Rami Malek, Penélope Cruz, and Glenn Close Are All at Cannes This Year in the Fest’s Stacked Queer Lineup

Since the Cannes Film Festival launched the Queer Palm in 2010, films vying for that prize have brought a unique level of excitement to the sun-soaked event with their boundary-pushing creativity and often offbeat sensibility. But even before the award carved out a special place for queer voices, the premier European festival was always a destination for LGBTQ creators looking to attract international attention with splashy new features.

The 2026 Cannes Film Festival will once again premiere an impressive number of LGBTQ-centric films this year. Among the titles fighting it out for the year’s Queer Palm — in addition to other coveted honors — are buzzy first features, oeuvre-building titles from auteurs, and promising wild card selections that bring something unexpected to the elegant affair. Collectively, they travel from Paris’ underground gay clubs to the front of WWI, 1990s Mexico City, and the downtown theater scene of ‘80s New York — using varying degrees of fantasy and reality to say something unique about the queer experience.

From films bound for golden-palmed glory to those ripe for a splashy red carpet moment, here’s a short list of LGBTQ-themed titles we expect to make waves at this year’s edition of Cannes, which runs May 12 to May 23.  

“Another Day” (Dir. Jeanne Herry)

There are few things that can stir sapphic cinephiles more than a new Adèle Exarchopoulos film — as writer and director Jeanne Herry, who cast the actor in her 2023 César-winning feature “All Your Faces,” surely knows. 

Herry’s new film, “Another Day” (“Garance”), stars Exarchopoulos as a magnetic young actress whose lack of professional success and resulting financial worries are taking a heavy toll on her mental health and fueling an alcohol addiction. But not all is lost for Exarchopoulos’ latest devastating heroine, Garance, as her concern for her sick younger sister and a tender new romance with a woman named Pauline (Sara Giraudeau) offer her a fragile lifeline. “Another Day” is an exciting new offering from the filmmaker who is quickly building a reputation for excavating complex social justice issues in narrative films. And with the help of Exarchopoulos’ onscreen dynamism, the Competition selection could just earn Herry — who was last at Cannes for co-writing 2024’s “The Kingdom” — her first palm-emblazoned statuette.

“Bitter Christmas” (dir. Pedro Almodóvar)

Although there’s still an air of mystery around the project, Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bitter Christmas” promises to be a stylish and haunting return to Spanish-centric melodrama — following his foray into English-language projects like 2024’s “The Room Next Door.” Early looks at the film, which will show in this year’s Competition section, pair romantic vistas with the Spanish auteur’s characteristically vibrant color palette and elegantly rendered existential dread from Bárbara Lennie, Leonardo Sbaraglia, and the title’s other stars.

Taking up themes of grief and mortality that have possessed Almodóvar in recent years, “Bitter Christmas” centers on the unraveling of an advertising director, Elsa (Lennie), whose mother dies during a holiday weekend in December. A number of intersecting plot lines and characters add layers to Elsa’s story, promising a winding and nuanced tale about life, death, love, friendship, and artistic creation.

“The Black Ball” (dir. Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo)

Spanish filmmaking duo Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo (“Veneno,” “The Messiah”) make their first showing at Cannes with this year’s Competition feature “The Black Ball.” Inspired by one of poet/playwright Federico García Lorca’s last, unfinished works, the musical follows the interconnected stories of three gay men from distinct historical periods, linked by sexuality and desire, pain and inheritance. 

The film, which spans three timelines — 1932, 1937, and 2017 — is produced by the Almodóvar brothers’ El Deseo and boasts an inspired international cast. Singer-songwriter Guitarricadelafuente and actor Milo Quifes make their big-screen debut in the company of fellow Spanish stars Miguel Bernardeau and Carlos González. And Cannes-winning “Volver” actresses Lola Dueñas and Penélope Cruz team up with screen legend Glenn Close to add a matriarchal weight to the whole affair.

“Club Kid” (dir. Jordan Firstman)

Jordan Firstman’s evolution from social media personality to indie film star and now Cannes-recognized director has been nothing short of miraculous. But there doesn’t seem to be a limit to younger film and TV connoisseurs’ thirst for his irreverent and unapologetically gay comedic stylings. And ahead of its premiere in this year’s Un Certain Regard section, Firstman’s first feature directorial effort, “Club Kid,” is already generating promising whispers.

“Club Kid” stars Firstman as a washed-up party promoter who receives a wake-up call in the form of an unexpected adolescent visitor. Between its plot, neon-dotted poster, and cast of cool kids, the film seems to belong to a recent subgenre of stylized dramas about pretty people caught up in their own chaos — which makes sense, since it’s from the producers of “Lurker” and “Anora.” And if things keep going Firstman’s way, his first feature, which also stars Cara Delevingne and Diego Calva, will prove to be just as popular as its like-minded predecessors. 

“Coward” (dir. Lukas Dhont)

“Close” and “Girl” filmmaker Lukas Dhont could pull off a hat trick with his third feature, “Coward,” which will show in competition at this year’s Cannes. After winning a Camera d’Or in 2018 for “Girl,” Dhont secured the Grand Prix in 2022 for his deeply personal and introspective “Close,” about a 13-year-old boy’s first formative experience with homophobia. So it seems the sky is the limit for the Belgian director, who is now turning his eye to the past and post-adolescent realities.

“Coward,” starring Emmanuel Macchia in his debut film performance and Valentin Campagne, centers on two soldiers who meet on the front during WWI. Pierre (Macchia), having just arrived, is eager to prove himself on the battlefield, while Francis (Campagne) is more focused on keeping up waning spirits by putting on a theatrical show. And yet, they both find a much-needed escape in each other’s company as the conflict drags on and violence and brutality begin to feel like permanent fixtures in their lives. 

“Fatherland” (dir. Pawel Pawlikowski)

Until “Fatherland” was announced, we didn’t know just how much we needed another devastating, black-and-white period drama from Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski. Following up 2013’s “Ida” and his 2018 Cannes-winning romance “Cold War,” Pawlikowski once again conjures a striking postwar world in the biographical road trip film about the Nobel Prize-winning German writer Thomas Mann, who lived in exile for 16 years, and his daughter Erika. The Competition feature stars Hanns Zischler as the aging patriarch, “Anatomy of a Fall” and “Zone of Interest” stunner Sandra Hüller as his eldest child, and August Diehl in the notable supporting role of Klaus Mann — Erika’s beloved brother who is at the center of a fractured family awaiting the acclaimed writer on his return to an also divided homeland.

“Flesh and Fuel” (dir. Pierre Le Gall)

French director and screenwriter Pierre Le Gall will premiere his debut feature, “Flesh and Fuel,” during this year’s Critics’ Week. The trucker romance starring Alexis Manenti and Julian Swiezewski isn’t Le Gall’s first trip to Cannes, which showed “Les Belles Cicatrices,” a short he co-wrote, in 2024. But the feature, which will show out of competition as a special screening, is a chance for the emerging talent to take a step into the limelight.

Based on its plot, “Flesh and Fuel” has a kind of timeless queer cinema appeal, combining emotional longing with a fantasy-inducing, erotic setup. Lorry driver Étienne (Manenti) keeps his love life to clandestine encounters in parking lots until he meets and falls instantly for a Polish trucker named Bartosz (Swiezewski). Inspired by their connection, Étienne contemplates exchanging his lonely existence for one filled with romance, but with a demanding route to cover, starring in a great love story may not be in the cards for the hard-working road warrior.

“Jim Queen” (dir. Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané)

“Jim Queen,” the first feature film from animators Marco Nguyen and Nicolas Athané, is not your usual Cannes fare. The animated satire — which will show in the festival’s Midnight Screening section ahead of its June release in France — centers on a very buff, bearded influencer who lords over Paris’ underground gay scene. Jim’s status, and therefore life, crumbles when he catches a virus that turns people straight, and he’s abandoned by everyone but an eager twink. The unlikely duo set off on a mission across Paris’ gay district, the Marais, in search of a doctor touting a cure to the devastating disease, while the film takes a rare look at the inner workings of queer culture for laughs. 

“The Man I Love” (dir. Ira Sachs) 

Last time American auteur Ira Sachs was at Cannes, his 2019 film “Frankie,” starring Isabelle Huppert as a woman dying of cancer, got a mixed response. But the filmmaker — who premiered his last two features, “Peter Hujar’s Day” and “Passages,” at Sundance — later said it was worth traveling to the festival for the commercial prospects.

Now, Sachs is dipping his toes back into the sharky waters of Cannes’ Competition section with “The Man I Love.” The romantic drama set in 1980s New York stars Rami Malek as downtown performance artist Jimmy George, who finds himself open to life’s possibilities in a moment between debilitating illness and death. The film’s colorful, theatrical world is also populated by a supporting ensemble led by “The Sandman” star Tom Sturridge and “Peter Hujar” co-lead Rebecca Hall — ensuring that, despite Ben Whishaw’s exit, there will be plenty of lithe bodies and smoldering stares in the period piece set against the AIDS crisis.

“Nagi Notes” (dir. Koji Fukada)

Japanese auteur Koji Fukada has been a regular fixture at Cannes since his 2016 film, “Harmonium,” won the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard. But his acclaimed filmography stretches back more than a decade, with over 25 years of features that explore the fragility of human bonds and the illusion of stability. 

After premiering “Love on Trial” at last year’s festival, Fukada is making his return to the French Riviera with “Nagi Notes,” his first film to show in the Competition section. The feature centers on two women — Yoriko (Takako Matsu), an artist living in rural Nagi, and her friend and former sister-in-law Yuri (Shizuka Ishibashi) — at a crossroads and searching for a way to move forward. Yuri has traveled to the countryside in the wake of her separation, only to find Yoriko struggling to face the loss of her own relationship. And against the bucolic backdrop, the women settle into a contemplative, shared existence, probing themselves and each other.

“Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building” (Dir. Bruno Santamaría Razo)

Mexican director Bruno Santamaría Razo will make his first appearance at Cannes during Critics’ Week, where his debut narrative feature, “Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building,” will show in competition. The semi-autobiographical film is set in 1990s Mexico City, where 11-year-old Bruno (Jade Reyes) is being forced to grow up quickly in the wake of his father’s HIV diagnosis. The news of his father’s illness sends shockwaves through Bruno’s family and complicates his growing feelings for his best friend, and yet “Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building” is described as a vehicle for helping the documentary filmmaker process the pain of his childhood “through a lens of familial love and joyful celebration.”

“Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” (dir. Jane Schoenbrun)

During their relatively short but highly acclaimed filmmaking career, Jane Schoenbrun has yet to take on big-name stars. Schoenbrun’s first two features, “We’re All Going to the World’s Fair” and “I Saw the TV Glow,” depended on either completely unknown or up-and-coming names, which made their characters’ adolescent horrors all the more relatable. But the filmmaker’s third feature, “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” which stars Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder, is taking a different approach to eliciting scares.

The star-studded new slasher, which will open this year’s Un Certain Regard section, continues Schoenbrun’s exploration of 1980s, ‘90s, and 2000s horror themes, but through a decidedly more adult lens. “Hacks” star Einbinder plays an ambitious young director who’s been tasked with reviving a slasher franchise led by Anderson’s now-reclusive final girl. As artists are wont to do, the two descend into … madness? a torrid affair? Who knows, but it’s a Schoenbrun film, so expect guts and gore perfectly suited to the horror director’s oeuvre. 

“A Woman’s Life” (dir. Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet)

After showing her debut feature, “Anaïs in Love,” during last year’s Critics’ Week, French director, writer, and actor Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet is making her triumphant return to the festival with “A Woman’s Life.” The drama, which will show in the Competition section, features “Last Summer” star Léa Drucker as a 55-year-old surgeon who is stretched thin by trying to balance her job, which she pours herself into, with her responsibilities as a wife and daughter. But she begins to question the value of putting her personal life on the back burner when an alluring novelist, played by Mélanie Thierry, starts hanging around to observe her for a book.

Bourgeois-Tacquet, who also screened her short film “Pauline Enslaved” during Critics’ Week, once again tapped cinematographer Noé Bach for her sophomore, sapphic feature that brilliantly pairs the electric French actresses. With the likes of “Anatomy of a Fall” producer David Thion also behind the film, the extramarital romance is sure to unsettle thirsty audiences already enlivened by the warmth of the Côte d’Azur.