Cristian Mungiu’s movie, starring Sebastian Stan, has clinched the Palme d’Or at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival. The win is a triumphant return for the Romanian director, who now joins an elite club of two-time winners.
The drama, which also features Renate Reinsve alongside Stan, follows a mixed Romanian-Norwegian couple who relocate their family to the wife’s birthplace, a remote fjord village. Their pursuit of a new start unravels when they collide with a local couple holding starkly opposing values. The prize cements Mungiu as only the 10th filmmaker in history to claim the festival’s top honor twice, having previously won for 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days.
Cannes 2026 full winners list unveiled
Park Chan-Wook presided over the Cannes 2026 jury alongside Demi Moore, Chloé Zhao, Stellan Skarsgård, Diego Céspedes, Ruth Negga, Laura Wandel, Isaach De Bankolé, and Paul Laverty.
Main Competition
- Palme d’Or — Fjord, Cristian Mungiu
- Grand Prize — Minotaur, Andreï Zviaguintsev
- Best Director (Tied) — Javier Calvo & Javier Ambrossi (La Bola Negra) and Paweł Pawlikowski (Fatherland)
- Best Actress — Virginie Efira & Tao Okamoto, All of a Sudden
- Best Actor — Emmanuel Macchia & Valentin Campagne, Coward
- Best Screenplay — Emmanuel Marre, A Man of His Time
- Jury Prize — The Dreamed Adventure, Valeska Grisebach
- Camera d’Or — Ben’Imana, Marie-Clémentine DUSABEJAMBO
Short Films
- Short Film Palme d’Or — For the Opponents, Federico Luis
Un Certain Regard
- Un Certain Regard Prize — Everytime, Sandra Wollner
- Jury Prize — Elephants in the Fog, Abinash Bikram Shah
- Special Jury Prize — Iron Boy, Louis Clichy
- Best Actor — Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset, Congo Boy
- Best Actresses — Marina de Tavira, Daniela Marín Navarro & Mariangel Villegas, Siempre Soy Tu Animal Materno
The Cinef (Student Films)
- First Prize — Laser-Cat, Lucas Acher (NYU, USA)
- Second Prize — Silent Voices, Nadine Misong Jin (Columbia University, USA)
- Joint Third Prize — Never Enough, Julius Lagoutte Larsen (La Fémis, France) and Growing Stones, Flying Papers, Roozbeh Gezerseh & Soraya Shamsi (Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Germany)
(Source: Cannes Film Festival)
Originally reported by Devanshi Basu on ComingSoon.
