![\"'I](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1476667_iseebuildingsfalllikelightningfirstlook_926721.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
It is a very quiet year for UK-Ireland directors and producers in the official selection and parallel sidebars of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Clio Barnard is representing UK filmmakers with the BFI and BBC\u00a0Film-backed I\u00a0See Buildings Fall Like Lightning,\u00a0which has been selected for Directors\u2019 Fortnight, produced by Tracy\u00a0O\u2019Riordan at Moonspun Pictures. Additionally, Amsterdam-based UK-Yemeni filmmaker\u00a0Sara Ishaq\u2019s\u00a0The Station has been selected for\u00a0Critics\u2019 Week.<\/p>\n
For Ireland,\u00a0Alexander Murphy\u2019s feature documentary about Irish travellers,\u00a0Tin Castle, is also screening in Critics\u2019 Week. The film is produced by\u00a0Eamon Hughes of Dublin-based Samson Films, with Cosme Bongrain of France\u2019s Goodspeed Productions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are no films by a UK director in Competition. The last time this happened was in 2022. And there are no films by a UK producer or coproducer in Competition. The last time there was not a single film in Competition without a UK producer or coproducer was 2008.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Last year, Lynne Ramsay\u2019s\u00a0Die My Love\u00a0played in Competition, produced by the UK\u2019s Andrea Calderwood, although not through her Potboiler Films.\u00a0The UK industry was also represented in Competition by Film4, one of the funders\u00a0of The\u00a0History Of Sound, which was\u00a0produced by the UK\u2019s Th\u00e9r\u00e8sa Ryan-van Graan, and by\u00a0BBC Film, one of the backers of Joachim Trier\u2019s Norwegian title\u00a0Sentimental Value.<\/p>\n
In 2024, there was again one filmmaker, Andrea Arnold\u2019s Bird, and four films from UK-Ireland producers. In 2023,\u00a0 Ken Loach\u2019s The Old Oak and Jonathan Glazer\u2019s The Zone Of Interest\u00a0both screened in Competition, along with four films from UK-Ireland producers. In 2022, there were two from UK-Ireland producers, including Ruben Ostlund\u2019s Palme d\u2019Or\u00a0winner\u00a0Triangle\u00a0Of Sadness,\u00a0produced by Mike Goodridge\u2019s Good Chaos.<\/p>\n
There are no UK directors in Un Certain Regard this year. This follows a strong 2025 with three prize-winning films from UK directors and UK-Ireland producers: Akinola Davies Jr\u2019s My Father\u2019s Shadow, Harry Lighton\u2019s Pillion and Harris Dickinson\u2019s Urchin, plus Number 9 Films was a producer on Kei Ishikawa\u2019s Japanese-language A Pale View Of Hills.<\/p>\n
In 2024, there were three UK-Ireland produced films in this section (On Becoming A Guinea Fowl, Santosh and September Says), and in 2023 there were two (How To Have Sex and The Settlers). In 2022, there was one (Silent Twins); in 2021, there were none.<\/p>\n
It is understood there are still more titles to be announced across the 2026 programme, with Werner Herzog\u2019s US-Ireland co-production Bucking Fastard \u2013 which shot around Dublin \u2013 still a contender.<\/p>\n
On screen<\/p>\n
UK actors heading to the Croisette include Kenneth Branagh in Directors\u2019 Fortnight\u00a0selection Atonement, Arthur Conti in Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma, Dougray Scott in Her Private Hell, Rebecca Hall and Tom Sturridge in Ira Sachs\u2019 Competition title The Man I Love, Cara Delevingne in Un Certain Regard selection\u00a0Club Kid and a largely UK cast in Nigerian filmmaker Arie and Chuko\u00a0Esiri\u2019s Mrs\u00a0Dalloway adaptation Clarissa in Directors\u2019 Fortnight, including Sophie Okonedo, David Oyelowo, Toheeb Jimoh, India Amarteifio, Nikki Amuka-Bird and Danny Sapani. \u2028\u2028<\/p>\n
Anthony Boyle, Joe Cole and Jay Lycurgo star in\u00a0I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, alongside\u00a0Northern Irish Lola Petticrew and Ireland\u2019s\u00a0Daryl McCormack. The film is written by\u00a0Irish playwright Enda Walsh.<\/p>\n
Ireland\u2019s Barry Keoghan stars in the Directors\u2019 Fortnight opening film\u00a0Butterfly Jam.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While UK-Irish representation\u00a0is often slight at\u00a0Cannes, the absence of recent Croisette\u00a0stalwarts Good Chaos (with\u00a0credits\u00a0spanning Triangle\u00a0Of Sadness, Club\u00a0Zero, Santosh\u00a0and Left-Handed Girl)\u00a0and Dublin-London\u00a0Element\u00a0Pictures (behind Pillion, My Father\u2019s Shadow, Kinds Of Kindness,\u00a0September\u00a0Says, On Becoming\u00a0A Guinea Fowl,\u00a0The Killing Of\u00a0A Sacred\u00a0Deer\u00a0and\u00a0The Lobster) can be felt through the\u00a0programme.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is a very quiet year for UK-Ireland directors and producers in the official selection and parallel sidebars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,43],"class_list":["post-404238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=404238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}