(Almost) All The Animation Heading To Cannes 2026

It’s that time of year once again: the Cannes Film Festival is back. This year, there’s a pleasingly fruitful crop of “Cannesimation” on offer across the Official Selection and various sidebars. We went through each section with a fine-toothed comb to highlight the variety of animation that awaits. This list isn’t entirely inclusive; we’ve already covered the Annecy Animation Showcase here, and the Marche du Film certainly has even more to offer, but we think it’s the most complete look you’ll find at this year’s animated titles:

Fallen (Louis Clichy), Un Certain Regard

A French animated feature with a sparing, paper illustration-in-motion style, Fallen hails from director Louis Clichy, who cut his teeth at Pixar in the late ’00s animating on WALL-E and Up before graduating to a directorial role on Asterix features The Mansions of the Gods (2014) and The Secret of the Magic Potion (2018). Where his Asterix films were 3D CG features, Fallen is a 2D animation that follows a young boy’s journey from strict farm life to discovering a passion for music. Eddy Cinema (FR) and Beside Productions (BE) co-produce.

Jim Queen (Marco Nguyen, Nicolas Athané), Midnight

A surprising inclusion in the official selection, Jim Queen (or, to give its full title, Jim Queen and the Quest for Chloroqueer) is an unabashedly camp 2D adult animation that boasts bright, bold pinks and a retro, late-night aesthetic. This feature debut from directors Nguyen and Athané imagines a virus outbreak that turns gay men into heterosexuals. Jim Queen was realized through funding from Eurimages, region grants, and a crowdfunding campaign.

Che Guevara: The Last Companions (Christophe Dimitri Reveille), Special Screenings

A documentary that blends archive footage and interviews with animation, Reveille’s film recounts the story of Che Guevara’s last surviving compañeros.

In Waves (Phuong Mai Nguyen), Cannes Critics Week Opener

The first animated feature to ever open Cannes Critics Week, In Waves is based on AJ Dungo’s acclaimed autobiographical graphic novel of the same name and charts the ebb-and-flow romance of a surfer and a skateboarder, who find themselves challenged by the onset of illness. The English voice cast is headed up by Will Sharpe and Stephanie Hsu, and both French and English versions of the film will screen in Cannes. Silex Films produces with Charades and Anonymous Content.

We Are Aliens (Kohei Kadowaki), Directors’ Fortnight

Japan is Country of Honor at this year’s Marché du Film, and that national focus is evident across the festival’s official selection. A debut feature from young filmmaker Kohei Kadowaki (b. 1996), the inclusion of We Are Aliens continues a curious thread over in Directors’ Fortnight of programming emerging Japanese filmmakers of this generation. Distinctively rotoscoped, We Are Aliens charts the friendship of two elementary school boys across 20 years of their lives. The film’s recently released trailer shows off the sharp outlines of its characters and some surreal horror flourishes in an otherwise grounded story.

Lucy Lost (Olivier Clert), Family Screening

Adapted from the novel by former British children’s laureate Michael Morpurgo, Xilam Films (Academy Award-nominated I Lost My Body) brings this seaside fable to Cannes as a Family Screening, and also to Annecy in the Official Competition. The action takes place in 1915, the Isles of Scilly, where young Lucy, an orphan raised by fishermen, finds herself grappling with her mysterious past.

Tangles (Leah Nelson), Special Screening

Also premiering in Cannes ahead of an Official Competition slot at Annecy is Tangles, based on Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir Tangles: A Story About Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me. Captured in monochrome, this feature debut from Canadian animator Leah Nelson has been acquired for international sales rights ahead of its Cannes premiere by Charades.

THE END (Niki Lindroth von Bahr), Short Films Competition

A stop-motion animated short, THE END boasts an all-star voice cast: Alexander Skarsgård, Noomi Rapace, Denis Lavant, Kevin Rowland and more. Its director, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, is a Swedish animator who previously brought her musical short The Burden to Cannes, in 2017’s Directors’ Fortnight, where it was nominated for Best Short Film. The first clip of THE END shows a wheelchair-bound crustacean stretching fruitlessly for their luggage at airport arrivals. An intriguing starter.

Blaise (Jean-Paul Guige and Dimitri Planchon), ACID Cannes

The lineup in the ACID Cannes sidebar is selected by filmmakers, which makes Blaise (a feature film spinoff of a popular animated TV series) an intriguing inclusion. This French animation boasts an uncanny blend of photorealism and cutout-style characters. Co-directed by series creator Planchon, the film is a class satire that boasts an all-star French cast for its troubled family unit. KG Productions produces, with international distribution from Best Friends Forever.

Viva Carmen! (Sébastien Laudenbach), Directors’ Fortnight

Sébastien Laudenbach is best known for co-directing Chicken for Linda! (2023), which premiered in ACID Cannes. He returns to Cannes this year with Viva Carmen in Directors’ Fortnight. The new film, an adaptation of the Georges Bizet opera Carmen, looks to be a stylistic evolution of Laudenbach’s previous work, retaining its bold sketch outlines for characters but swapping block color for more detailed, naturalistic skintones.

Le vertige (Quentin Dupieux), Directors’ Fortnight

Quentin Dupieux is a Cannes mainstay in the world of live-action, but his filmography is far away from the real world. Known for surreal and satirical comedy odysseys such as Rubber, Deerskin, and Smoking Causes Coughing, Dupieux returns to Cannes this year with two features, one of which is his first animated feature, Le vertige (Vertiginous). The film closes this year’s Directors’ Fortnight, and follows a man who has just learned from a friend that all of humanity is living in a simulation. Made in Blender, with art direction by frequent collaborator Joan Le Boru, Le vertige‘s key visual suggests an aesthetic akin to classic PC and PS1/2-era third-person video games. Whether the film itself will follow this aesthetic remains to be seen.

You, Fireworks, and Our Promise (working title) (Suzuki Kei), Tokyo International Film Festival Goes to Cannes

Over in the Marché du Film, presented in the Tokyo International Film Festival Goes to Cannes showcase, is You, Fireworks, and Our Promise, from director Suzuki Kei, producer Umezawa Michihiko, and animation houses Shin Ei-Animation (Ghost Cat Anzu, The Obsessed) and SynergySP (Hayate the Combat Butler). A temporal adventure-drama, the film follows a young boy who must piece together his connection to a girl whose drawing bears his name, before the fireworks fade.

Look Back (Kore-eda Hirokazu), Tokyo International Film Festival Goes to Cannes

A live-action adaptation of the manga from acclaimed author Tatsuki Fujimoto (Chainsaw Man), Look Back is helmed by veteran arthouse auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda and is planned for international release later this year by GKIDS. A mid-length animated adaptation from Studio Durian premiered at Annecy in 2024 and went on to receive commercial and critical success.