{"id":989285,"date":"2026-05-28T02:48:33","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T02:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/989285\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T02:48:33","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T02:48:33","slug":"cannes-2026-critics-survey-results-best-films-and-performances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/989285\/","title":{"rendered":"Cannes 2026 Critics’ Survey Results: Best Films and Performances"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another Cannes<\/a> Film<\/a> Festival is in the books, and with it comes another slate of films from some of the world\u2019s great auteurs that cinephiles can spend the next year discussing. The IndieWire staff has already picked our 18 favorite films of this year\u2019s festival, which you can read here<\/a>. But for a broader perspective, we enlisted dozens of critics from around the world to vote on the best film, screenplay, director, and debut feature that they encountered on the Croisette this year. <\/p>\n

While Cristian Mungiu\u2019s Palme d\u2019Or-winning \u201cFjord\u201d was well-represented in the poll, coming in first place for Best Screenplay and receiving votes for Best Film and Best Director, our voters disagreed with the Cannes jury on the #1 film of the festival. That honor went to Ryusuke Hamaguchi\u2019s Paris-set drama \u201cAll of a Sudden,\u201d<\/a> which also received votes for Best Screenplay. (And, unlike at the Cannes awards, winning one category of our poll does not disqualify a film from other ones.)<\/p>\n

\"Steven<\/a> \"Larry<\/a> <\/p>\n

The biggest landslide of our poll came in the Best First Feature category, with an overwhelming majority of our voters choosing Jordan Firstman\u2019s \u201cClub Kid\u201d<\/a> as the best debut of the festival. Quite a few critics also singled out Firstman\u2019s screenplay as one of the best writing achievements of the festival. <\/p>\n

Keep reading for the complete results of our annual Critics\u2019 Survey of the best movies from the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.<\/p>\n

Best Film<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. \u201cAll of a Sudden<\/a>\u201d <\/li>\n
  2. \u201cMinotaur\u201d<\/li>\n
  3. \u201cA Man of His Time\u201d<\/li>\n
  4. \u201cFjord\u201d<\/li>\n
  5. \u201cFatherland\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Best Screenplay<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. \u201cFjord,\u201d written by Cristian Mungiu<\/li>\n
    2. \u201cAll of a Sudden,\u201d written by Ryusuke Hamaguchi<\/li>\n
    3. \u201cClub Kid<\/a>,\u201d written by Jordan Firstman<\/li>\n
    4. \u201cA Man of His Time,\u201d written by Emmanuel Marre<\/li>\n
    5. \u201cThe Samurai and His Prisoner,\u201d written by Kyoshi Kurosawa<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Best Director<\/p>\n

        \n
      1. \u201cMinotaur,\u201d dr. Andrey Zvyagintsev<\/li>\n
      2. \u201cFatherland,\u201d dr. Pawe\u0142 Pawlikowski<\/li>\n
      3. \u201cThe Black Ball,\u201d dr. Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi <\/li>\n
      4. \u201cTeenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,\u201d dr. Jane Schoenbrun<\/li>\n
      5. \u201cThe Dreamed Adventure,\u201d dr. Valeska Grisebach <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Best First Film<\/p>\n

          \n
        1. \u201cClub Kid,\u201d dr. Jordan Firstman<\/li>\n
        2. \u201cBen\u2019Imana\u201d dr. Marie Cl\u00e9mentine Dusabejambo<\/li>\n
        3. \u201cFlesh and Fuel,\u201d dr. Pierre Le Gall<\/li>\n
        4. \u201cRehearsals for a Revolution,\u201d dr. Pegah Ahangarani<\/li>\n
        5. \u201cToo Many Beasts,\u201d dr. Sarah Arnold<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Another Cannes Film Festival is in the books, and with it comes another slate of films from some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":989286,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[9],"tags":[266123,5839,269406,274863,77,10841,3063,16,15],"class_list":["post-989285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-all-of-a-sudden","tag-cannes","tag-club-kid","tag-critics-survey","tag-entertainment","tag-festivals","tag-film","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116649925898253635","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989285","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=989285"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/989285\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/989286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=989285"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=989285"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=989285"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}