by Alex Billington
May 23, 2026
Source: Cannes
Winners of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival awards, including the coveted Palme d’Or, were revealed at a glamorous ceremony in Cannes, France this weekend. The awards this year were again entirely surprising and a bit strange, with many films both loved and hated winning awards and the jury picking a few that no one thought would get much. The top prize Palme d’Or went to Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu and his latest film titled Fjord set in Norway. This is actually Mungiu’s second Palme d’Or in Cannes history – he won once before for his abortion film 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days in 2007 (19 years ago). This win has caused quite a stir among critics – many love the film, while many others dislike it, and there’s a big debate about what it means + what Mungiu is saying (and if that’s good or bad). Other major winners include the Russian film Minotaur getting the Grand Prix second place (instead of the Palme), Lukas Dhont’s Coward getting Best Actor for both of its lead actors, and Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden getting Best Actress for both of its lead actresses (who are both phenomenal in this film). Whether or not the winners are what you would pick if you were on the jury, these wins are causing quite the commotion and hopefully this will bring more attention to international cinema. A fascinating mix of my top films and some of my least favorites winning.
Here’s the full list of Cannes 2026 winners, with most of the key awards listed below, including Un Certain Regard. I’ll get into my own commentary after the winners. Visit the official Cannes website for more info.
Palme d’Or (Golden Palm):
Fjord directed by Cristian Mungiu
Grand Prix (Runner Up):
Minotaur directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev
Jury Prize:
The Dreamed Adventure (Das Geträumte Abenteuer) directed by Valeska Grisebach
Best Director:
Javier Ambrossi & Javier Calvo for The Black Ball (La Bola Negra)
(tied with) Pawel Pawlikowski for Fatherland (Vaterland)
Best Screenplay:
Emmanuel Marre for A Man of His Time (Notre Salut)
Camera d’Or (First-Time Filmmaker):
Ben’imana directed by Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo
Best Performance by an Actress:
Virginie Efira & Tao Okamoto in Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden (Soudain)
Best Performance by an Actor:
Emmanuel Macchia & Valentin Campagne in Lukas Dhont’s Coward
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard Prize:
Everytime directed by Sandra Wollner
Jury Prize:
Elephants in the Fog directed by Abinash Bikram Shah
Special Jury Prize:
Iron Boy directed by Louis Clichy
Best Actress:
Marina de Tavira, Daniela Marín Navarro, Mariangel Villegas for Forever Your Maternal Animal (Siempre Soy Tu Animal Materno)
Best Actor:
Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset for Congo Boy
That’s all the big winners at Cannes this year. Congrats to all of the 2026 festival films! As for my thoughts, well it happened again. For the second year in a row, the film that truly deserved to win (Minotaur) ended up getting the second place Gran Prix instead. And a political pick for the Palme d’Or got the big win. I also wasn’t fond of last year’s Palme for Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident. But I’m even more bothered by Fjord winning this year because I think the film is extremely manipulative and frustratingly focused on the “middle ground” of politics. And all of what it’s trying to do and say bothers me. On the other hand, I think the most brilliant films of the festival are Minotaur, All of a Sudden, and La Bola Negra, which take a much stronger political stance and try to teach us about how we can make the world better. Any of these would’ve been a much better Palme winner, but I guess I will admit I’m not surprised by what won. I am, however, very happy to see the acting awards go to Coward and to All of a Sudden because these performances are wonderful in both of these films and they deserve this recognition. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what wins awards it just matters that audiences take the time to watch these films, engage with them, and interact with them by considering what art stirs up and how it makes people feel and how it can bring about real change in the world. Keep an eye out for all these winners from Cannes + more films from the selection.
The 2026 jury was lead by Korean director Park Chan-wook as President, with: Demi Moore, Ruth Negga, Laura Wandel, Chloé Zhao, Diego Céspedes, Isaach De Bankolé, Paul Laverty, and Stellan Skarsgård. This brings us to the end of our 2026 updates, another year covering Cannes wraps up with these festival awards.
