Cabourg 2026: the triumph of The Electric Venus, Marie Madeleine, No good men and Fuel oil in the arteries
The films of Pierre Salvadori, Gessica Généus, Shahrbanoo Sadat and Pierre Le Gall were the big winners of a festival which rewards the best romantic films of the past year and the months to come.
Full rooms, a joyful atmosphere… The 40th edition of the Cabourg Romantic Days was faithful to its reputation as a place welcoming all cinemas and warm meetings between the different film teams and talents around a piano bar to which everyone converges after midnight to revisit the great classics of French song.
But Cabourg is also a prize list which is divided into two parts. On the one hand, the Swann d’Or, awarded by a jury of film professionals who reward the best romantic films of the past year. On the other hand, a jury chaired by Agnès Jaoui is responsible for awarding its Grand Prize among the films in competition which will be released in the coming months.
The Swann d’Or 2026 saw the great victory of Pierre Salvadori’s astonishing comedy The Electric Venusleft with two major prizes: film and actor (Gilles Lellouche).
A double also achieved by The Condition by Jérôme Bonnell, with the trophies for directing and adaptation for the way in which he skillfully took on Léonor de Récondo’s novel, Loves. As for actresses, Mélanie Thierry has stood out for all of her work over the last twelve months, Connemara And What is love ? in mind. The Swann for best music rewarded Arnaud Toulon for the soundtrack ofArco. The male and female revelation trophies were awarded to Oussama Kheddam for The object of the crime and Nastya Golubeva (Rays and shadows), the very first reward of her young career which opens the way to all those who should welcome her emergence until the next Caesar of which she is the immense favorite.
Aurélien Peyre received the prize for best first feature film for Trial by Fire. And the choices for the “First Dates” category, devoting a leading role on the big screen fell to Anja Verderosa (in Trial by Fire) and Guillaume Marbeck, the Godard of New wave by Richard Linklater.
The Agnès Jaoui jury decided to award two feature films ex-aequo as winners of the 2026 Grand Prix. Two films with strong political resonance. Mary Magdalene by Gessica Généus, flamboyant drama about the friendship as powerful as it is unexpected between a young prostitute and a young evangelist in Haiti. And No good menromantic comedy by Shahrbanoo Sadat, Afghan director exiled in Germany since the Taliban took power in her country. The story of the only female camerawoman on Afghan television who, while struggling to keep custody of her three-year-old son after her separation from her unfaithful husband, falls in love with the channel’s star journalist.
The Youth Jury made its choice on Fuel oil in the arteries (December 2 in theaters), the first feature film by Pierre Le Gall, a subtle love story between two truckers about whom we told you all the good things we thought of them yesterday. Finally, the public, who were invited to award their prizes among the feature films in the Panorama section, voted Only life by Adrian Goiginger (in theaters July 8), the true story of a clown woman struck by the death of her husband and their two children and of a mourning marked by her refusal to dwell on this tragedy.
