The impact and legacy of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival won’t be judged until its biggest winners either make the Oscars or fall short eight months from now. At the moment, few are hailing the top 2026 films as much as they did for “Parasite,” “Anora,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Zone of Interest,” “Sentimental Value,” or the other most raved Cannes breakouts of recent years.
Nonetheless, beyond complaints that the 2026 festival didn’t have enough hits or future Oscar breakouts, there were several other major themes, future narratives, and talking points that Cannes inspired over these last two weeks – and perhaps the months still ahead.
NEON Won Again – With One Of Its Least Raved Winners So Far
For a festival that didn’t seem to yield an instant Best Picture frontrunner, maybe it makes sense that NEON won a seventh straight Palme without one of its best-reviewed winners. At the least, “Fjord” wasn’t put on the same instant pedestal that “Parasite,” “Anora,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “It Was Just an Accident,” or even “Sentimental Value” and “The Secret Agent” all were, as it won the Palme with an opening 82 on MetaCritic and a mere 7.3 average critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Fjord” may not have the especially low scores of a “Triangle of Sadness,” but it is so far closer to scores like “Titane” than its Palme turned Oscar winners of the past. Will its fall festival screenings, as well as the star and award power of Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, boost its critical standing higher before Oscar voters weigh in? Given how critics couldn’t save “It Was Just an Accident” last year from being the first NEON Palme winner turned Best Picture snub since “Titane,” perhaps they may be ignored in the opposite fashion this time.
The LGBTQ+ Community Carried Cannes This Year
On both Cannes’ opening and closing days, there was a duo of LGBTQ+- themed movies that generated the highest buzz and perhaps ratings of the festival. However, the opening duo of “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” and “Club Kid” were relegated to the Certain Regard slate, which didn’t really flatter the Palme field as more and more of its films fell short by comparison.
It took until the second-to-last day of the festival for another LGBTQ+ pairing to really spark up Cannes, as “The Black Ball” and “Coward” premiered back-to-back for a last-second jolt. Between “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” winning the Queer Palm and having close to the highest critics scores of any Cannes film, “Club Kid” being one of the top selling Cannes acquisitions thanks to A24, “The Black Ball” sharing the Best Director prize after its own big sale to Netflix, “Coward” having its lead acting duo win Best Actor, and Ira Sachs and Rami Malek garnering their own late raves for “The Man I Love,” the various gay communities truly saved the day at Cannes this year.
Netflix Has A New No. 1 For Oscar Season
After Greta Gerwig’s “Narnia” moved to spring 2027, Netflix’s projected 2026 award season slate appeared to lack an obvious No. 1 option. But hours before the closing ceremonies, Netflix finally picked one up by buying “The Black Ball” which looks to be its biggest Cannes purchase since “Emilia Pérez” two years ago.
While “The Black Ball” didn’t win as much at Cannes as “Emilia Pérez” did, its initial raves far exceeded any “Emilia Pérez” got before its post-Cannes backlash started. Perhaps wider audiences will turn on it in different ways later, or perhaps Netflix will stumble onto something else as a top awards priority – or at least something more mainstream than a triptych of gay-themed stories set in three different eras of Spain. Yet at this current moment, “The Black Ball” is the closest thing to an Oscar season best bet that Netflix has so far.
MUBI Returned To Cannes Form
One of the defining stories of 2024 in Cannes was “The Substance,” which launched MUBI into Oscar contention for the first time. Ironically and perhaps fittingly, “The Substance’s” Demi Moore was part of the jury that gave MUBI its first Cannes wins since then, as “Fatherland” tied for Best Director, “Minotaur” took the Grand Prix, and its newest acquisition “Coward” won for Best Actor. And even before that, MUBI was a winner when “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma” won the Queer Palm.
After MUBI put its 2025 awards season chips into Cannes premiere “Die, My Love” and didn’t have it pay off, it needed to prove it wasn’t a one-season or one-Cannes wonder. There’s still a long way to go before “Fatherland,” “Coward,” “Minotaur,” “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” or any other 2026 MUBI film proves it can put the studio back in the Oscar race again. But at this early going, MUBI has multiple possible contenders to prioritize and hope for, which is a better starting place than it had in 2025 – and with an even bigger crop than in 2024.
An Odd 20-Year Tradition Of Acting Ties Continued
It isn’t uncommon at Cannes for an acting prize to split among multiple actors from the same film. This year, there was nothing as wild in one category as four “Emilia Pérez” actresses splitting Best Actress in 2024 – but both Best Actor and Best Actress split almost right on cue this year.
When “All of a Sudden’s” Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto shared Best Actress after “Coward’s” Valentin Campagne and Emmanuel Macchia split Best Actor, it was the first time both Cannes acting categories had splits in exactly 20 years – when Penelope Cruz and the other actresses of “Volver” took Best Actress and the men of “Days of Glory” all won Best Actor. Before that, such a thing hadn’t happened in another 20 years – only in that case Fernanda Torres and Barbara Sukowa split Best Actress for two different movies in 1986, just like Bob Hoskins and Michel Blanc did for Best Actor.
Obviously, this means both Cannes’ Best Actor and Best Actress won’t split in the same year again until 2046. Whether it means one of the 2026 winners will soon get their own solo Oscar nomination, like Hoskins did for “Mona Lisa” in 1986 and Cruz did in 2006, is still in question.
Familiar Faces Were Cannes’ Biggest Safety Net
It is very easy to point out, or complain, that certain past Oscar nominees and winners have a major leg up with the Academy – whether they have real award-worthy work under consideration or not. But Cannes may have outdone the Oscars in terms of favoritism this year, as past favorites were major parts of most of this year’s major prize winners.
“Fjord” was not only yet another NEON Palme winner, but was the second Palme winner from Cristian Mungiu after 2007’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days,” starred recurring Cannes darling and past Best Actress winner Reinsve, and co-starred budding Cannes darling Stan two years after he premiered his Oscar-nominated “The Apprentice” performance at Cannes. Beyond that, “Minotaur” won the Grand Prix for former Best Screenplay and Jury Prize winner Andrey Zvyagintsev, “Fatherland’s” Pavel Pawlikowski split Best Director after first winning it by himself in 2018 for “Cold War,” “Coward” became director Lukas Dhont’s third consecutive film to win a Cannes prize. Ryusuke Hamaguchi guided “All of a Sudden” to a shared Best Actress win five years after his own Best Screenplay win for “Drive My Car.”
Aside from “A Man of His Time” Best Screenplay’s win for Emmanuel Marre, the Jury Prize win for Valeska Grisebach’s “The Dreamed Adventure,” and “The Black Ball’s Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo sharing Best Director, all of the biggest Cannes winners involved very familiar faces. Given that not all of these returning favorites had films regarded as their very best work, or up to their past Cannes winners, it might signal that past glories outweighed any current glories or lack thereof with this jury, like many an Oscar ceremony with legacy-driven winners.
Is this a sign of how the rest of the awards season will go, or will Cannes’ somewhat mixed reviews provide a big opening for some fresher and newer favorites to fill the gaps later? Either way, the next major clues won’t come until festival season resumes in Venice, Telluride, and Toronto three months from now.
What did you think of the news that came out of this year’s Cannes Film Festival? Do you think any of these films will go on to be Oscar contenders? If so, which one’s? Please let us know in the comments section below and on Next Best Picture’s X account.
You can follow Robert and hear more of his thoughts on the Oscars & Film on X @Robertdoc1984
