Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord has won the Palme d’Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Other winners on the night included Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur, taking the Grand Prix, and a Best Director prize shared between Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s The Black Ball, and Pawel Pawlikowski’s Fatherland.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
The ceremony washosted by French actress Eye Haidara, who also hosted the opening ceremony on May 12.
The nine-person jury was headed by South Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook, alongside directors Chloe Zhao, Laura Wandel and Diego Cespedes, screenwriter Paul Laverty, and actors Demi Moore, Isaach de Bankole, Stellan Skarsgard and Ruth Negga.
The jury awarded prizes including the Palme d’Or for best film, the Grand Prix, Jury Prize, and awards for best director, actress, actor and screenplay.
Barbra Streisand was not presentreceive her honorary Palme d’Or, having cancelled her in-person festival appearance last week due her recovery from a knee injury. Isabelle Huppert introduced a video message from Streisand. Peter Jackson and John Travolta also received honorary Palme d’Ors earlier in the festival.
While this year’s festival has avoided the closing day power cut of last year or the political strife that afflicted the 2026 Berlinale, a key topic of discussion has been the threat of Canal+ CEO Maxime Saada not to work with any signatory of a letter criticising the control French billionaire Vincent Bollore has over the company.
Prizes have already been distributed in other festival sections, with Sandra Wollner’s Everytime winning the Un Certain Regard prize, Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva taking the Grand Prize in Critics’ Week, and Clio Barnard’s UK feature I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning winning the Audience Award in Directors’ Fortnight.
Last year’s Palme d’Or went to Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, with the film going on to two Oscar nominations.
Cannes 2026 awards
Competition
Palme d’Or – Fjord, dir. Cristian Mungiu
Grand Prix – Minotaur, dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
Best Director, ex-aequo – Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi for The Black Ball; Pawel Pawlikowski for Fatherland
Jury Prize – The Dreamed Adventure, dir. Valeska Grisebach
Best Actress – Tao Okamoto, Virginie Efira for All Of A Sudden
Best Screenplay – Emmanuel Marre for A Man Of His Time
Best Actor – Emmanuel Macchia, Valentin Campagne for Coward
Camera d’Or for best first feature film
Camera d’Or – Ben’Imana, dir. Marie Clementine Dusabejambo
Short Films Competition
Short Film Palme d’Or – For The Opponents, dir. Federico Luis
