65th Critics Week (Semaine de la Critique) Lineup of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival Announced
11 films have been selected for this year’s Semaine de la Critique (Critics Week) section of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, seven in competition and four special screenings. The 65th edition of Cannes’ Critics Week will run May 13–21.
Phuong Mai Nguyen’s animated feature In Waves will open the section and with Félix de Givry’s coming-of-age drama Farewell Cruel World (Adieu monde cruel), starring Milo Machado-Graner (Anatomy of a Fall), closing.
Nguyen’s debut feature is the first animated film to open Critics Week and features voice work from Will Sharpe and Stephanie Hsu (English version).
Selected from 1,050 feature films and 2,400 shorts, this year’s Critics’ Week lineup comprises 11 features and 13 short films, with seven titles in competition – including five first features and two second films — and four special screenings. All but two films of this year’s selection are first time features.
“A breath of fresh air sweeps across the poster of the 65th Semaine de la Critique,” said Cahen in her presentation of the lineup, pointing to the section’s enduring mission “to reveal emerging filmmakers and actors, and support them as they make their promising first steps.”
La Semaine de la Critique is the oldest parallel section of the Cannes Film Festival, founded in 1962 by the French Syndicate of Cinema Critics to showcase first and second feature films, along with short films from new international talent.
Leading the selection committee is Ava Cahen, who has been the general delegate of Critics’ Week since its 61st edition (2022). She is joined by Chloé Caye, Marilou Duponchel, Laurent Hérin, Laura Pertuy and Gautier Roos. Jury to be announced.
The jury for Critics Week awards five prizes for feature films: Grand Prize (Grand Prix), French Touch Prize of the Jury (Prix French Touch du jury), Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award (Prix Fondation Louis Roederer de la Révélation), Gan Foundation Award for Distribution (Prix Fondation Gan à la Diffusion) andSACD (Société des Auteurs et Compositeurs Dramatiques) (Prix SACD); and two for short film: Discovery Award (Prix Découverte Leitz Cine) and Canal+ Award (Prix Canal+). Last year’s winner for feature film was A Useful Ghost by Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke. The short film winner was Erogenesis by Xandra Popescu.
Semaine de la Critique (Critics’ Week) Competition lineup
The Station (Al Manhattan) by Sara Ishaq – 1h52m
Yemen, Jordan, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Qatat
In Yemen, Layal runs a gas station exclusively for women, one of the few havens of peace in a war-torn country. The rules are simple: no men, no weapons, no politics. When her youngest brother is drafted, she reconnects with her sister to save the last life they can. Starring Manal Al-Mulaiki, Abeer Mohammed, Rashad Khaled, Saleh Al-marshahi, Fariha Hassan, Amal Esmail, Shorooq Mohammed, Randa Mohammed, Fatima Muthanna.
Dua by Blerta Basholli – 1h40m
Kosovo, Switzerland, France
Pristina, Kosovo, late 1990s. As war looms and ethnic tensions escalate, 13-year-old Dua struggles to find her place among her community and in her rapidly changing body. Following an incident that shakes her community, she herself becomes a target and forms a bond with a fearless girl, Maki, who draws her into an unexpected form of resistance. Between the daily violence and the growing threat of exile, there is little room for small, intimate awakenings. Starring Pinea Matoshi, Vlera Bilalli, Kaona Matoshi, Yllka Gashi, Kushtrim Hoxha, Andi Bajgora.
Gradiva by Marine Atlan – 2h25m
France, Italy
A group of French high school students goes on a school trip to Naples to discover the ruins of Pompeii and the bodies petrified by Vesuvius. It is there that vertigo suddenly seizes them. One after another, they let themselves be overwhelmed by desire and anger until they completely surrender to it. Starring Colas Quignard, Suzanne Gerin, Mitia Capellier, Antonia Buresi.
A Girl Unknown (Wu ming nü hai) by ZOU Jing – 2h25m
China, France
A young Chinese girl grows up between the ages of six and eighteen among three families, each giving her a new name and a new life. In her search for belonging and love, she must confront the weight of her past and the uncertainty of her future, until she finds her own path. Starring LI Gengxi, SHEN Jiani, ZU Feng, AO Ruofan.
Six Feet in the Pink and Blue Building by Bruno Santamaría Razo – 1h44m
Mexico, Brazil, Denmark
Mexico, early 1990s. On his eleventh birthday, Bruno’s first stirrings of love for his best friend Vladimir are shattered by the devastating news that his father is HIV-positive. Like in salsa songs, his family tries to sing and dance to ward off their grief. Thirty years later, Bruno films and reimagines the memories he couldn’t fully perceive as a child. Starring Jade Reyes, Sofía Espinosa, Lázaro Gabino, Eduardo Ayala, Valeria Vanegas, Anuar Vera, Teresa Sánchez,Valentina Cohen, Nara Carreira, Demick Lopes.
Tin Castle by Alexander Murphy – 1h45m
France, Ireland
Along a forgotten road, the O’Reilly family lives in an old caravan stranded in the middle of the fields. Pa, Lisa, and their ten children live through the seasons in this tin castle, heirs to a way of life on borrowed time. Threatened with eviction, their precarious balance teeters, but they resist, faithful to their traditions. The children laugh, the dogs bark, the caravan still stands, but for how much longer? Starring Alexander Murphy, Jean-Baptiste Plard.
Viva by Aina Close – 1h52m
Spain
Having narrowly escaped death, 40-year-old Nora is driven by a burning urgency to feel alive. She throws herself headlong into two love affairs with two men who are complete opposites, Tom and Max, reflections of her own contradictory aspirations. Starring Aina Clotet, Naby Dakhli, Marc Soler, Willy Toledo, Lloll Bertrán.
Special Screenings
In Waves by Phuong Mai Nguyen (Opening film) – 1h31m
France, Belgium
In Los Angeles, AJ, a quiet high school student, meets Kristen. She’s passionate about surfing, he’s into skateboarding and drawing. They fall madly in love; a happy future seems to lie ahead. But everything changes when Kristen becomes ill. Together, they embark on a battle against adversity, sustained by the strength of their love, their friends, and their now shared passion for surfing and the ocean. Starring (French version) Lyna Khoudri, Rio Vega, Paul Kircher, Birane Ba of the Comédie Française (VA) Will Sharpe, Stephanie Hsu.
Fuel Oil in the Arteries (Flesh and Fuel) by Pierre Le Gall – 1h30m
France, Poland
Étienne is a truck driver. Hooked on the road, he reduces his emotional life to anonymous and fleeting encounters in parking lots. When he meets Bartosz, a Polish trucker, his solitude is turned upside down. Starring Alexis Manenti, Julian Świeżewski, Armindo Alves de Sa.
The Strike (Stonewall) by Julien Gaspar-Oliveri – 1h44m
France
Nineteen-year-old Enzo and his twenty-year-old sister Carla have been left to fend for themselves for several years. When their father, Anthony, is released from prison, Enzo sees the fragile promise of a family to rebuild, unlike Carla, for whom the idea remains inconceivable. Haunted by his past, Enzo must confront a truth he has kept hidden for far too long. Starring Diego Murgia, Bastien Bouillon, Romane Fringeli, Héloïse Volle.
Farewell Cruel World by Félix de Givry (Closing film) – 1h33m
France, Belgium
Fourteen-year-old Otto Vidal disappeared after writing a farewell letter to his classmates. While everyone believed him to be dead, Lena, a girl from his school, recognized him one night wandering the city streets. Starring Milo Machado-Graner, Jane Beever, Françoise Lebrun, Maïa Sandoz, Emmanuelle Destremau, Erwan Kepoa Falé.
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.
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