- Cannes 2026: Table of Contents (May 25, 2026)
The 2026 Cannes Film Festival starts Tuesday, May 12th, running through May 24th. The Ebert team returns this year with coverage of all of the major films in review and video form.
Below is a running index of our reviews, dispatches, and video reports from the festival.
Full Reviews
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma review: Slasher fans get the homage they deserve by Brian Tallerico
Propeller One-Way Night Coach review: Travolta’s directorial debut never takes flight by Brian Tallerico
Hope review: Bonkers Korean monster movie destroys the hero narrative by Robert Daniels
Her Private Hell review: Refn is back with shallow trip to the underworld by Brian Tallerico
Fjord review: Thorny moral quandary in this icy drama by Brian Tallerico
The Samurai and the Prisoner review: Riveting 16th century epic plays like Samurai Columbo by Brian Tallerico
Victorian Psycho: More frustrating than fun horror-comedy can’t find a tone by Brian Tallerico
Video Reports
Cannes 2026 Video #1: The 79th Cannes Film Festival Begins!
Cannes 2026 Video #2: A Look Back at Day One of the Fest
Cannes 2026 Video #3: Nagi Notes, Camp Miasma, Werner Herzog
Cannes 2026 Video #4: Festival Dispatch with Zachary Lee
Cannes 2026 Video #5: Festival Dispatch with Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026 Video #6: Club Kid, Paper Tiger, Clarissa
Cannes 2026 Video #7: Festival Dispatch with Jason Gorber
Cannes 2026 Video #8: Dua, I’ll Be Gone in June, La Gravida
Cannes 2026 Video #9: Critics Roundtable
Cannes 2026 Video #10: Reflecting on the Award Winners
Festival Dispatches
Cannes 2026: The Electric Kiss by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Fatherland, Parallel Tales by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: Nagi Notes, Ashes by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Ken Russell’s The Devils, Pan’s Labyrinth, Moonlighting by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: All of a Sudden, Think Good by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Clarissa, Atonement, Butterfly Jam by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: The Beloved, A Woman’s Life, Gentle Monster by Robert Daniels
Cannes 2026: Paper Tiger, Sheep in the Box by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: John Lennon: The Last Interview, La Libertad Doble by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: The Meltdown, La Frappe, I’ll Be Gone in June by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: Avedon, Visitation by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Club Kid, Marie Madeleine by Robert Daniels
Cannes 2026: The Unknown, Another Day by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Iron Boy, Tangles, Lucy Lost by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: Minotaur, Red Rocks by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: The Man I Love, Orange-Flavoured Wedding by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Dua, Made of Flesh and Fuel, Six Months in a Pink and Blue Building by Robert Daniels
Cannes 2026: The Black Ball, Bitter Christmas by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: A Man of His Time, Moulin, Coward by Robert Daniels
Cannes 2026: I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, Diary of a Chambermaid, La Perra by Robert Daniels
Cannes 2026: Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean, Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: The Birthday Party, When the Night Falls by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: The Dreamed Adventure, Too Many Beasts, Women on Trial, Che Guevara: The Last Companions by Ben Kenigsberg
Cannes 2026: Everytime, Ben’Imana, Titanic Ocean by Robert Daniels
Cannes 2026: Colony, The End of It, Roma Elastica by Brian Tallerico
Cannes 2026: Full Phil, Sanguine (Species), Jim Queen by Zachary Lee
Cannes 2026: Second Takes on Some of the Year’s Best Films by Brian Tallerico
- Cannes 2026: Second Takes on Some of the Year’s Best Films (May 25, 2026)
While we try to divide and conquer a large amount of the Cannes program, including every one of the Competition titles, the scheduling inevitably leads to situations where a writer on this team sees something that was assigned elsewhere. It could be a case of wanting to be a part of the conversation about the biggest titles, no other alternatives in a timeslot that aren’t being covered, or just the final day, when all of Comp replays. In my 40-film schedule (!!!), I ended up seeing seven films that were hit first by Robert Daniels or Ben Kenigsberg at this site, and only one misfired for me (“Coward”). I’d like to offer a few thoughts on the other six, all worth tracking as they make their way from Cannes to a theater near you later this year.
“All of a Sudden”
One of the buzziest titles coming into Cannes seems to be one of the titles that also satisfied viewers here in ways that works by other acclaimed authors (“Parallel Tales,” “A Sheep in the Box”) failed to do. Ryusuke Hamaguchi is back with a 196-minute drama that justifies its length by being intrinsically about patience. It’s a film that asks us to be patient and present with people, especially the elderly and the infirm. Virginia Efira stars as the head of a program called Humanitude at a nursing home in Paris, where she is stymied by practicalities like financial concerns. When she meets a dying theater director (Tao Okamoto), she’s inspired to work harder to connect with those who are so often denied connections. In a year with a lot of cynicism and anxiety in the Cannes line-up, “All of a Sudden” is a big-hearted cry for empathy, a film that asks us to really look people in the eyes, put our hand on their shoulder, and be there in the moment with them. It’s an antidote to a fest that can be exhausting to consider the wealth of humanity on display in Hamaguchi’s vision, a movie that grows in esteem in my mind every day since I saw it.
“Club Kid”
The explosive buzz generated by the world premiere of Jordan Firstman’s writing/directing/acting showcase could be heard across Europe. In a fest with few standout sales titles, this one going to A24 for a whopping $17 million is easily one of the year’s big stories. Firstman plays a party organizer near the end of his rope when a woman drops a kid off at his door, claiming that he’s the father. As cheesy as it sounds, Firstman’s hilarious and moving dramedy is earnestly about how your kids can make you a better version of yourself, sometimes even one you didn’t think could happen. We’ve seen hundreds of movies about adults releasing the potential within children, but it can go both ways. Trust me, my kids inspire me every day. And I saw some of that heartfelt truth in this buoyant, funny movie. When people like Firstman jump into feature filmmaking across three fields, one almost always suffers, but this is the rare case when one would have tough time choosing whether Firstman’s writing, acting, or directing are his greatest accomplishment here.
“The Beloved”
A quick way to describe Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s riveting drama about filmmaking might be to call it “Unsentimental Value.” Much like the Joachim Trier Oscar winner, this is the tale of a filmmaker father (Javier Bardem, as good as he’s been in years) who tries to mend bridges with his estranged daughter Emilia (Victoria Luengo, also at Cannes in “Bitter Christmas,” and phenomenal in both). Sorogoyen opens his film with one of the best scenes in years: A 20-minute conversation between the leads that sets the foundation for the film to come as it devolves into conflicting memories and accusations. The film never quite reaches that peak again (although an on-set meltdown comes close) but it remains a searing character study for its entire runtime, grounded by not only two of my favorite performances of Cannes, but that I’ll see all year.
“Hope”
Widely acknowledged as the craziest film in Competition this year, Na Hong-jin’s action epic is the likeliest in the slate to find a big audience around the world. Wearing its James Cameron and Bong Joon-ho inspirations on its sleeve, “Hope” opens with one of the most impressive hours of action cinema I’ve ever seen. As a cop in a small village named Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) races to catch up to whatever is causing insane devastation around the region, Na Hong-jin’s camera can barely keep up with him. It’s a bravura sequence that the rest of the movie can’t quite catch up to, but a bookending bit of Big Chase chaos comes close. This is a ridiculously indulgent action movie (160 minutes!) with some admittedly janky VFX (that might get fixed before you see it), but what makes it memorable is its unapologetic ambition. While too many films at Cannes this year felt like auteurs playing it safe by exploring themes they had done more eloquently elsewhere, this one felt fresh, new, and borderline insane.
“Minotaur”
“Leviathan” director Andrey Zvyagintsev came to Cannes this year with a chilly remake of Chabrol’s “The Unfaithful Wife” (also made into “Unfaithful” with Diane Lane), told in a very Russian dialect. The acclaimed director uses the backdrop of the early days of the Russo-Ukrainian War to reveal what can happen when people are seen as disposable. A business executive named Gleb (Dmitriy Mazurov) has been asked by the Russian government which of his employees are to be sent to war. At the same time, he discovers that his wife is having an affair. There’s a centerpiece sequence in “Minotaur” that is the reason it’s been so acclaimed, a feat of Hitchcockian direction that almost makes us feel like we’re in the room with a man covering up a crime. Like so much of the movie’s color palette, it’s icy, calculated, and chilling, a reminder of what can happen in broad daylight in a time when human life has lost so much of its value.
“The Man I Love”
There’s nothing chilly about Ira Sachs’ moving drama that successfully reclaims Rami Malek from years of blockbusters that didn’t know what to do with him. He gives arguably his best performance as a NYC actor in the ‘80s who is facing the inevitability of AIDS. Sachs has honed a delicate sense of realism in his last few films—this would make a fascinating double feature with “Peter Hujar’s Day” in the way it captures a very specific time—and it allows “The Man I Love” to sneak up on you. There are times when I felt like it was too purposefully reaching for poignancy, but the last fifteen minutes are devastating, especially a scene in which Malek’s character is pulled from a stage he doesn’t want to leave. So many men were pulled from that spotlight too young. Sachs has made a tribute to them all.
- Hearing a Movie: Daniel Roher on “Tuner” (May 25, 2026)
Daniel Roher’s breakout documentary “Navalny,” revolving around Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and events related to his poisoning, earned the filmmaker his first Academy Award. But what happens, when you have reached the pinnacle of success right out the gate? What goal do you fly towards next? In Roher’s case, he delved into a unique narrative world creating a tale of a talented piano tuner’s (Leo Woodall) meticulous skills leading him to discover an unexpected aptitude for safe cracking while turning his life and everyone around him upside down. The result was “Tuner.”
On a quick break during the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival as this now-in-theaters film was doing the rounds, Roher reflected on his previous Oscar win, the events that led him to creating a crime thriller tackling elements of hearing-impaired characters and melting it with romance, all while embracing his own journey of self-discovery.
You felt like after winning the Best Documentary Feature Academy Award for “Navalny,” your career was done. Why is that?
There’s a great deal of pressure that comes with achieving so much, in my case, at such a young age. How do you follow up a film like “Navalny”? How do I follow up winning an Oscar compounded by the fact that I was in a head space where routinely I’d have well-wishers with good intentions saying, “How are you going to follow this one up…Wow, you should just retire now…There’s no beating this one.”
As well-intentioned those comments may have been, it made me very anxious. If you look at the history of who’s won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, you know there’s a pattern of people winning that award who are struggling to cope with it and figure out what to do next. Consequently, I coped with that unknowingness and the looming specter that was this movie, this award and the legacy of Navalny. That’s when I started writing “Tuner”. I sort of channeled some of the fear and anxiety I was having about what next into this project.
Talk to me about the process of casting Leo Woodall and Havana Rose Liu.
I think it was important you had two people that could actually play the piano, except for they couldn’t play when we started. If you look at Leo’s comfortability around the instrument, not just in playing, but in tuning, opening the lid, pulling out the key action, etc., all of these skills he had to acquire and master. He had zero piano playing experience when we started.
Now, Havana had maybe grade six piano, middle school piano experience, but she hadn’t played in years. So, both Leo and Havana had to really master the pieces in the movie in a compelling, real way to look good on camera, which they both did. Now, casting a romance is always tricky. You need to find two people who have chemistry, who look great next to one another and a couple the audience is rooting for. Leo is obviously an emerging heartthrob and one of the great actors of his generation, without doubt. Havana naturally possesses the discipline, the skill, talent, drive, determination, and ambition that was written on the page in this character, Ruby. It’s almost as if when I found Havana, I was, like, looking at this woman who I invented, who and it’s really special when you find an actor who so closely mirrors that ideal.
We know Dustin Hoffman is an Oscar winner who comes from the Broadway stage and Tovah Feldshuh has been a Broadway star for fifty years. Both are exemplary and it was so rewarding to see them in this project. The fact this was kind of set in the New York-ish area with these two theater legends, in a story literally about something that’s happening on the stage was really cool.
I’ve noticed the difference between actors who emerge from the stage versus actors who are native to film is that actors who emerge from the stage are less afraid of playing. An actor like Dustin views the concept of a take as an opportunity to try new things. When you tell an actor like Tovah or like Dustin to just play and explore, you will undoubtedly find things you never anticipated or dreamed of, and that is the miracle of an actor like these two.
You want to give them the opportunity to improvise, to flex that muscle, and have the flexibility as the director and the writer to say, “Don’t worry about my words, that’s when really special lines and expressions and ideas emerge.
The way you filmed Leo Woodall safecracking, the cylinders, how they clicked and how sound was its own character within the confines of this piece. Can you just speak to why you chose to tell the story in that way? We could’ve watched him crack a safe and nobody would care, but the way it was filmed and executed was absolutely brilliant.
I’ve always felt like sound is the most underutilized of the cinematic palette. Since the 1920s, movies have been sound and images, with images always taking center stage. It’s a visual medium first, and I’ve always refuted that. It’s a sound and image medium. But it’s not common practice to think about the sound design, about how the sound and the auditory motifs in a movie can contribute to the emotional, experiential, visceral palette of watching film.
In this film, I wanted to write a story that was sound-oriented and sound forward focusing meant to mirror some of my favorite movies. If you think about the great sound movies from history, films like “The Conversation” by Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma’s “Blow Out” or Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal,” these are movies that put the sound forward-facing and make them as important in terms of a character. That’s what I sought to do with “Tuner,” to create a visceral experience where audiences could hear the movie as much as they see the movie.
When we found Johnny Burn, who I believe to be the most talented sound designer, a sound philosopher, sound wizard, who really nailed down the sound mix, which just brought the film to life. I felt like Dr. Frankenstein in my laboratory and Johnny was turning his knobs and working his magic. The monster on the table, which was the film, you know, sat up and came to life and for me, that was, like, an unbelievable experience.
I feel like there’s so many different things within the confines of the film. There’s something for everybody. Congratulations.
This really means so much coming from you guys. One of the highlights of my TIFF going experience was meeting Roger Ebert when I was 14 around 2009. In a sea full of celebrities, he was the guy who I was most nervous and excited to go shake his hand and say hello. He was very kind to me.
Produced and distributed by Black Bear Pictures, “Tuner” opened in limited release on May 22, 2026, expanding wider this Friday, May 29, after having previous premieres during the 2025 Telluride and Toronto International Film festivals.
- Cannes 2026: Full Phil, Sanguine (Species), Jim Queen (May 24, 2026)
I’ll cut right to the chase: the Midnighters are usually my most anticipated sidebar of any given festival (from last year’s Cannes alone, they treated us to “Exit 8” and I was higher than most on “Honey Don’t!”), So I come into films premiering in this section with an open mind and eager heart. Save for one visually inventive animated film, they’re nearly all disappointments. It’s entirely possible that films that would have slotted nicely here were regulated to other sections (see: “Victorian Psycho” and “Too Many Beasts”), but here’s hoping that future renditions of this section won’t feel like leftovers from others.
Quentin Dupieux makes a return to English-speaking films with “Full Phil,” and it’s clear that the time in between hasn’t kept his pen sharp. Yes, it’s absurdist, so its overly literal dialogue and awkward line deliveries from the father-daughter duo played by Woody Harrelson and Kristen Stewart can be read as full-throated commitments to the bit. But it oscillates between mind-numbingly nonsensical and awkwardly literal that by the end, you’re not sure what the point of it all was. It reminds me of those Michelin-starred meals that are fancy to the point of being saccharine; they look pretty, but there’s not much by way of sustenance.
What feels particularly grievous is that Dupieux wastes the talents of fine actors like Harrelson and Stewart, who are trapped in archetypes that deny them the ability to tap into anything remotely resembling interiority. Harrelson has played the know-it-all diva many times now, and in his role as the titular Phil, a wealthy tycoon, he delivers the entertaining but hackneyed hits. The first part of the film sees him arguing with his daughter, Madeleine (Stewart), about how she clogged the toilet on his side of their sprawling Paris suite. It’s a bit that feels like it goes on for far too long, and there’s only so many ways you can subject yourself to variations of “You shouldn’t have clogged the toilet / Well, too bad I did” type of dialogue exchanges that it becomes maddening.
To give Dupieux some credit, he clearly understands that there’s some appeal in witnessing beautiful people eat. It’s through Stewart’s Madeline that the film dips into its more surreal elements: throughout their arguing, she orders more room service, never showing signs of satiety. Stewart delights in literally chewing the scenery, munching on all sorts of Parisian food in such off-putting ways that they stand in stark contrast to the dishes’ aesthetic appeal. There’s a joy in watching Stewart eating them in ways that the creator of those dishes probably never would have intended.
The actress seems aware that the way a character eats reveals as much about a character as dialogue. One great bit comes when she gets a tomahawk steak, grips it from the bone, and eats it the way one might do a Harold’s Chicken Shack drumstick; she clearly has an appetite for the unconventional. She can’t quite escape the grip of poorly written dialogue; “I like boys,” she says to her father at one point, and I could have sworn I saw Stewart wink in jest at how untrue that statement is.
Between bites, Madeleine watches a black-and-white monster movie in which a “Shape of Water”-type sea creature terrorizes characters played by Emma Mackey, Tim Heidecker, and Eric Wareheim. It’s a far more interesting film and crafted with more care than the live story we’re watching unfold. The more Madeleine eats, the more Phil grows in size, at one point spotting a belly so engorged you’re worried the long movement might make it pop, sending organs and blood everywhere.
Maybe it’s all some metaphor about how kids’ mindless consumption becomes a burden for their parents? It’s hard to say, and as the film descends, it feels like Dupieux and his collaborators are just throwing everything into a pan and cooking everything at the same temperature, unable to gel the ingredients into anything cohesive. I firmly believe that a healthy cinematic diet should also consist of junk food, but “Full Phil” doesn’t have the dignity to be even that. It’s just empty calories,
There’s some culinary carryover with “Sanguine (Species)” from director Marion Le Corroller, which is one of those projects where the idea is far more interesting than the execution. It’s a body horror satire with a feminist bend that will undoubtedly draw comparisons to Coralie Fargeat and Julia Ducournau, but it’s far more in line with Cronenberg’s “Dead Ringers” or Verbinski’s “A Cure for Wellness,” in the way it explores how the horrors of our chosen vocations take on violent, embodied consequences. Making a film about the horrors of work burnout is an intriguing premise, given grind culture and the hustle economy, but it’s too stilted in its machinations and too uninvested in its characters’ lives to cut more than skin-deep.
The beginning starts with such promise that it’s hard to accept the ways Le Corroller loses the plot along the way. We’re transported to the inner workings of a fast food restaurant whose rhythms feel more like a concert: the lighting feels uniquely garish, and the sounds, from customers chewing to order numbers being called, are an assault on the senses. In other words, it’s understandable that these are the prime conditions for someone to go insane due to this type of work, and Le Corroller delights in showing how all of these factors can crescendo to a crash out, giving the film its name. After a customer angrily demands the Royal King burger despite the store being out of inventory, the cashier snaps and beats him to death before killing himself.
After the cold open, we meet Margot (Mara Taquin), who starts as an intern in a high-intensity Emergency Room, where the head doctor treats patients as if it were more like a sweatshop. Margot faces her own self-doubt and competition with her coworkers; she encounters patients whose bodies are marked with a mass of red veins and darkened eyes, not unlike the restaurant worker we see at the film’s start. When Margot begins to experience the same symptoms–due to a virus that infects the overworked–she finds that everyone who works in this high-intensity environment can be a potential carrier.
Taquin makes for a capable lead, and the film is wise to anchor the drama by keeping the camera close to her face. She’s a problem solver at heart, and yet Taquin lets Margot’s softer, vulnerable sides ripple across her face in moments of crisis. She is strong but appropriately overwhelmed by her family’s expectations. She feels the weight of being the embodiment of her family’s biggest dreams, thanks to how far she has come in her education, and the outbreak represents not just physical disruption but an attack on her family’s hopes.
It’s a shame that the film around her is a slog to get through. It has flashes of contemporary medical drama, but it takes far too long to finally get interesting. Cinematographer Guillaume Schiffman has some fun with cinematography at least, using wide shots and implementing first-person POV for those who have been infected, to make it seem like we’re in the middle of a zombie video game. This needs to be punctured quickly and with verve, but it feels like getting stabbed in your gums when your mouth is on novacaine; the impact is significantly muted.
Featuring an electric soundtrack, a delightfully self-aware sense of humor, and making the most out of its imaginative animation style, “Jim Queen” has all the makings of an animated cult classic. Its narrative runs a bit thin, and it’s one of those films that masquerades as having one idea with nonstop visual gags, but its self-assuredness will make you catch feelings quickly. It’s an animated charmer that blends raunch and warmth into a memorable gem.
From the start, directors Nicolas Athane and Marco Nguyen tip you off to you exactly the type of film this will be: opening to a shot of histrionically ripped men in the throes of lifting, they begin to croon about thor gym’s mission statement: “We like ripped bodies (well-hung big packages)” they declare, before other lyrics dive into the importance of physical health for being a good bottom or top (I’m sure the lyrics sing better in French). We meet the titular Jim Parfait (Alex Ramirès), a gym influencer and star of the gym who boasts a 24-pack of abs and consumes enough creatine and protein powder that would decimate a legion of Victorian children.
The genius of the film’s sensibilities is distilled in the opening scene: everything is dialed to an eleven, with Jim’s abs looking like mountains rather than anything resembling what you’d find on a normal body. There will be commentary around gay subculture and powerful sequences about learning to love yourself, but this is atypical entertainment at its most vivacious and irreverent. The animators are clearly having fun as they stuff the film with one too many visual gags (and other kinds of bondage tools) to count, inviting you to do the same.
If the film’s one-note sensibilities weren’t already evident from that opening, its inciting action will also reveal what Athane and Nguyen are commenting on: Jim is horrified to learn that he’s contracted a new STI called heterosis, which turns people straight. Horrified that he’s becoming straighter by the minute (evidenced by how he’s catching feelings for his friend Nina (Shirley Souagnon) he embarks on a journey to find a cure. Along the way, he gets entangled with Lucien (Jérémy Gillet), who is obsessed with Jim. He’s the son of Prime Minister Christine Bayer (Elisabeth Wiener), a Margaret Thatcher-type leader who couldn’t be happier about a reduction of the gay population. Bobbypills’s animation style feels like a throwback to the very best of Adult Swim programming, and it’s nice to see it cloak a story with such modern angsts and sensibilities.
To paraphrase what Jim says at the start, “Be yourself because everyone else is already taken.” “Jim Queen” lives fully into its identity, inviting others to do the same. Its central conceit may be wild, but there’s a horror that it taps into as well, that of living your whole life as a lie to appease a system that would benefit from your suppression rather than celebrate your liberation. If pain is “weakness leaving the body” (as many a Planet Fitness motivational poster may tell you), then maybe, as the film shares, and tears you experience upon finally accepting who you are are just long-nested shame finally leaving the body.
- Cannes 2026 Video #10: Reflecting on the Awards (May 24, 2026)
The 2026 Cannes Film Festival starts Tuesday, May 12th, running through May 24th. The Ebert team returns this year with coverage of all of the major films in review and video form. In this video dispatch, Scott Dummler and Sonia Evans reflect on this year’s festival awards winners. Watch the video below.
- Official Trailer for Li Liming's 'Ip Man: Kung Fu Legend' Action Movie (May 25, 2026)
"If the world is unfair, let our firsts bring justice." If only it worked like that... Well Go USA has revealed the official trailer for an martial arts action movie called Ip Man: Kung Fu Legend, the latest in the never-ending Ip Man franchise. Originally started by Donnie Yen in a series of Ip Man movies from 2008 and the 2010s, this franchise continues on with Dennis To starring as the titular Wing Chun icon (who was famously Bruce Lee's mentor). In 1950s Hong Kong, Ip Man leaves the police force to start his martial arts school. When a Western boxing gym acquires all local martial arts properties, he must protect the tradition from destruction and his way from being wiped out. This new movie stars Dennis To, Wang Wanzhong, Zhang Tingfei, Zhao Jingshuyu, Zhang Jie, Wu Xinzun, Tong Xiaohu, Zhou Xiofei, plus Steven Dasz and Li Yaojing. There is also another sequel to this, titled Ip Man: Kung Fu Legacy (not Legend), currently in production aiming for release in 2027 as the next follow-up. Looks like a badass fighting-for-the-people Ip Man movie to enjoy. Arriving on VOD starting in July this summer to watch at home anytime. // Continue Reading ›
- First Look Teaser for 'The Fox' Zany Romance Satire with Jai Courntey (May 25, 2026)
"All I ask for, is a roof over my head and to not get shot at! It's actually a very good deal." Madman Films in Australia has unveiled the first teaser trailer for The Fox, an intriguing romantic satire from filmmaker Dario Russo (director of the "Danger 5" series). This indie comedy flick is described as an "absurdly comic Australian folktale" and it's playing at the 2026 Sydney Film Festival this June coming up soon. It originally premiered at SXSW last year but we haven't heard much about it since then. Dealing with a cheating fiancée, an affable fox hunter encounters a shape-shifting fox who then offers him an opportunity to transform his partner into the perfect woman and in doing so take control of the natural world. Jai Courtney and Emily Browning star as the main couple, alongside Olivia Colman as a talking fox and Sam Neill as a magpie. The fun cast also includes Damon Herriman, Claudia Doumit, Zlatko Burić, Frankie J. Holden, Heather Mitchell, and Kim Gyngell. Obviously similar to both The Lobster and Ruby Sparks, which also have fantastical romantic comedy concepts that explore attraction & relationships and how funky it can be at times. All the comedy looks totally zany and off-the-walls bonkers, which makes this seem like a fun time. // Continue Reading ›
- Cannes 2026: Na Hong-jin's 'Hope' is the Best AND Worst of Sci-Fi (May 24, 2026)
File this one under "WTF did I just watch?!" One of the most completely bonkers films to ever premiere at the Cannes Film Festival dropped midway through the 2026 edition. Cannes decided to premiere Hope, the latest by acclaimed Korean genre filmmaker Na Hong-jin, his fourth film so far, in the Main Competition at the prestigious festival (where it was competing for the Palme d'Or but it didn't win anything). The issue is that the movie is a full-on, hard sci-fi, totally wacky, extra fun, exceptionally strange, beguiling mess. This evening press screening at the Debussy Theatre at Cannes is one of those nights I'll never forget. An entirely packed house with a completely riled up audience went wild went it started. And then things got weird... By the end there was such a loud mix of booing and cheering it was hard to tell which one was more prominent. One thing is for sure – there is both love and hate for this movie. And it deserves both condemnation and praise. It's the best and worst of modern sci-fi packed into a massive 2 hour & 40 minute epic adventure. I'm stuck somewhere in the middle. The more I think about it, there's no way I can hate it. But I am also just as disappointed as many of my colleagues. It's building up to something spectacular then crashes into a ravine. // Continue Reading ›
- Peculiar Violinist Mystery Thriller Film 'Strung' Trailer w/ Chloe Bailey (May 24, 2026)
"Be careful what you dream..." Peacock has unveiled their trailer for a mystery thriller film titled Strung, which is getting a direct-to-streaming debut on Peacock this summer. This recently premiered at the 2026 American Black Film Festival and will be out to watch online in one month from now. Directed by comedy filmmaker Malcolm D. Lee switching up his genres, Strung stars Chloe Bailey as a talented violinist who takes a prestigious job as a music tutor for the gifted daughter of an influential and enigmatic family. As she becomes entangled in their opulent world, unsettling secrets begin to surface about past links to the family's patriarch, forcing her to question her safety, her dreams, and even her sanity. Starring Chloe Bailey, with Lynn Whitfield, Lucien Laviscount, Anna Diop, Coco Jones, and Romy Woods. This is produced by Jason Blum of Blumhouse, along with Tyler Perry. This kid in the mask concept is pretty wild because they don't explain anything about it in this trailer - just waiting for people to watch the movie and find out. // Continue Reading ›
- Official Trailer for Experimental Doc 'Bouchra' About a Jackal in NYC (May 24, 2026)
"Why all these years we were silent?" Film Movement has revealed an official trailer for an experimental documentary crossed with an animated film titled Bouchra, a meta creation featuring a "queer Moroccan jackal" as the main character. This first premiered at the 2025 Toronto & New York Film Festivals last fall, picking up some good reviews. The pitch: Moroccan filmmaker Bouchra is writing an autobiographical film that reflexively weaves together her own life in New York City with that of her fictional double. Bouchra happens also to be a coyote in a city of anthropomorphic creatures, rendered in nearly photorealistic and hyper-expressive animations. That sounds pretty cool so far. The festival adds: "With a lived-in granularity and unmistakable visual style, Bouchra, the feature debut from acclaimed visual artists Meriem Bennani & Orian Barki is a singular portrait effortlessly towing the line between documentary, visual art and resonant family drama. Deeply felt, surprisingly sexy and formally adventurous, Bennani & Barki's distinctive debut forges new ground." This looks like a very intriguing creation for die-hard cinephiles to dig into. A bit too experimental for my tastes, retelling her own story of how hard it is to create art while being an immigrant. // Continue Reading ›
