Good afternoon Insiders, Max Goldbart here bringing you the latest from Cannes lineup week plus plenty more. Read on. And sign up here.
Cannes Unveils 2026 Selection But Keeps Biz Guessing
Mystery Missing Competition Film: In one of the most important days of the year for the international film biz, the Cannes Film Festival unveiled the bulk of its Official Selection in Paris on Thursday. This year’s lineup is short on U.S. studio movies, in a trend Cannes boss Thierry Frémaux told Deadline is a sign of the times after five difficult strike and L.A. fire-hit years. Instead, international non-English language fare is out in force buoyed by the success of Oscar-winning 2025 selection Sentimental Value as well as the high-profile trajectories of other films from last year such as The Secret Agent and Sirat. Palme d’Or contenders include several festival regulars. Cannes often gets flack for its loyalty to these established auteurs, but which festival would turn down Pedro Almodóvar (Bitter Christmas), Asghar Farhadi (Parallel Tales), Hirokazu Kore-eda (Sheep in the Box), Pawel Pawlikowski (Fatherland), Andrey Zvyagintsev (Minotaur) and Lászlo Nemes (Moulin)? So far, 60 films out of 2,541 submissions have secured a coveted place, with expectations of another dozen additions to come. There is intense speculation around whether Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard and James Gray’s Paper Tiger will make the cut. Beyond the Official Selection, indie film professionals are now awaiting the announcements for Critics’ Week, L’Acid and Directors’ Fortnight.
Netflix Bets House On Argentina
Watch on Deadline
No need to cry for me: Netflix is doubling down on Argentina. The streamer’s international ambitions appear not to have been dampened by the botched Warners bid, and it has committed in a big way to the nation that introduced the likes of Juan José Campanella and Lucrecia Martel to the world. Netflix’s new office in the capital, Buenos Aires, opens alongside four new shows and a potential third run of sci-fi hit The Eternaut (pictured). Stewart writes that the opening comes on the heels of Netflix moving to new bases in both Brazil and Mexico, meaning shiny new HQs in each of its three main production centers in Latin America. Latin America content boss Francisco Ramos told us there is a through line here. “We are signaling that we are here to stay because all of these have one thing in common, they have been tailor-made for us,” he added. When it comes to non-U.S. content, Netflix has tended to put its international money where its mouth is in far greater quantities than its rivals, although Disney, HBO, and Amazon all pledged more at the recent Series Mania. Bulk commissioning and boots on the ground act as dual signals that a streamer is committing to a territory. Netflix is certainly taking this approach in Argentina.
Breaking Baz Meets Ann Dowd
A ‘Testament’ to good adaptations: After a long day, I settled down last night with Hulu’s adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s Handmaid’s Tale sequel The Testaments, and it didn’t disappoint. Some adaptations feel somewhat forced (Full Monty TV show, anyone?), but The Testaments is not one of these. It stars Chase Infiniti and is set 15 years after the end of The Handmaid’s Tale. I gained far more insight this morning reading Breaking Baz’s illuminating interview with Ann Dowd, who reprises her role as the god-fearing, terrifying Aunt Lydia. The Testaments takes her on an interesting journey. As Dowd explains to our Baz, she has become a “changed person” in the Testaments timeline, who has had time to “begin again” by establishing her school. “She enters as a gentler self, that fierceness, that wall is no longer present,” adds Ann, who is, in my view, one of the most underrated actors of our time. Click for more and get a thorough understanding of Aunt Lydia’s new maternal guise, along with reading some choice words Dowd has for Donald Trump. The rest of our Testaments coverage can be found here.
The Essentials
🌶️ Hot One: Apple TV and A24’s The Husbands has cast Joe Alwyn, Richard Gadd, and Kingsley Ben-Adir.
🌶️ Another One: Canada’s first-ever movie, Evangeline, has inspired a feature of the same name from Sight Unseen director-producer Brent Crowell.
🤝 Done deal: Paramount Skydance officially secured funding commitments from three Gulf nation sovereign wealth funds to back its Warner Bros. Discovery buy.
🎤 Gig confirmed: Celine Dion announced six more dates for her comeback concert season in Paris as pre-sales kicked off.
❌ Gig canceled: The Kanye West Wireless Festival dream is over after the singer was barred from entering the UK.
🏪Setting up shop: Ex-Concourse exec Grant Mohrman has launched Gravel Lake Entertainment with Cannes regular Arnaud Desplechin’s upcoming film The Thing That Hurts.
🤖 Robots are coming: A platform for actors to clone their likeness has divided opinion in the UK industry. We chatted to its founder.
🍿 Box office: Dune: Part Three is selling out IMAX shows eight months in advance in both North America and London.
🎥 Trailer: For Half Man, Richard Gadd’s new show for the BBC and HBO.
International Insider was written by Max Goldbart and edited by Zac Ntim. Melanie Goodfellow contributed.