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Phuong Mai Nguyen’s In Waves, an animated characteristic adjustment of L.A. illustrator AJ Dungo’s eponymous cult 2019 schematic caller group successful California, will unfastened nan 65th version of Cannes Critics’ Week.
It is among 11 features, selected from 1050 feature-length submissions, unveiled by Cannes Critics’ Week connected Monday for its 2026 edition. Scroll down for afloat list.
Inspired by Dungo’s real-life emotion story, In Waves follows 2 young lovers, a skateboarder and a surfer, who first meet astatine schoolhouse and hook-up later, and are past tested by illness, but garbage to beryllium overwhelmed by condolences against nan backdrop of nan sunshine and surf of California.
The sound formed of nan English-language type is led by Will Sharpe and Stephanie Hsu, while nan French type features Lyna Khoudri, Rio Vega, Paul Kirscher and Biran Ba. Cannes Critics’ Week is aiming to play some versions.
The characteristic is produced by Paris-based Silex Films and Charades pinch Anonymous Content. French Singaporean head Nguyen was Oscar-shortlisted for her short My Home.
In Waves is nan first ever animated characteristic to unfastened Cannes Critics’ Week though nan parallel conception has a beardown animation track-record.
It antecedently welcomed I Lost My Body, which went connected to beryllium nominated for an Oscar successful nan Best Animated Feature class of nan 92nd Academy Awards, while much caller animation selections see Japanese head Momoko Seto’s Dandelion’s Odyssey which closed nan conception past year.
Seven films person been selected for nan competition.
They see Chinese head Zou Jing’s A Girl Unknown exploring nan implications of nan abandonment of thousands of newborn babe girls successful China from nan 1980s to 2,000 arsenic a consequence of nan country’s one-child policy.
The China-shot play follows nan communicative of a young woman who ends up pinch 3 different families crossed her infancy and adolescence.
Based betwixt L.A. and Shanghai, Zou Jing showed her short movie Lili Alone successful Critics’ Week successful 2021. She past developed A Girl Unknown pinch nan support of nan section’s Next Step program, supporting emerging board successful nan modulation from short to feature-length film, winning nan initiative’s Next Step prize successful 2024.
After years of improvement and production, Scottish Yemeni head Sara Ishaq will unveil her long-gestated play The Station.
The warm-hearted activity revolves astir Layal who runs a women-only petrol position successful a gender-segregated, war-torn colony successful Yemen. The only antheral who is tolerated astatine nan station, which becomes a typical gathering spot for nan women of nan villages, is Layal’s 12-year-old brother, who she is wished to support retired of nan conflict.
Kosovan head Blerta Basholli, who made waves pinch her 2021 Sundance Grand Jury Prize victor Hive, will make her Cannes debut pinch 2nd characteristic Dua. It explores nan repercussions of nan 1990s Kosovo War done nan titular Dua, a 13-year-old woman whose regular life and family are impacted by nan conflict.
Latin America will beryllium represented by Mexican head Bruno Santamaria Razo’s 6 Meses En El Edificio Rosa Con Azul, which translates arsenic “six months successful a pinkish and bluish building”. Set successful nan 1990s and nan HIV crisis, nan family play evokes nan memories of a young boy faced pinch his father’s mysterious illness.
The action besides includes French head Marine Atlan’s first characteristic La Gradiva, a choral movie starring Antonia Buresi arsenic a Latin coach who takes her precocious schoolhouse students connected a travel to Pompei, wherever emotions and desires spill retired against nan backdrop of nan ancient tract and its beauty.
Continuing nan section’s caller inclination of spotlighting documentaries, nan lineup besides features French Irish head Alexander Murphy’s Tin Castle astir an Irish traveller family and their life successful mobile home. It is Murphy’s 2nd characteristic documentary aft 2025 activity Goodbye Sisters, astir 2 Nepali sisters who time off Kathmandu for their autochthonal colony to harvest nan valuable caterpillar fungus, yarsagumba successful nan dream that nan profits will alteration their lives.
Recent Cannes Critics’ Week documentary selections The Brink Of Dreams and Imago, went connected to triumph Cannes’ Golden Eye, unfastened to documentaries crossed nan Official Selection and parallel sections, successful 2024 and 2025 respectively.
The title besides features Spanish character Aina Clotet debut characteristic Viva. Described arsenic a bittersweet drama group successful Catalonia, nan activity stars Clotet arsenic a female rethinking her individual and master life arsenic she recovers from bosom crab during an utmost power wave.
The 7 films will compete for nan Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award (Le prix Fondation Louis Roederer de la Révélation) and nan Le Grand Prix AMI Paris.
Playing Out Of Competition, French board Julien Gaspar-Oliveri’s Stonewall (La Frappe) and Pierre Le Gall’s Flesh and Fuel (Du Fioul Dans Les Artères) which will debut arsenic Special Screenings.
Stonewall, starring Bastien Bouillon and newcomers Diego Murgia and Romane Fringeli, is an immersive play astir a young relative and sister whose lives return a acheronian move pinch nan return of their convulsive begetter aft a spell successful prison.
Alexis Manenti and Julian Swiezewski co-star successful romanticist drama Flesh and Fuel arsenic 2 motortruck drivers who autumn successful emotion aft a chance gathering while connected nan roadworthy and past effort to support nan romance live contempt nan distances betwixt them.
The conception will adjacent pinch French head Félix de Givry’s Adieu Monde Cruel, starring Anatomy of a Fall find Milo Machado-Graner arsenic a teen who fails successful a termination attempt, having announced his intentions successful a missive to his family and classmate.
Ashamed, he spends nan nighttime wandering nan streets of his mini municipality until a woman from his precocious schoolhouse recognises him. Machado-Graner is joined successful nan formed by Jane Beever, while Françoise Lebrun provides a voiceover.
The section’s short movie lineup, selected from 2,400 entries, and assemblage will beryllium announced successful nan coming days.
The 65th Cannes Critics’ Week will tally from May 13 to 21.
The 2026 Cannes Critics’ Week Lineup:
Competition
Dua
Kosovo, Switzerland, France
Blerta Basholli
A Girl Unknown (Wu ming nü hai)
China, France
Dir: Zou Jing
La Gradiva
France, Italy
Dir: Marine Atlan
Seis Meses en el edificio rosa con azul
Mexico, Denmark, Brazil
Bruno Santamaria Razo
The Station (Al Mahattah)
Yemen, Jordan, France, Germany, Netherlands, Norway
Dir: Sara Ishaq
Tin Castle
Ireland, France
Dir: Alexander Murphy
Viva
Spain
Dir: Aina Clotet
Special Screenings
In Waves (opening film)
France, Belgium
Dir: Phuong Mai Nguyen
Stonewall (La Frappe)
France
Dir Julien Gaspar-Oliveri
Flesh and Fuel (Du Fioul dans les artères)
France
Dir: Pierre Le Gall
Adieu monde cruel
France, Belgium
Dir: Félix de Givry
