{"id":661988,"date":"2026-05-24T08:38:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T08:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661988\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T08:38:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T08:38:11","slug":"cannes-film-festival-award-winners-reveal-likely-2027-oscar-contenders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/661988\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannes Film Festival Award Winners Reveal Likely 2027 Oscar Contenders"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Thierry Fr\u00e9maux<\/a> faced up to a Cannes<\/a> without Hollywood movies \u2014 he was holding out for Steven Spielberg\u2019s \u201cDisclosure Day,\u201d<\/a> which Universal opted to withhold \u2014 he knew that while the usual festival d\u2019auteurs would yield many quality films, they might not play big across the Atlantic.<\/p>\n

When studio movies come to the Croisette, they\u2019re accompanied by stars on the red carpet and parties and marketing junkets. Not so this year. The two American movies in the Competition, James Gray\u2019s well-reviewed \u201cPaper Tiger\u201d <\/a>(Neon), and Ira Sachs\u2019 \u201cThe Man I Love,\u201d <\/a>delivered Adam Driver and Miles Teller and Rami Malek, respectively, to the red carpet, but came up empty-handed at the closing awards<\/a> ceremony. All the prizes went to non-English-language films.<\/p>\n

\"TUNER,<\/a> \"Gentle<\/a> <\/p>\n

Per usual, the Screen International Critics\u2019 Grid<\/a> had less influence on the prize-winners than the jury,<\/a> which is always dominated by actors. With the exception of Andrey Zvyagintsev<\/a>\u2018s Grand Prix winner \u201cMinotaur,\u201d <\/a>a reworking of Claude Chabrol\u2019s \u201cThe Unfaithful Wife,\u201d all the prizes went to movies that evoke deep emotion. Top-ranked on the Screen grid, Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski<\/a>\u2018s German-language post-World War II road movie \u201cFatherland\u201d <\/a>(Mubi) shared Best Director with period gay romance \u201cThe Black Ball,\u201d<\/a> directed by Los Javis (Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi). <\/p>\n

\u201cWe live and breathe politics,\u201d said Pawlikowski, who had won Best Director for \u201cCold War\u201d (followed by a Best Director Oscar nomination) in 2018 after waiting impatiently to accept his Palme, \u201cand the cinema reflects that.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Berlin Best Actress winner Sandra H\u00fcller\u00a0(\u201cRose\u201d) won accolades for her role in \u201cFatherland,\u201d she will have to wait for award season to see how things shake out. With the Academy rule change allowing two slots for the same actor in the actor races, Mubi could chase Best Actress for both \u201cRose\u201d and \u201cFatherland,\u201d while Amazon will likely seek Supporting Actress for \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d and we have yet to see Alejandro Gonz\u00e1lez I\u00f1\u00e1rritu\u2019s \u201cDigger.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SandraSandra Huller at the premiere of \u2018Fatherland\u2019 at the 79th Festival de Cannes held at Palais des Festivals<\/a> on May 14, 2026 in Cannes, France.Michael Buckner\/Variety<\/p>\n

The question is, which country will submit which film<\/a> for the Oscars? Thanks to the new Academy rules making the top prize winners from six top film festivals, including Cannes, automatically eligible, Christian Mungiu\u2019s second-time Palme d\u2019Or winner, the controversial Norwegian\/Romanian\u00a0\u201cFjord,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0has nothing to worry about. \u201cIt\u2019s important for cinema to cover relevant things,\u201d he said in his acceptance speech, which he gave in French and English.<\/p>\n

That leaves, in all likelihood, \u201cThe Black Ball\u201d (Netflix) as the Spanish entry; \u201cFatherland\u201d (Mubi) as the German entry (jury prize-winner Valeska Grisebach\u2019s immigration drama \u201cThe Dreamed Adventure\u201d is also German but lacks a North American distributor); Russian exile Zvyagintsev\u2019s \u201cMinotaur\u201d as a possible French entry; Lukas Dhont\u2019s shared Best Actor winner \u201cCoward\u201d (Valentin Campagne and Emmanuel Macchia), which was picked up by Mubi, as the Belgian entry; and Neon\u2019s shared Best Actress winner \u201cAll of a Sudden\u201d (Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto) as the Japanese entry. Okamoto thanked Ry\u00fbsuke Hamaguchi \u201cfor his incredible writing and guidance,\u201d she said. \u201cHe\u2019s the reason we\u2019re here today. Thank you for recognizing us as a pair.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA Man of His Time\u201d is a French-Belgian co-production without North American distribution so far. <\/p>\n

Other films may factor in the Oscar race, including Neon\u2019s critics\u2019 fave \u201cPaper Tiger,\u201d which boasts a trio of strong performances from Adam Driver, Miles Teller, and Scarlett Johansson, and rookie Jordan Firstman\u2019s popular \u201cClub Kid,\u201d <\/a>which A24 scooped up after a bidding war for $17 million. A screenplay nomination seems the most likely Oscar scenario. When I asked why he did not include the crowd-pleaser in the Competition, Fr\u00e9maux said he needed it to serve as a strong anchor for Un Certain Regard.<\/p>\n

\"AdamAdam Driver, James Gray and Miles Teller at the premiere for \u201cPaper Tiger\u201d at the 79th Festival de Cannes held at Palais des Festivals on May 16, 2026 in Cannes, France.Earl Gibson III\/Deadline<\/p>\n

Even though it runs three and a quarter hours, if Neon handles it well, \u201cDrive My Car\u201d Oscar nominee Ry\u00fbsuke Hamaguchi\u2019s \u201cAll of a Sudden\u201d could break into other categories including Picture, Original Screenplay, and Director. And while Neon\u2019s \u201cMrs. Dalloway\u201d adaptation \u201cClarissa\u201d inexplicably played in Directors\u2019 Fortnight, the impeccably cast (Nina Gold) Nigerian generational drama starring Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo (\u201cHotel Rwanda\u201d), David Oyelowo, and Ayo Edebiri will flourish on the fall festival circuit.<\/p>\n

At the close of the awards ceremony, during which Isabelle Huppert presented an Honorary Palme to the absent Barbra Streisand (who sent a gracious video), Palme d\u2019Or presenter Tilda Swinton, after many speeches about how films are a crucial form of resistance, cried, \u201cVive le cin\u00e9ma!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Thierry Fr\u00e9maux faced up to a Cannes without Hollywood movies \u2014 he was holding out for Steven…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[10546,18451,88,11337,2695],"class_list":["post-661988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-awards","tag-cannes","tag-entertainment","tag-festivals","tag-film"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}