Romanian films at Cannes Festival
Four Romanian productions are in competition this year at the Cannes international film festival.
Leyla Cheamil, 12.05.2026, 13:50
The 79th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival has got under way, and Romania is competing with four titles to this major event for world cinema.
Cristian Mungiu’s “Fjord” is vying for the prestigious Palme d’Or trophy. This is the director’s first film in English, and the cast brings together actors who speak English, Norwegian, Swedish and Romanian. The production stars Romanian-American actor Sebastian Stan, who said before shooting began that it was a great challenge for him to speak Romanian again. The film, which follows a couple who move to a small village in a Norwegian fjord, explores the tensions and limitations of truth and tolerance. The film will be presented in the official competition alongside 21 other productions selected from among over 2,900 titles submitted this year.
“The most beautiful reward for our efforts is being selected at Cannes, the place where cinema is respected, appreciated and enjoyed like nowhere else in the world,” said Cristian Mungiu, a director who has won awards at Cannes before. Almost two decades ago, in 2007, he won the grand Palme d’Or award for the film “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”. In 2012, he received the award for best screenplay for the film “Beyond the Hills”, and in 2016 the best director award for the film “Graduation”.
Director Radu Jude is also present at Cannes with “The Diary of a Chambermaid”, screened in the Quinzaine des Cinéastes section, dedicated to discovering innovative voices in world cinema. A contemporary variation inspired by Octave Mirbeau’s themes, the film is a Franco-Romanian co-production starring Ana Dumitrașcu in the lead role, alongside Marie Rivière, Mélanie Thierry and Vincent Macaigne. The film follows Gianina, a young Romanian woman employed as a housekeeper for a bourgeois family in Bordeaux, who rehearses, in the evening, the role of a maid in an amateur theater performance.
The film “Atlas of the Universe”, directed by Paul Negoescu and which has won an award this year at the Berlinale, is screened in the Ecrans Juniors program, dedicated to the education of young audiences.
Konstantina Kotzamani’s feature film “Titanic Ocean”, shot in Romania and Japan, explores the identity, mythology and imagination of the digital generation, being selected in the Un Certain Regard section, dedicated to innovative and emerging cinema.
The Romanian Cultural Institute in Paris, which supports the Romanian participation at the Cannes Film Festival, said this edition brings exceptional visibility to Romania, with four films selected in major sections of the festival that confirm the vitality and diversity of contemporary Romanian cinema.
