A. Phil, the English-language opera Last Days has been adapted for the big screen by artist and filmmaker Matt Copson, who co-created the original opera with Oliver Leith. Inspired by Gus Van Sant’s 2005 film of the same name and financed by Mubi, Spain’s AF Films, and LUMA Projects, with additional support from Nina Pictures and Artemis Rising Foundation, the film stars Agathe Rousselle (Titane), who also starred in the original opera production. Louverture Films (Joslyn Barnes and Diana Bustamante), Many Enterprises (Jordan Harkins), and LUMA Projects are the lead producers.

Full Phil

France’s maestro of the absurd Quentin Dupieux opened Cannes in 2024 with his film-within-a-film The Second Act. His latest feature co-stars Woody Harrelson as wealthy American industrialist Philip Doom who travels to Paris to reconnect with his estranged daughter (Kristen Stewart). The trip takes a strange turn thanks to French food, horror films and a strange hotel employee. The cast also features Emma Mackey, Charlotte Le Bon, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.

Wolves

Inspired by Lebanon’s real-life 2019 economic collapse, Rami Kodeih and Nora Mariana Salim’s debut feature revolves around a young woman who decides to stage a bank heist when she is unable to withdraw her life’s savings to pay for her sister’s cancer treatment. The L.A.-based husband and wife team previously made waves with short films Alina and Maki & Zorro.

Orient Adagio

After a high-profile 2025 for Palestinian cinema on the festival circuit thanks to films such as Palestine 36, All That’s Left of You and Once Upon a Time in Gaza, Maha Haj looks at another Palestinian reality. Her third feature follows a Palestinian filmmaker, born and raised in a refugee camp in Syria, who gets a residency in Paris to write his first feature. It’s a dream come true, but the weight of events back home sends him into artistic paralysis. Haj is a regular on the festival circuit, with her first two films Personal Affairs and Mediterranean Fever both debuting in Cannes Un Certain Regard.

Behemoth!

Tony Gilroy shot his first feature since 2017’s The Bourne Legacy in 2025. Pedro Pascal leads a cast that also includes David Harbour, Eva Victor and Olivia Wilde. Character details are under wraps, and the film’s logline remains locked down for now, though Gilroy has shared in interviews that the story revolves around a cellist. Gilroy’s star power alongside a strong cast will make this feature a hot title for festival curators. 

Wild Horse Nine

Martin McDonagh’s long-gestating feature Wild Horse Nine began shooting in March 2025, making the project a likely candidate for the 2026 fall festivals. Venice is probably the most logical home for the film, considering McDonagh has debuted his last two films at the Italian festival. John Malkovich stars alongside Sam Rockwell in the comedy-drama, which has been kept under wraps. 

Sweetsick

A long shot, but still worth noting, Alice Birch began shooting Sweetsick, her debut feature as a director, in late 2025. The film stars Cate Blanchett and follows a mercurial woman with a strange and piercing gift – the ability to see what others most intimately need, often at great personal cost – who sets out on a journey home.

Here Comes the Flood

Denzel Washington, Robert Pattinson and Daisy Edgar-Jones are starring in this Netflix heist film from Fernando Meirelles, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind The Two Popes and City of God. Written by Simon Kinberg, the film is described as an unconventional heist flick about a bank guard, a teller and a master thief in a deadly game of cons and double crosses.

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

Nicolas Winding Refn’s first film since Neon Demon in 2016 shot in Tokyo and Copenhagen with a cast including Sophie Thatcher, Charles Melton, Kristine Froseth and Havana Rose Liu. Plot and character details have been kept under wraps but the filmmaker has strong ties to Cannes. Neon is repping rights and handling domestic distribution, which is another potential Cannes signpost.

Possible Love

Burning and Secret Sunshine director Lee Chang-dong returns to directing after eight years. He reunites here with Jeon Do-yeon, who won the Best Actress prize at Cannes for their film Secret Sunshine. The film follows the intertwined lives of two married couples leading completely opposite lives. As their worlds collide, fractures begin to appear in their daily existence. Netflix is behind the project so a fall festival is more likely than Cannes.

Bucking Fastard

Werner Herzog’s latest stars Kate and Rooney Mara, Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson. Filming wrapped in April on the project that marks the first time the Mara sisters have appeared on screen together. The movie charts the story of Jean and Joan Holbrooke, “two sisters who are so close to each other that they speak in unison, love the same man, and have the same dreams. They even make the same slip of tongue in unison. In search of an imaginary land, the Orkneys – where true love is possible – they start digging a tunnel through an entire mountain range.”

Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo

This sounds a blast. Neon is aboard for the Takashi Miike update of the Bad Lieutenant IP starring Shun Oguri (Godzilla v. Kong), Lily James (Pam and Tommy) and WWE star Liv Morgan. The U.S.-Japan co-pro has partners including Jeremy Thomas for Recorded Picture Company, Sam Pressman for Pressman Film, Naoaki Kitajima for Nippon TV and Misako Saka for OLM. Written by Daisuke Tengan (13 Assassins), the film will follow a corrupt gambler (Oguri) in the Metropolitan Police Force who finds himself thrown into a tangled case after an enigmatic FBI agent (James) arrives in Tokyo to investigate the disappearance of a politician’s daughter (Morgan). Meanwhile, a deviant killer operating in the yakuza underworld seems to be shadowing their moves. Feels very Cannes.

Perfect Girl

Adeline Rudolph, Arden Cho, May Hong and Jeon Somi are among cast for this psychological thriller set against the competitive world of K-pop. Billed as Scream meets Black Swan, the film is based on a 2023 Black List script and centers on a brand-new K-Pop super group that’s preparing to be launched to the world at a massive concert. A group of girls have trained for years for only four spots, and the final cut is only a week away. The competition is off the charts. But when a talented and mysterious new girl is introduced at the last minute, things start to get strange — girls are being hunted and attacked one by one.

Animals

Yet another Netflix charge. This crime-thriller directed by Ben Affleck stars Affleck alongside Gillian Anderson, Kerry Washington and Steven Yeun. Currently in post, the film’s synopsis reads: “Desperate to pay their son’s ransom, a mayoral candidate and his wife resort to extreme measures, revealing dark secrets they never intended to bring to light.”

La Más Dulce

Egyptian director Mohammed Hammad’s contemporary drama takes its cue from the real-life killing of Egyptian Christians by ISIS in Libya in 2015. The film follows an introspective young man who is still coming to terms with the loss of his father in the massacre a decade later. Working as a security guard in downtown Cairo, his path crosses that of young Muslim woman. An unexpected friendship blossoms, offering a route to healing his trauma. Hammad previously made waves on the festival circuit with Withered Green which debuted in Locarno and won best director in Dubai in 2016.

Mimesis

Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania is currently on the awards circuit with Gaza-set work The Voice of Hind Rajab, which took Venice by storm last September and is Tunisia’s Oscar entry this year. In between times, Ben Hania somehow found time to shoot a new Tunisian drama. The long-gestated work revolves around a woman named Bouchra who was raised in a mausoleum dedicated to a mysterious saint. When a pushy imam starts lobbying to turn the family home into a mosque, Bouchra embarks on an investigation into the saint, uncovering much more than she bargained for. The film shot in Tunisia and France in September and October and is now in post-production.

La Chaleur

French director Stéphane Demoustier was in Cannes in 2025 with The Great Arch, starring Claes Bang as Johan Otto von Spreckelsen, the Danish architect who designed Paris’s La Grande Arche de la Défense.  He was back on set just weeks later for the shoot of this psychological thriller adapted from Victor Jestin’s 2019 novel of the same name. Unfolding against the backdrop of campsite in the Landes on France’s Atlantic coast, the feature follows a teenager over the course of a scorching hot day as he frets over whether a body that he buried in the sand will be discovered.

Moulin

Hungarian director László Nemes, who won an Oscar for Holocaust drama Son of Saul in 2016, revisits World War II with this biopic about French resistance hero Jean Moulin. Gilles Lellouche (Tell No One) stars as Moulin opposite Lars Eidinger (Jay Kelly, The Light) as Klaus Barbie, the head of the Gestapo in the French city of Lyon who oversaw three weeks of brutal torture that led to the resistance fighter’s death in a train bound for Germany in 1943 but failed to break his silence.

La Perra

Set on a remote island, Chilean director Dominga Sotomayor’s new drama stars Manuela Oyarzún (The Good Life, No) as a solitary middle-aged woman with a painful past, who rescues an abandoned puppy and names her Yuri, the name intended for the daughter she never had. Oyarzún is joined in the cast by Selton Mello, star of Walter Salles’ Oscar-winning political drama I’m Still Here. Sotomayor previously made waves with Too Late to Die Young and Thursday Till Sunday.

Glaxo

Adapted from Hernan Ronsino’s 2017 novel, Argentinian director Benjamín Naishtat’s new film is set in a down-at-heel Argentinian Pampas town and revolves around four childhood friends whose paths diverge in adulthood with a deadly outcome. Billed as a tale of betrayal, passion and revenge, it features pop star Lali Espósito alongside Esteban Lamothe and Marcelo Subiotto in the cast. Naishtat was last on the festival circuit with comedy drama Puan, which premiered at San Sebastian, winning frequent collaborator Subiotto best leading performance.

Minotaur

Billed as a political thriller, Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s sixth film revolves around a struggling Russian entrepreneur who discovers that his wife is having an affair. Zvyagintsev was last on the festival circuit with Loveless, which premiered in competition at Cannes, winning the Jury Prize, and was then Oscar-nominated. Now living in exile in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine, he shot his new film in Latvia.

Butterfly Jam

Barry Keoghan and Riley Keough co-star in Russian director’s Kantemir Balagov third feature. The father-and-son drama revolves around 15-year-old Pyteh, who lives in New Jersey’s Circassian community where his father and aunt run a diner specializing in Circassian cuisine. With the restaurant struggling, his father embarks on a misguided scheme that backfires, exposing Pyteh to a violence that will force him to grow up faster than he would like. Balagov previously made waves with his critically acclaimed features Closeness and Beanpole.

Man Vs Flock

Macedonian director Tamara Kotevska – best known internationally for her Sundance winner and Oscar-nominated documentary Honeyland – makes her fiction feature debut with this tale about an elderly farmer fighting for his land after it is earmarked for the construction of a new highway. In a good sign, the film clinched one of the top prizes at the work-in-progress showcase of the Les Arcs European Film Festival in December. Kotevska was in Venice last year with documentary The Tale of Silyan.

The Birthday Party

French director Léa Mysius’ third feature revolves around a child’s birthday party in a remote French village that takes an unexpected turn when strangers start gathering around the home. The ensemble cast gathers Bastien Bouillon, Hafsia Herzi, Monica Bellucci, Twaba El Gharchy and Benoît Magimel. Mysius’ first two films Ava and The Five Devils premiered at Cannes Critics’ Week and Directors’ Fortnight respectively.

Hope

Korean director Na Hong-jin’s most ambitious feature to date has gathered a high-profile cast topped by Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander alongside compatriot stars Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung and Hoyeon. The drama takes its cue from the arrival of extraterrestrials in a remote village near Korea’s DMZ. Na’s last film The Wailing premiered Out of Competition in Cannes.`

Venus Electrificata

Set in early 20th century Paris, Pierre Salvadori’s dramatic comedy stars Pio Marmaï as in-vogue painter Armand, who hits a creative block in his belief that he caused his wife’s recent death. In a bid to seek her forgiveness, Armand attempts to connect with her via a medium. The voice that replies, however, is not that of his wife but rather an impoverished young woman who has entered the medium’s caravan to steal food. The cast also features Anaïs Demoustier and Gilles Lellouche.

Alpha Gang

Having made waves at SXSW in 2024 with Sasquatch Sunset, the Zellner brothers are now in post-production on their anticipated Cate Blanchett-produced alien invasion comedy. Alongside Blanchett, the buzzy cast features Léa Seydoux, Dave Bautista and Riley Keough as well as later additions, revealed exclusively by Deadline last summer, of Chris Pine, Lily-Rose Depp, Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Doona Bae. The film follows a group of alien invaders sent to conquer Earth, disguised as a 1950s leather-clad biker gang.

Peaches

A second Dirty Films production is also nearing completion in Jenny Suen’s Hong Kong-set comedy, starring Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets) and Havana Rose Liu (Bottoms) as two spoiled best friends who scam sugar daddies for a living. The movie is inspired by Vera Chitylova’s 1966 film Daisies. Two years after we first announced the news of the film, we hear it is now in post-production.

L’Âge d’Or

Berenger Thouin’s debut feature is being heralded as one of the most visually innovative French projects due to hit the big screen this year for its fusion of contemporary live-actions shots and archive footage. The film follows a woman across the 20th century as she searches for emancipation. The cast features rising stars Souheila Yacoub, who won the Female Revelation César in 2025 for her performance in Planet B, and Vassili Schneider.

Zejtune

Maltese American director Alex Camilleri’s first feature Luzzu debuted in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic lineup in 2021, with Jesmark Scicluna winning the Special Jury Award for acting. Also set in Malta, his second feature follows a woman who is about to cut ties with the Mediterranean island following her estranged mother’s death until she meets an 80-year-old folk singer.

Bunker

An architect’s marriage is tested after he accepts a project to build a bunker for a billionaire. This psychological thriller written and directed by Oscar winner Florian Zeller has attracted a buzzy cast including Penélope Cruz and husband Javier Bardem in the lead roles alongside Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger. Filming began last month in London.