2026 Cannes Film Festival Winners: Cristian Mingiu’s ‘Fjord’ Takes the Palme, Seventh Win in a Row for NEON
The 79th Cannes Film Festival has come to a close on the Croisette and Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord has emerged as this year’s Palme d’Or winner. This is the second Palme for the Romanian director, who previously won for 2007’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.
Fjord tells the story of a family, lead by Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, who move from Romania to Norway but are quickly caught up in a religious and culture war of freedom and choice with the Norwegian school system, when they are reported for physically punishing their children. NEON, which will release Fjord this fall, now marks its unprecedented seventh Palme win in a row as a studio.
As well as the top award of the festival, Fjord was the most-awarded film across all categories with wins from FIPRESCI, the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, the Prix François Chalais and the Prix de la Citoyenneté.
Exiled Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s anti-Putin drama Minotaur won the Grand Prix, the second-most highest honor of the festival.
The jury, led by director Park Chan-wook, found themselves with multiple ties or double wins, with three categories being shared by multiple people. Both acting categories went to the co-leads of their films with Best Actor for Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne in Lukas Dhont’s Coward, and Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto winning Best Actress for Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden.
Coward details the secret love between two Belgian soldiers in World War I and is Macchia’s debut performance. MUBI will release the film in the U.S. later this year. All of a Sudden is a story two women who meet in the field of senior and palliative care and become inextricably bonded. NEON will release the film later this year.
A tie in Best Director found both Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi for La bola negra, and Paweł Pawlikowski for Fatherland as winners. MUBI will release Fatherland while La bola negra was just picked up by Netflix yesterday in a $4-5m dollar deal that includes an extended theatrical release.
Valeska Grisebach’s The Dreamed Adventure was a bit of a surprise win for the Jury Prize, as its reception both for its premiere and tonight at the ceremony was subdued. Emmanuel Marre’s A Man of His Time, starring Swann Arlaud (Anatomy of a Fall) won Best Screenplay. Neither film currently has U.S. distribution.
Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s Ben’Imana was a double winner, taking home the Camera d’Or for best film film across all sections, as well as the FIPRESCI Award for the Un Certain Regard section. It’s the first film by a Rwandan director to premiere in the Cannes Official Selection, and only the second set in the country following Munyurangabo (2007), which was helmed by American director Lee Isaac Chung.
Here is the full list of winners of the 79th Cannes Film Festival.
COMPETITION
Palme d’Or: Fjord by Cristian Mungiu
Grand Prix: Minotaur by Andrey Zvyagintsyev
Jury Prize: The Dreamed Adventure by Valeska Grisebach
Best Director (tie): Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi for La bola negra; Paweł Pawlikowski for Fatherland
Best Actress: Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto for All of a Sudden
Best Actor: Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne for Coward
Best Screenplay: A Man of His Time
OTHER PRIZES
Camera d’Or: Ben’Imana, Marie Clémentine Dusabejambo
Short Film Palme d’Or: For the Opponents, Federico Luis
HONORARY PALMES D’OR: Peter Jackson; Barbra Streisand; John Travolta
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Un Certain Regard Award: Everytime, Sandra Wollner
Jury Prize: Elephants in the Fog, Abinash Bikram Shah
Special Jury Prize: Iron Boy, Louis Clichy
Best Actress: Daniela Marín Navarro, Marina de Tavira and Mariangel Villegas, Forever Your Maternal Animal
Best Actor: Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset, Congo Boy
DIRECTORS’ FORTNIGHT
Europa Cinemas Label Award for Best European Film: Too Many Beasts, Sarah Arnold
SACD Prize for Best French Film: Shana, Shana Pinell
Audience Choice Award: I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, Clio Barnard
Carrosse d’Or: Claire Denis
CRITICS’ WEEK
Grand Prize: La Gradiva, Marine Atlan
GAN Foundation Award for Distribution: A Girl Unknown, Zou Jing (Pyramide Distribution)
Rising Star Award: Aina Clotet, Alive
SACD Prize: Blerta Basholli and Nicole Borgeat, Dua
Canal+ Short Film Award: Vaterland or a Bule Named Yanto, Berthold Wahjudi
Discovery Prize for Short Film: Skinny Boots, Romain F. Dubois
IMMERSIVE COMPETITION
Best Immersive Work Award: Katábasis, Ugo Arsac
Special Mention: The Black Mirror Experience, David Bardos and Damià Ferràndiz
CINÉFONDATION AWARDS
First Prize: Laser-Cat, by Lucas Acher (NYC, United States)
Second Prize: Silent Voices, Nadine Misong Jin (Columbia University, United States)
Third Prize: (TIE) Never Enough, Julius Lagoutte Larsen (La Fémis, France); Growing Stones, Flying Papers, Roozbeh Gezerseh and Soraya Shamsi (Konrad Wolf Film University of Babelsberg, Germany)
OTHER AWARDS
L’Oeil d’Or Documentary Prize: Rehearsals for a Revolution, Pegah Ahangarani
Golden Eye Special Jury Prize: Tin Castle, Alexander Murphy
Queer Palm: Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, Jane Schoenbrun
Queer Palm Discovery Prize: Flesh and Fuel, Pierre Le Gall
Queer Palm for Short Film: Silent Voice, Nadine Misong Jin
FIPRESCI Award (Competition): Fjord, Cristian Mungiu
FIPRESCI Award (Un Certain Regard): Ben’Imana, Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo
FIPRESCI Award (Parallel Sections): A Girl Unknown, Jing Zou
Ecumenical Jury Award: Fjord, Cristian Mungiu
Cannes Soundtrack Award: Evgueni and Sacha Galperine, Minotaur
François Chalais Prize: Fjord, Cristian Mungiu
Citizenship Prize: Fjord, Cristian Mungiu
AFCAE Art House Cinema Award: A Man of His Time, Emmanuel Marre
Prix du Cinéma Positif: Coward, Lukas Dhont
Palm Dog: Yuri, La Perra
Palm Dog Special Mention: Lola, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Trophée Chopard for Female Revelation of the Year: Odessa A’zion
Trophée Chopard for Male Revelation of the Year: Connor Swindells
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
- 2026 Cannes Film Festival Winners: Cristian Mingiu’s ‘Fjord’ Takes the Palme, Seventh Win in a Row for NEON - May 23, 2026
- Cannes 2026: Sandra Wollner’s ‘Everytime’ Wins Un Certain Regard Grand Prize - May 22, 2026
- ‘Coward’ Review: Belgian Soldiers Find Love in Lukas Dhont’s Hidden Romance Masterpiece [A] Cannes - May 21, 2026
2026 Cannes Film Festival Winners: Cristian Mingiu’s ‘Fjord’ Takes the Palme, Seventh Win in a Row for NEON 
Cannes 2026 Reviews: ‘The Unknown,’ ‘A Man of His Time,’ ‘The Samurai and the Prisoner’ 
Cannes 2026: Sandra Wollner’s ‘Everytime’ Wins Un Certain Regard Grand Prize 
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