The leading contenders for the Palme d'Or.

As the 2026 Cannes Film Festival draws to a close, many strong contenders for the most important award have emerged.

Eight years after winning Best Director at Cannes, filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski returns to the festival this year and immediately captures attention with " Fatherland ," a film about novelist Thomas Mann and his daughter's journey through a devastated Germany during the Cold War. The film has received widespread critical acclaim for its direction, cinematography, and acting. Deadline writer Stephanie Bunbury called the film "a masterpiece of artistic discipline." "Fatherland " is predicted to be one of the strong contenders for the Palme d'Or this year.

Equally acclaimed is Ryusuke Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden , the Japanese filmmaker who made a splash at Cannes 2021 with Drive My Car . The film received resounding applause for its story about the encounter between a nursing home director in France and a Japanese screenwriter suffering from a terminal illness. Time critic Stephanie Zacharek praised the film as "beautifully lit to the point of being almost a wonder." Variety writer Jessica Kiang argued that All of a Sudden is not only good enough to remind viewers of what cinema can offer, but also wonderful enough to awaken them to the values ​​that life provides.

Director Andrey Zvyagintsev (wearing glasses) and the cast of Minotaur at the film's premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 19.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Another strong contender for the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival is Minotaur by renowned Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev. Minotaur uses the Ukraine-Russia conflict as the backdrop for a dark story of adultery leading to a brutal end. Amidst the praise, IndieWire writer Ryan Lattanzio assesses the film as having a good chance of winning the most important award, even if it leans more towards rationality than emotion like the other two prominent contenders, Fatherland and All of a Sudden .

The 79th Cannes Film Festival will take place in the French city of Cannes from May 12-23, 2026. This year, South Korean director Park Chan Wook will serve as the president of the jury. The 2026 festival is considered "lower-key" due to the absence of global entertainment stars alongside Hollywood blockbusters like in previous years. Instead, Cannes 2026 will see the return of renowned names in world cinema: Paweł Pawlikowski (Poland), Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Koji Fukada (Japan), Cristian Mungiu (Romania), James Gray (USA), Na Hong Jin (South Korea), Asghar Farhadi (Iran)…

The latest festival also sparked debates about artificial intelligence, especially when actress Demi Moore (a member of the jury) urged filmmakers to cooperate with AI, arguing that fighting against it is "a battle we will lose." Alongside this, the unstable political situation in the world was also reflected on the screen by many filmmakers. Several films competing for awards, such as Coward, Minotaur, and A Man of His Time, are set against the backdrop of conflict, while Fatherland tells the story of Germany in 1949, a divided nation struggling to recover after World War II.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhung-ung-vien-sang-gia-cua-canh-co-vang-18526052221223322.htm