Cannes 2026: Chloé Zhao on the Main Jury, 'A Girl Unknown' Wins Three Critics' Week Prizes, 'Fjord' Takes the Palme d'Or
The 79th Cannes Film Festival ran from May 12 to 23, 2026, in Cannes, France, closing on the evening of May 23. The jury, presided over by South Korean director Park Chan-wook, awarded the Palme d'Or to "Fjord," directed by Romania's Cristian Mungiu. Chinese filmmakers were highly visible at this year's festival: director Chloé Zhao served on the main competition jury; Chinese director Zou Jing's debut feature "A Girl Unknown" won three prizes in the parallel Critics' Week section; Jia Zhangke's short "Torino Shadow" screened in Cannes Classics; and during the China Pavilion program, the French remake rights to the hit Chinese comedy "Johnny Keep Walking!" were signed.
Twenty-two films competed in the main competition. The Grand Prix went to Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev's "Minotaur"; the Jury Prize to German director Valeska Grisebach's "The Dreamed Adventure"; Best Director was shared by Spanish duo Los Javis for "La Bola Negra" and Polish director Paweł Pawlikowski for "Fatherland"; Best Actor was shared by Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne of the Belgian film "Coward"; Best Actress was shared by Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto of Japanese director Ryūsuke Hamaguchi's "All of a Sudden"; Best Screenplay went to Emmanuel Marre's "A Man of His Time"; the Camera d'Or for best first feature went to Rwandan director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo's "Ben'Imana"; the Short Film Palme d'Or went to Federico Luis's "For the Opponents"; and honorary Palmes were presented to Barbra Streisand, Peter Jackson and John Travolta. "Fjord," starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, gives Mungiu his second Palme d'Or after "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days" in 2007, making him only the tenth filmmaker in history to win the festival's top prize twice.
The nine-member competition jury, chaired by Park Chan-wook, included Chloé Zhao alongside American actor Demi Moore, Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård, Irish actor Ruth Negga, Belgian director Laura Wandel, Chilean director Diego Céspedes, Ivorian actor Isaach de Bankolé and Scottish screenwriter Paul Laverty. Born in Beijing, Zhao won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director in 2021 with "Nomadland," becoming the first Asian woman to win the directing Oscar; her debut feature "Songs My Brothers Taught Me" screened at Cannes in 2015, and her latest film "Hamnet" received eight Oscar nominations this awards season. During the festival, Zhao also made a surprise appearance at China Film Night, posing with Jia Zhangke, Zhao Tao and other Chinese filmmakers, and remarked that "coming to China Film Night feels like coming home," adding that she hopes to engage with more young Chinese filmmakers.
The China-France co-production "A Girl Unknown," directed by young filmmaker Zou Jing and starring Li Gengxi, screened in competition at Critics' Week. It follows a girl who, from age six to eighteen, moves through three families and several names in search of belonging. The film won three Critics' Week honors — the FIPRESCI Prize (parallel sections), the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution and the Rail d'Or — and was in the running for the Camera d'Or. Zou's earlier short "Lili Alone" won the short-film discovery prize at Critics' Week in 2021, and "A Girl Unknown" had received the section's Next Step Prize as a project in 2024.
Jia Zhangke's 32-minute short "Torino Shadow," starring Zhao Tao, was presented as a special screening in Cannes Classics, where it had its world premiere. An Italy-China co-production from the Museo Nazionale del Cinema Torino and the Jia Zhang-Ke Art Center, it tells of a woman who travels from southern China to Turin to see her husband and must find herself again in a foreign land; former Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian served as the film's overseas producer. Cannes Classics also screened a 4K restoration of Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine," attended by star Gong Li — the film won the Palme d'Or in 1993.
On May 13, the 2026 Cannes China Pavilion and China Film Global Promotion program opened under the guidance of the China Film Administration, jointly hosted by the China Film Foundation and the China Film Association and organized by the Wu Tianming Film Fund for Young Talents, running under the theme "Hello Cinema, Hello China" through May 20. Attendees included Qin Zhengui, Deputy Director of the China Film Administration; Yin Hong, Vice Chairman of the China Film Association; director Jia Zhangke; and actor-producer Zhao Tao, who served as the pavilion's ambassador and called for the world to see "different portraits of Chinese stories." At the opening, a signing ceremony was held: French production company Master Movies acquired the French remake rights to the Chinese comedy "Johnny Keep Walking!" through the film's overseas sales agent Tiger Pictures, making it one of the few recent Chinese films to receive a European remake deal. That evening's China Film Night brought together representatives of the Cannes, Venice, Tokyo, Busan and Rotterdam festivals with Chinese and international filmmakers, and the teams behind "Torino Shadow" and "A Girl Unknown" took the stage to share their experiences.
The pavilion also presented the China's New Talents Going Global Program, supported by the China Film Foundation, the China Film Association and the China Film Producers Association, which showcased three young directors' works at the Cannes Film Market: "As the Water Flows," "Last Breath" and "Within a Budding Grove." Directors Bian Zhuo, Chen Junlin and Zhang Huibin, together with cinematographer Wu Jianfeng, joined post-screening discussions with international audiences. (Sources: the Festival de Cannes official awards list, Critics' Week, releases from the China Film Foundation and the China Film Association, and China News Service reporting.)
Related: Palme d'Or Winner 'Fjord' Opens in U.S. Theaters as Romania's Oscar Entry
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：本届戛纳电影节主竞赛单元评委、导演赵婷。资料图，摄于 2025 年特柳赖德电影节。摄影：FiesolanaNYC，CC BY-SA 4.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons
