As directors, actors and cinephiles from around the world traveled to the Croisette this year, one question lingered: What would Cannes look like without major Hollywood studios in competition?
A sentiment across many reviews of the festival griped that the lineup felt notably weaker this year than in years past. Still, at the surface level, Cannes appeared unchanged – there were still standing ovations, deals made, and of course, a Palme d’Or awarded.
But in the absence of Hollywood spectacle, Cannes 2026 reflected a changing film industry, one in which TikTokers can become directors, AI can automate the production process and re-releases breathe new life into old prestige titles.
1. Neon Continued Its Palme d’Or Winning Streak
The New York-based indie studio picked up its seventh straight Palme d’Or on May 23 for Fjord.
Nearly all of Neon’s previous six Palme-winning films have gone on to be nominated for at least one Oscar, with 2021’s Titane being the only exception. Parasite (2019) and Anora (2024) won Best Picture. It’s an impressive track record for a studio that has only been operating for nine years.
This is a strong indicator that Fjord will likely be a major Oscar contender for the studio in the fall, especially in light of the new Academy rule that international films that win the Palme d’Or, among other qualifying festival awards, will automatically be considered for recognition in Best International Feature.
Neon will also be distributing eight other Cannes 2026 films – more than any other studio so far. One of those films, All of a Sudden, also won the Cannes Best Actress award for its stars Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto.
Many major Hollywood studios stayed out of Cannes competition this year, as studio films from past years, such as Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Megalopolis, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, performed below expectations at the box office after mixed-to-negative Cannes reviews.
But in doing so, they left space for arthouse studios such as Neon to dominate the conversation this year.
Though Neon won big with Fjord, the studio also faced harsh critical and audience reception of Her Private Hell, which is currently sitting at a 46% Rotten Tomatoes score and a 2.2 Letterboxd average rating.
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn and set for a U.S. release on July 24, the film stars Sophie Thatcher, Charles Melton and Havana Rose Liu in a futuristic metropolis where a mysterious mist engulfs the city and unleashes a deadly serial killer. This will be a movie to watch at the box office, to see if its negative reviews will impact its gross earnings.
2. ‘Club Kid’ Emerged As A Surprise Smash
Club Kid — the feature directorial debut from I Love L.A.’s Jordan Firstman, who also stars in the film — may be this year’s Cannes breakout hit, and it didn’t even compete.
The premiere received a seven-minute standing ovation, according to Deadline, and sparked one of Cannes’s major bidding wars. A24 came out on top, purchasing global distribution rights for $17 million.
Jordan Firstman first gained mainstream popularity during the pandemic through impressions he posted to Instagram and TikTok. He is the latest in a string of content creators to transition into a director’s chair.
YouTubers directed two films currently in theaters. Curry Barker directed the Focus Features horror hit Obsession, which debuted to $17.2 million at the box office and is on track to cross $100 million globally. Given the success of Obsession, Barker has reportedly been offered an 8-figure deal for his next movie, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
And new to theaters this week is A24’s Backrooms, directed by Kane Parsons, who adapted the movie from his own web series of the same name. The horror film is projected to become A24’s biggest debut, a record currently held by Civil War.
Earlier this year, YouTuber Markiplier’s self-released film Iron Lung made $51.2 million against a $3 million budget. The film will be exclusively released on YouTube Movies.
A24 has not announced a release date for Club Kid yet; however, the film’s success at Cannes proves that the content creator-to-director pipeline is becoming a strong new growth strategy in Hollywood.
3. AI Came Into The Croisette
Though Cannes has banned films with AI-generated core creative elements from competing for the Palme, the technology still loomed large over the festival.
Steven Soderbergh premiered his documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview, which uses AI-generated imagery with the help of Meta. The company also partially funded the documentary and hosted a branded lounge at Cannes, as an official partner of the festival this year. An IndieWire review of the documentary called the AI imagery “appallingly ugly.”
On the Marché du Film, Critterz, an animated film that is the first full production run of AI-assisted production system Woven, was up for sale, reportedly surprising distributors by the quality of its first-look footage. As of writing, Critterz has not made a deal yet, however, if it does, it will prove to be a major test of Hollywood’s and audiences’ willingness to embrace use of the technology.
Beyond the films themselves, many jury members, directors and actors in attendance shared their take on AI’s role in filmmaking.
Director Guillermo Del Toro, presenting a special anniversary screening of his film Pan’s Labyrinth, lamented to the audience that, “We are unfortunately in times that make this movie more pertinent than ever, ‘cause they tell us it’s useless to resist, that art can be done with a f—ing app.”
Jury member and actress Demi Moore, however, took a different approach, speaking at a press conference ahead of the festival’s opening ceremony. Moore said, “AI is here and so to fight it is, in a sense, to fight something that is a battle that we will lose.”
As reception to AI within the industry ranges from distaste to reluctant acceptance to full-on embrace, its role in production continues to be murky.
4. BookTok Sparks Bidding Wars
With the success of book adaptations such as Off Campus, Hollywood has been turning to BookTok for some of its hottest acquisitions, which is exemplified in the recent sale of The Midnight Library from the Marché du Film.
The Midnight Library just closed a deal with Paramount today, following a major bidding war with Focus Features and Sony, according to Deadline. Florence Pugh is attached as a star and producer.
The film is based on the Matt Haig novel, which follows a woman battling depression, who is given a second chance at life via a library between life and death, in which every book gives her the chance to explore a life that she could have lived if she had done one thing differently.
5. Nostalgia And Re-Releases Are Studio Marketing Tools
Though no new big Hollywood blockbusters premiered at Cannes this year, a few studios still brought a healthy dose of nostalgia and re-release excitement to the Cannes Classics category.
The first film in Universal’s Fast and the Furious franchise had a special midnight screening in honor of its 25th anniversary.
The screening was “completely packed” and ended with a standing ovation that had audience members “audibly crying,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Franchise star Vin Diesel attended the screening and wore a suit jacket bedazzled with the words “Fast Forever,” a nod to the next Fast & Furious installment to be released in 2028.
Meanwhile, Pan’s Labyrinth, which was distributed in the U.S. through Warner Bros., screened in a 4K restoration – a preview that generated excitement for the film’s Cineverse and Fathom theatrical re-release in that format coming later this year.
Warner Bros. Clockwork also previewed an upcoming re-release, which sold out its Cannes screening instantly: Ken Russell’s 1971 film The Devils, which will be presented in a 4K restoration from Russell’s original negative. The re-release is being hailed as “the first publicly released version of the film as intended by the filmmaker,” as the original cut was reportedly heavily edited in order to get an “X” rating.
Pan’s Labyrinth will return to theaters on October 9 and The Devils on October 16.
As this year’s Cannes films begin to release in theaters, the box office numbers will be telling in the lasting power of these trends, as well as whether Hollywood should come back to the Croisette or start moving on from film festivals.
