Yes, of course, we love the glitzy red-carpet premieres and breathlessly staked-out hot takes on whatever premiere peppers the competition line-up, but Cannes’ highest batting average, bar none, is in its Classics section. This year’s repertory programming boasts Akira Kurosawa’s still-underseen debut Sanshiro Sugata, Visconti’s The Innocent, Orson Welles’ The Stranger, and—perhaps most notably—Ken Russell’s The Devils, long unavailable in its original form and since restored from the original negative, portending a long-overdue occasion.
I’m just as excited about the restoration of five amazing films by Artavazd Pelechian, and Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project adding Maria Plyta’s Eva to its ranks. On a contemporary front, Jia Zhagke’s new short Torino Shadow stands out most; one also hopes Bruce Dern is given due in Mike Mendez’s Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern.
Check out the lineup below or here.
Two new films
Cannes Classics is glad to welcome in its selection two recent films: a fiction, with Bérenger Thouin’s The Golden Age and a documentary, with Jean-Gabriel Périot’s A Life, A Manifesto.
Two women with extraordinary fates, Jeanne Lavaur and Michèle Firk, and two unique gazes on the 20th century.
L’ÂGE D’OR
(The Golden Age)
Bérenger Thouin
2026, 1h53, France / Italy
A GoGoGo Films and Graffiti Films production, in association with Les Films de La Chapelle and Lesterfilm.
The extraordinary life of Jeanne Lavaur belongs to nobody but herself. She navigates through the 20th century and defies her fate, from her childhood in her parents’ butcher’s shop to her dream of becoming a countess. From a war to another, from Paris in the Roaring Twenties to Brasil, her path crosses History and embraces the world, torn between her two lovers, the count Guillaume de Barante and the audacious Italian revolutionary Céleste.
In his first feature film, shot in 2025, French director Bérenger Thouin paints the portrait of a strong and independent woman throughout the century. The film is elevated by its three main actors (Souheila Yacoub, Vassili Schneider, Yile Yara Vianello) and a very original use of archive footage which, blended with the story, reinvents the historical film.
Screening in the presence of actors Souheila Yacoub, Vassili Schneider, Yile Yara Vianello and Pierre-Antoine Billon, director Bérenger Thouin, producers Carine Ruszniewski et Enrica Capra, DoP Martin Roux, chief editor and co-author Rémi Langlade and composer Céleste Thouin.
UNE VIE MANIFESTE
(A Life, A Manifesto)
Jean-Gabriel Périot
2026, 1h26, France
An Envie de Tempête, Les Films de Pierre production, coproduced by ARTE France and INA. French Distribution: Potemkine Films.
Documentary feature film about Michèle Firk, film critic (eight years writing for Positif), aspiring director and revolutionary activist, who never stopped defending justice and freedom. A Life, A Manifesto retraces the extraordinary fate of a woman entirely emancipated from rules of time, a free lover, enamored with cinema and revolution.
Screening in the presence of the film crew.
Three short films in special screening
An exclusive program of three recent short films will be presented in the presence of the directors, actors, and producers (Jia Zhang-Ke and Zhao Tao, Dustin Yellin and Darren Aronofsky, Amirhossein Shojaei and Saeed Roustaee).
Torino Shadow
Jia Zhang-Ke
2026, 32mn, Italy / China
A Museo Nazionale del Cinema Torino, Jia Zhang-Ke Art Center production. Torino Shadow was developed as part of the Torino Encounters initiative. A woman travels from southern China to Turin, Italy, to see her husband. But an unexpected departure leaves her to find herself again – and to find cinema.
Screening in the presence of director Jia Zhang-Ke and lead actress Zhao Tao.
GOODNIGHT LAMBY
Dustin Yellin
2026, 15min, États-Unis
Starring Paul Rudd and Zia Copernicus Yellin.
From the world of visual artist Dustin Yellin, GOODNIGHT LAMBY unfolds within a dreamscape where memory and imagination collide. When three-year-old Zia wakes to find her beloved stuffed Lamby missing, she ventures into her father’s surreal, layered sculpture: a vast world alive with danger and discovery. Traversing shifting environments that span oceans, caves, and outer space, she navigates a series of encounters that test her courage and resolve. What begins as a simple mission becomes a deeper journey through wonder, attachment, and self-knowledge in the quest for Zia’s treasured companion.
A Primordial Soup production.
Screening in the presence of director Dustin Yellin and producer Darren Aronofsky.
PLAYGROUND
(Zamine Bazi)
Amirhossein Shojaei
2026, 15mn, Iran / France
An IRIS Film and Saeed Roustaee production.
A father abandons his young daughter at a playground. Immediately full of remorse, he comes back and finds a child that looks exactly like his daughter but doesn’t recognize him.
Screening in the presence of director Amirhossein Shojaei and producer Saeed Roustaee.
Film Documentaries
The section also features five documentaries on cinema and its history, highlighting major figures such as Bruce Dern, David Lean, Vittorio De Sica, and Chris Marker, as well as a comprehensive work by Mark Cousins on the history of documentary filmmaking, with a focus on the 1970s. These films will compete for the L’Œil d’Or award presented at the Festival de Cannes.
THE STORY OF DOCUMENTARY FILM (THE 1970s)
Mark Cousins
2026, 1h58, United Kingdom
A Hopscotch Films Production. Sales by Dogwoof. From Mark Cousins, creator of the groundbreaking The Story of Film: A New Generation & Women Make Film, comes the definitive history of documentary. Tracing the evolution of documentary film across time, encompassing landmark works and hidden treasures, while revealing how the form has helped us see and make sense of our world.
Screening in the presence of director Mark Cousins.
DERNSIE: THE AMAZING LIFE OF BRUCE DERN
Mike Mendez
2026, 1h51, United States
A Stolen Lamp Pictures, Skylight Cinema, AFG Productions, and Lumiere Lab production. DERNSIE is an intimate portrait of Bruce Dern—tireless, uncompromising, and one of the last living legends of his generation—whose endurance has shaped both a turbulent life and one of Hollywood’s most enduring careers. A relentless runner on and off screen, Dern has outlasted the very industry that defined him.
Drawn from over fifty hours of conversations filmed across four years, and enriched by never-before-seen photographs and deeply personal video letters from those closest to him, the film traces a life lived at full speed—through reinvention, loss, and artistic survival. It is both a reflection on a vanishing Hollywood and a testament to the artists who continue to carry its spirit forward.
At its heart lies Dern’s complex, lifelong bond with his daughter, Laura Dern—a moving passage of memory, craft, and identity from one generation to the next.
Featuring candid interviews with Quentin Tarantino, Alexander Payne, Billy Bob Thornton, Walton Goggins, Walter Hill, Fred Specktor, Patty Jenkins, Will Forte, Joe Dante, and Laura Dern.
Screening in the presence of director Mike Mendez, actor Bruce Dern, actress Laura Dern.
MAVERICK: THE EPIC ADVENTURES OF DAVID LEAN
Barnaby Thompson
2026, 1h44, United Kingdom / United States
A Fragile Films/Embankment Films/Assemble Media production for Sky Arts.
David Lean was one of the greatest film directors of all time. He redefined what movies could be, but his singular vision and dogged determination to film the impossible gained him the reputation of being an obsessive maverick. He was a master of his art, able to create love and beauty on screen, but whose own life was often messy, rootless, and painful. An in-depth study of the man and his films. Narrated by Cate Blanchett, Kenneth Branagh is the voice of Lean, and featuring interviews with contemporary directors including Wes Anderson, Paul Greengrass, Alfonso Cuaron, Celine Song, Brady Corbet, Francis Ford Coppola, Denis Villeneuve, Nia DaCosta and Joe Wright.
Screening in the presence of director Barnaby Thompson and actress and producer Cate Blanchett.
VITTORIO DE SICA – LA VITA IN SCENA
(Vittorio De Sica – La Vie in scene)
Francesco Zippel
2026, 1h40, Italy
A Quoiat Films, production, in association with Luce Cinecittà, Movimenti Production and Sky.
A documentary feature film about Vittorio De Sica, one of the greatest masters of world cinema. Through a new access to his family, rare archives and testimonies of contemporary artists and filmmakers from the entire world, the ilm retraces his life, his work and legacy. An intimate portrait of an author able to transform the observation of the real in an universal emotion and reveals the modernity of a gaze which keeps on illuminating cinema and our way of seeing the world.
Screening in the presence of director and producer Francesco Zippel, producer Federica Paniccia, creative producer and grandson Andrea De Sica, grandson Brando De Sica.
MON COLUCHE A MOI
(My Coluche)
Michel Denisot, Camille Bruere and Julie Lazare
1h35, France
A Bangumi production.
It’s the story of two guys — a comedian and a journalist — who become friends and get up to all sorts of antics. It’s the story of two men reflecting their era. It’s the story of one man, Coluche, seen through the eyes of his friend, Michel Denisot. It’s the story of his Coluche.
For more than twenty years, Coluche shaped the French television and comedy landscape. He made us laugh, cry, jump out of our seats; he made us more engaged, perhaps even more free.
In the presence of directors Michel Denisot, Camille Bruere and Julie Lazare.
NOSTALGIA FOR THE FUTURE
Brecht Debackere
2026, 1h15, Belgium
A Visualantics, Seriousfilm, Cobra Films, and Ghirigori production.
Guided by the evocative narration of Charlotte Rampling, Nostalgia for the Future is a descent into the labyrinthine world of Chris Marker, the “best-known author of unknown films” who spent a lifetime concealing himself behind a veil of pseudonyms and images of cats. Moving through a constellation of personal documents and film fragments, an archivist attempts to decode the man through the material traces he left behind. By repurposing and recontextualizing Marker’s own body of work, the film treats his images as “time machines,” transforming the archive into a living, breathing landscape. Nostalgia for the future is a challenging inquiry into memory, identity, and the shadows that our past representations cast upon the future.
Screening in the presence of director Brecht Debackere.
Copies restaurées
After The Mother and the Whore, L’Amour fou, Napoléon by Abel Gance, and The Gold Rush, Pan’s Labyrinth will be presented as a pre-opening screening of the Festival de Cannes on Tuesday, May 12 at 2:30 PM in the Debussy Theater, in the presence of Guillermo del Toro.
PAN’S LABYRINTH
Guillermo del Toro
2006, 1h58, Mexico
A Cineverse and Necropia Presentation
Writer-Director Guillermo del Toro’s beloved fantasy feature Pan’s Labyrinth returns to the Cannes International Film Festival twenty years after its historic 22-minute standing ovation – the longest in the festival’s history. Now, for the first time, the film arrives in 4K, meticulously restored from its original 35mm negative, for which Guillermo Navarro, ASC, received the Best Cinematography Award at the 2007 Oscars. In addition to Academy Awards for Art Direction and Makeup Effects, the film also garnered over 100 awards worldwide. Every detail of the restoration was personally overseen by del Toro.
Guillermo del Toro will be in attendance for this special screening – celebrating the 20th anniversary of the film’s World Premiere.
PELECHIAN PROJECT
(Land of the People, The Beginning, We, The Inhabitants, Seasons)
Artavazd Pelechian
1966-1975, 1h30, Armenia / Belarus / Russia
A presentation of Coproduction Office restored in partnership with Cineteca di Bologna under Artavazd Pelechian’s supervision.
4K scanning took place at Public Television Company of Armenia, except for The Inhabitants which was scanned in 2K at Belarusfilm in Minsk.
Restoration and color grading were carried out by L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory.
In association with: Cinema Foundation of Armenia, Public Television Company of Armenia, VGIK and Belarusfilm. Additional support by: ZDF/ARTE, ArMa Media Production LLC, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. French Distributor: Potemkine Films.
Screening in the presence of director and documentary filmmaker Artavazd Pelechian.
SIERRA DE TERUEL
(Espoir)
André Malraux
1938, 1h30, France
A presentation by the CNC, Library of Congress, Cinémathèque française, Grands films classiques, and André Malraux’s succession.
4k digitalization of nitrate elements was made by the CNC and the Library of Congress; restoration and color grading of André Malraux’s film was conducted by the CNC laboratory. Audio restoration and subtitles were carried out by Transperfect Media.
Screening in the presence of Olivier Henrard, Deputy Managing Director of the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC) and André Malraux’s family.
MOONLIGHTING
Jerzy Skolimowski
1982, 1h37, United Kingdom
Restoration in 4K presented by mk2 Films and Goldcrest Films International carried out by Digital Orchard Group and Goldcrest Post London. The restoration has been supervised by the DoP Tony Pierce Roberts. French Distributor: Potemkine Films.
Screening in the presence of director Jerzy Skolimowski and his wife and producer Ewa Piaskowska.
METTI UNA SERA A CENA
(Love Circle)
Giuseppe Patroni Griffi
1968, 2h05, Italy
Restored by SND (M6 Group) with participation of Cineteca Nazionale (Roma). Work was done by Image Retrouvée in 4k, using the original image negative and sound negative. French Distributor: Les Films du Camélia.
Screening in the presence of film screenwriter Dario Argento, director, screenwriter and producer.
AMMA ARIYAN
(Report To Mother)
John Abraham
1986, 1h55, India
Presented and restored by Film Heritage Foundation at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with Odessa Collective. Funding provided by Film Heritage Foundation. Special thanks to cinematographer Venu ISC and editor Bina Paul. 4K restoration completed using one of the only two surviving prints: the first-generation 35mm release print preserved at the NFDC – National Film Archive of India.
Screening in the presence of Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, Director, Film Heritage Foundation, lead actor Joy Mathew, cinematographer Venu ISC and editor Bina Paul.
BAWANG BIEJI
(Farewell My Concubine)
Chen Kaige
1993, 2h51, Hong-Kong
4K restoration. Special Thanks to Tomson Group Limited and Carlotta Films.
Screening in the presence of the actress Gong Li.
CZŁOWIEK Z ŻELAZA
(Man of Iron)
Andrzej Wajda
1981, 2h33, Pologne
A WFDiF Presentation. Człowiek z żelaza is presented in the film’s photographed aspect ratio of 1:1.37, preserved as intended by director Andrzej Wajda. This new 4K restoration was sourced from a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative. The colour grading for this restoration was based on a reference positive print and supervised by experienced cinematographer Grzegorz Kędzierski.
The high-definition transfer was created using state-of-the-art restoration processes to preserve the film’s historical and artistic integrity. Color Grading: Ewa Chudik at WFDiF. Digital image restoration: WFDiF.
The 5.1 surround audio mix was created from the original 35mm magnetic tracks, with audio restoration completed from the original sound elements to ensure the highest possible fidelity.
This restored digital version of Człowiek z żelaza was undertaken by WFDiF from original archival elements, preserving one of the most significant works of Polish cinema for contemporary audiences.
Screening in the presence of lead actress Krystyna Janda, production designer Allan Starski, and costume designer Wiesława Starska.
EVA
(Eve)
Maria Plyta
1953, 1h30, Greece
Presented by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project.
Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project and the Cineteca di Bologna at the L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory in association with Alatas Films and Betty-Despoina Kaklamanidou and in cooperation with the Greek Film Archive. Restoration funded by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation.
Presented by Margaret Bodde, Margaret Bodde, Executive Director of The Film Foundation and Betty-Despoina Kaklamindou, lecturer and head of the research project Unknown Cinema of Plyta (PUC).
KEN RUSSELL’S THE DEVILS
Ken Russell
1971, 1h54, United Kingdom / United States
From Warner Bros. Clockwork. Directed by Academy Award®-nominee Ken Russell, Ken Russell’s The Devils stars Academy Award®-winner Vanessa Redgrave and Oliver Reed.
This new 4K restoration of Ken Russell’s masterpiece was assembled from the original camera negative. The film’s sound has been remastered from original English Composite 35mm Mag Film, transferred at 96kHz, plus other original film elements in selected spots as needed.
The Picture and Sound restoration was performed by Warner Bros. Post Production Creative Services, Water Tower Color, and Warner Bros. Sound.
Screening in the presence of Mark Kermode, biographer of Ken Russell, and Ken Russell’s wife, the academic and researcher Elisabeth Russell.
LA CASA DEL ANGEL
(The House of Angel)
Leopoldo Torre Nilsson
1957, 1h16, Argentina
Presented by Argentina Sono Film. Restored in 4K by Latam Classics, Society for Audiovisual Heritage at Cubic Restoration laboratory, with the support of the Cultural Patronage Program of the Ministry of Culture of Buenos Aires. The restoration was coordinated by Fernando Madedo and supervised by Luis Alberto Scalella, based on the original black-and-white 35mm camera negative and a first-generation 35mm internegative preserved in the Argentina Sono Film Archive, and a 35mm positive print from the National Cinematheque (INCAA).
Screening in the presence of Luis Alberto Scalella, President of Argentina Sono Film.
LA CIOCIARA
(Two Women)
Vittorio De Sica
1960, 1h41, France / Italy
A STUDIO TF1 – TITANUS presentation
4K restoration by Titanus, based on the original image negative and the Italian mono audio negative.
The restoration was carried out at the Video Master Digital laboratory in Rome.
Screening in the presence of Pierre Olivier (Studio TF1) and Guido Lombardo (Titanus).
LA DÉRIVE
(The Drift)
Paula Delsol
1964, 1h23, France
Presented by Les Acacias. 4K restoration by the Cinémathèque française, in collaboration with the CNC, with support from the Neuflize OBC Corporate Foundation. Restoration carried out at the Transperfect Media laboratory from the original 35mm picture and sound negatives.
In the presence of visual artist Élisa Fantozzi, daughter of Paula Delsol, and academic Aurore Renaut.
LA SYMPHONIE PASTORALE
(Pastoral Symphony)
Jean Delannoy
1946, 1h37, France
A Studiocanal presentation. Restored in 4K using the original nitrate negative 35mm by Transperfect Media laboratory with the support of the CNC. Releases in French theaters by the end of the year with Solaris.
Screening in the presence of Céline Defremery, Head of Catalogue France, Studiocanal.
L’INNOCENTE
(The Innocent)
Luchino Visconti
1976, 2h10, Italy
A Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna presentation. Restored in 4K by Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna in collaboration with MFE-MEDIAFOREUROPE N.V. – RTI and StudioCanal at L’Immagine Ritrovata laboratory
Screening in the presence of Gian Luca Farinelli, Director of the Fondazione Cineteca di Bologna.
LU BING HUA
(The Dull-Ice Flower)
Yang Li-Kuo
1989, 1h40, Taiwan
Presented and restored by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute.
Restoration funding was provided through the Ministry of Culture’s Digital Restoration and Value-added Utilisation Project of Taiwan Classical Films and Audiovisual Assets.
LU BING HUA was restored in 2K from the best surviving elements. The image was sourced from the original 35 mm negative, while the soundtrack was reconstructed from 35 mm release prints preserved by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute.
The restoration addressed a wide range of image and sound issues, including splices, dirt, mould damage, scratches, flicker, colour fading, frame instability, background noise, pops, and other audio distortions. As the surviving materials derived from different source elements, image and sound also required resynchronisation. The image restoration process included stabilisation, deflickering, dirt and scratch removal, and colour grading, while preserving the original film grain. Sound restoration focused on noise reduction and tonal balance, with particular care taken to avoid over-processing and to retain the integrity of the original soundtrack.
Screened in the presence of cinematographer Mark LEE Ping-Bing and Arthur CHU, Chairman of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute.
MACHINE GUN KELLY
Roger Corman
1958, 1h24, United States
An Independent Film Company presentation, in association with Radial Entertainment. Restoration from original 35mm fine grain print by Film Masters. 4K digitization by Jared Gibson at George Blood Audio/Video/Film and technical support by Rick Lombardi of Telefilm. Audio restoration of the original theatrical mono track by John Keegan of Madhouse Productions. Color correction by DI Remastering Colorist Marc Wielage, CSI. DCP creation by Duplitech. Superama consulting by Jack Theakston and Bob Furmanek. Restoration supervised by Philip Elliott Hopkins and Krystal Vander Ark of Film Masters. Special thanks to Julie Corman, Jordan Fields, and Scott Randolph.
Screening in the presence of producer and Roger Corman’s wife Julie Corman.
MEUWEEN STERVEN IN DE HAVEN
(Seagulls Die in the Harbour)
Roland Verhavert, Rik Kuypers, Ivo Michiels
1955, 1h27, Belgium
A presentation by the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique – CINEMATEK, produced with the assistance of B-architecten, Marcel Van Put, RITCS, the School of Arts at Erasmushogeschool Bruxelles, Belspo – the Belgian Science Policy Office, and with the support of the Loterie Nationale.
Restoration from the original 35mm negatives preserved in the collections of the Cinémathèque royale de Belgique, where the film was digitized in 4K.
Screening in the presence of actor Matthias Schoenaerts, son of actor Julien Schoenaerts, CINEMATEK curator Tomas Leyers, and RITCS professor Wouter Hessels.
SUGATA SANSHIRO
Akira Kurosawa
1943, 1h31, Japan
A presentation and digital restoration by TOHO Global Inc. and TOHO CO., LTD. The 4K restored version was produced by Toho Archives Co., Ltd. using the existing 35mm master positive print and 35mm duplicate negative. Images and sound respectively digitized by SCANSTATION and SONDOR RESONANCES. This new DCP includes a 12-minute sequence that had been lost for many years, from its initial release until recently.
French distributor: Carlotta Films
Screening in the presence of Shion Komatsu (TOHO Global) and Thierry Frémaux.
TILAÏ
Idrissa Ouedraogo
1990, 1h21, Burkina Faso / Switzerland / France
Presented by Waka Films.
A new 4K-restored version from the original negative. Digital and photo chemical works carried out by the Cité de Mémoire laboratory, supervised by Denis Garcia and Silvia Voser, on the account of the Institut français – Cinémathèque Afrique.
Screening in the presence of Nora Ouedraogo, daughter of Idrissa Ouedraogo, and producer Silvia Voser.
THE STRANGER
Orson Welles
1945, 1h35, États-Unis
4K restoration led by Cinematheque française and the Library of Congress in collaboration with Amazon MGM Studios, using the original negative and sound negative at the TransPerfect Media laboratory.
Restoration received the support of TransPerfect Media.
Screening in the presence of Frédéric Bonnaud, General Manager of the Cinémathèque française.