David Ehrlich Calls Cannes 2026 Competition Weak, With 1 Masterpiece in a Reality-Fixated Lineup
Updated
Updated · IndieWire · May 22
David Ehrlich Calls Cannes 2026 Competition Weak, With 1 Masterpiece in a Reality-Fixated Lineup
2 articles · Updated · IndieWire · May 22
Nine-time Cannes attendee David Ehrlich said the 2026 Competition was the weakest lineup he has seen there, arguing many films felt detached from reality even when they tried to address it.
One standout theme tied the festival together: films probing the gap between fantasy and reality, self and society, with Jane Schoenbrun’s “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Mishima” setting that frame and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur” emerging as the lone masterpiece.
Zvyagintsev’s film impressed Ehrlich most by linking a businessman’s marital crisis to Russia’s war in Ukraine, including a plot point in which he must choose 14 employees for forced enlistment.
Ehrlich praised James Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” Jordan Firstman’s “Club Kid” and, more cautiously, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s 196-minute “All of a Sudden,” while sharply criticizing Asghar Farhadi’s “Parallel Tales,” Pedro Almodóvar’s “Bitter Christmas” and Na Hong-jin’s sequel-teasing “Hope.”
His overall verdict was that Cannes 2026 exposed a festival-wide loss of confidence in cinema’s ability to shape the world, even as a few ambitious works still made that crisis legible.
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