The 2026 Cannes Film Festival still hopes for James Gray

Few major Hollywood filmmakers have been announced in the official selection of the 79th edition. But general delegate Thierry Frémaux confirms that Paper Tiger could ultimately be one of them.

The 2026 Cannes Film Festival has perhaps not yet said its last word on the Hollywood side. And one name continues to hover above the Croisette: that of James Gray.

A few minutes after unveiling a selection very marked by European authors for this 79th edition, the general delegate Thierry Frémaux had to answer a question that burns on everyone’s lips: where have the Americans gone? For the moment, the competition only includes one US filmmaker, Ira Sachs. But he could be joined by a fellow citizen. Frémaux indeed confirms that he still hopes to recover Paper Tigerthe new thriller by James Gray, carried by Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Miles Teller.

“We saw the James Gray film, which is a wonderful film – a very James Gray film, very indie. It’s the James Gray of Little Odessa, the one who never stopped being himself” explains the general delegate to Variety.

“And it’s a complicated film to put together because, for him, doing his job as a filmmaker is not done by snapping his fingers, the films have to be really constructed. So there are still some contractual issues to resolve. I hope that everything will be resolved very quickly and that we can announce the film.”

Beyond this specific case, the European shift in the selection is not an accident. Frémaux even assumes a form of seesaw.

“There has been a little geographical realignment. Europe is strong, perhaps because the United States is a little less strong today. Studio films are less present, the studios themselves are less visible.”

In this context, France is clearly doing well. Frémaux insists on the solidity of an ecosystem capable of producing, financing and supporting films from all over the world. “France has a stable, strong industry, which supports foreign cinema… It’s a fairly powerful ecosystem”he summarizes.

And this dynamic will be directly visible in competition. Three French-language films will thus be made by international filmmakers: Asghar Farhadi with Parallel Storiesworn by Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve; Ryusuke Hamaguchi with Suddenlywith Virginie Efira and László Nemes with Millwhere Gilles Lellouche plays the resistance fighter Jean Moulin