Cannes 2026: Denmark’s Winding Refn and Romania’s Mungiu defending the Nordic colours

Thursday noon April 9 at the Pathé Palace in Paris, the world saw Cannes Film Festival heads Iris Knobloch, President, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, announcing the Official Selection of the 79th edition, covering the Competition, Out of Competition, Un Certain Regard, Cannes Premiere and Special Screenings sections. “We’ve received 2541 submissions from 141 countries – they have all been seen,” exclaimed Frémaux upon commencing the presentation of the 47 entries unveiled at this time, with “bonus” titles promised in the forthcoming weeks.

Europe and Asia are richly represented in the 2026 competition line-up, Japan being an especially prominent presence, with prizewinning favourites like Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, and Koji Fukada, all presenting new work. Spain has three entries, one of them from Pedro Almodóvar, who together with Belgium’s Lukas Dhont, Russia’s Andrey Zvyagintsev, UK-Poland’s Paweł Pawlikowski, Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, Hungary’s László Nemes, and Romania’s Cristian Mungiu provides auteur excellence in splendid abundance. Less US studio productions are in town this year, noted Frémaux rather stoically, but American artists will still be celebrated, with participation from both John Travolta and Barbra Streisand, to name two.

As for defending any Nordic colours, the aforementioned Mungiu, a fixed star of Cannes ever since his second feature 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days (4 luni, 3 săptămâni și 2 zile) won the Golden Palm in 2007, is in the main contender spot with his sixth film Fjord, the director’s first project to play out outside of his home region. The film stars yet another steadily fortified festival luminary, Renate Reinsve, in this highly Nordic co-production, with involvement of Eye Eye Pictures, Norway; Snowglobe, Denmark; Aamu Filmcompany, Finland; Filmgate Films and Garagefilm, Sweden; Why Not Productions, France and Mobra Films, Romania, Mungiu’s home base company. The film has received support from the Romanian, but also from the Norwegian, Finnish and Danish film institutes and from Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

Reinsve plays Lisbet, the Norwegian wife of Romanian Mihai (Sebastian Stan, seen as Donald Trump in Ali Abbasi’s 2024 Cannes entry The Apprentice). The couple move from Romania to Norway with their five children, as per the plot outline provided by Eye Eye Pictures, “seeking closeness to Lisbet's family, who share their faith. Settling in an isolated coastal village, they form a bond with their neighbours, the Halbergs. When their daughter Elia appears at school with bruises, suspicions arise about the family's strict religious upbringing. Fjord explores clashing worldviews, conformity, tolerance, and the boundaries of freedom and intimacy.” Shot around and taking place on the Norwegian west coast, in the town of Ålesund, Fjord co-stars, among others, Lisa Carlehed and Ellen Dorrit Petersen in major parts.

Also playing in this year’s competition is the family drama Gentle Monster, directed by Austria’s Marie Kreutzer, starring Léa Seydoux and co-starring Catherine Deneuve. Among the co-producers is Sweden’s Kjellson & Wik.

Another Cannes “life member”, a designation it would be his pleasure to submit to, is Denmark’s own NWR, Nicolas Winding Refn, providing cult-prone fare for the festival on a regular basis since 2011 and his Best Director award for Drive. Winding Refn’s 2026 outing, Her Private Hell (sub-captioned “Revenge Wears Leather”), a co-production between the director’s own company byNWR and US producer-distributor Neon, is a colourful thriller with an international cast, headlined by Sophie Thatcher, and takes place in Tokyo. Her Private Hell is screened out of competition.

Decidedly international is also the production surrounding Elephants in the Fog (Les Eléphants dans la Brume), entered in Un Certain Regard and directed by Abinash Bikram Shah, the first Nepalese with a feature film in Cannes. Among the several producers here, covering three continents, is Norway’s Storm Films.

While Thierry Frémaux professed to presenting “95%” of the 2026 programme, he did not take the vital and significant Critics’ Week and Directors’ Fortnight sections into account. These line-ups will be announced later in the month, as will the line-ups of the Cannes Classics, ACID, and the short film competition sections. This page will be updated accordingly.

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