Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord” claimed the Palme d’Or at the 79th Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, making the Romanian director only the tenth filmmaker in history to win cinema’s most coveted prize twice and extending distributor Neon’s remarkable seven-year winning streak at the world’s most closely watched film event.
The gripping family drama stars Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve as evangelical Romanian parents of five who get caught in a nightmare with Norwegian child services after relocating to a small fjord village. Drawing on several recent real-life incidents, the film presents itself as a case study in the deepening divide between progressive and traditional values. It also marks Mungiu’s English-language debut and his return to the competition where he previously won Best Screenplay in 2012 and Best Director in 2016. At its premiere, the film drew a 12-minute standing ovation.
South Korean director Park Chan-wook led a nine-member jury tasked with selecting from 22 competition films featuring Cannes veterans including Pedro Almodóvar and Asghar Farhadi. At the post-ceremony press conference, Park joked he had not wanted to give the Palme to anyone, “because it’s an award that I myself have never gotten.”
The evening’s most charged moment belonged to Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev, whose “Minotaur” took the Grand Prix. Zvyagintsev addressed Vladimir Putin directly from the stage, calling on him to “stop the carnage” in Ukraine. “There is someone else I would like to address personally today, in my own name,” he said in Russian. “He is not using a VPN to follow this ceremony live, but I am certain that he has other, much more important decisions to make at the moment.”
The Best Director prize was shared by two sharply contrasting historical visions: “Fatherland,” Pawel Pawlikowski’s meticulous evocation of post-war Germany, and “The Black Ball,” Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s sprawling, stylized ode to queer lives and loves lost to fascism, written through the prism of Federico García Lorca’s poetry. “The Black Ball” drew the longest standing ovation of any competition title and features crowd-pleasing supporting performances from Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close, while “Fatherland” has stirred early Oscar buzz for star Sandra Hüller. The directing prize marks Pawlikowski’s second win in the category at Cannes, following “Cold War” in 2018.
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Both acting categories were split between pairs. Best Actor went to Valentin Campagne and Emmanuel Macchia, who played Belgian World War I soldiers who fall in love in Lukas Dhont’s “Coward.” Best Actress went to Virginie Efira and Tao Okamoto for Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden,” and both performers began to tear up when they took the stage. Hamaguchi’s film was adapted from a real pen friendship between a philosopher suffering from terminal breast cancer and an anthropologist, transposed to a care facility for the elderly in the Paris suburbs.
Emmanuel Marre won Best Screenplay for “A Man of His Time,” a period drama based on the life of his own great-grandfather, an author and engineer who chose to work for the fascist Vichy regime. Marre noted in his speech that he wrote an original screenplay, discarded it entirely, and built the finished film through controlled improvisation. The Jury Prize went to German director Valeska Grisebach’s “The Dreamed Adventure,” a constantly shapeshifting thriller following a woman near the borders of Bulgaria, Greece, and Turkey who agrees to help a friend and falls into the hands of criminals.
The Camera d’Or for best first feature from any section of the festival went to Rwandan filmmaker Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo for “Ben’Imana.” An Honorary Palme was presented to Barbra Streisand, who could not attend in person and delivered her thanks via video message with Isabelle Huppert presenting on her behalf. Peter Jackson and John Travolta also received Honorary Palmes.
Cannes Film Festival 2026 – Full Winners List
Palme d’Or: Fjord — Cristian Mungiu
Grand Prix: Minotaur — Andrey Zvyagintsev
Jury Prize: The Dreamed Adventure — Valeska Grisebach
Best Director (tie): Javier Calvo & Javier Ambrossi, The Black Ball; Pawel Pawlikowski, Fatherland
Best Actress: Virginie Efira & Tao Okamoto, All of a Sudden
Best Actor: Emmanuel Macchia & Valentin Campagne, Coward
Best Screenplay: Emmanuel Marre, A Man of His Time
Camera d’Or: Ben’Imana — Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Short Film Palme d’Or: Para Los Contrincantes — Federico Luis
Un Certain Regard Un Certain Regard Award: Everytime — Sandra Wollner
Jury Prize: Elephants in the Fog — Abinash Bikram Shah
Special Jury Prize: Iron Boy — Louis Clichy
Best Actress: Daniela Marín Navarro, Marina de Tavira & Mariangel Villegas, Forever Your Maternal Animal
Honorary Palmes d’Or: Barbra Streisand, Peter Jackson, John Travolta
