The 79th Cannes Film Festival runs from 12 to 23 May 2026, and four films connected to directors from the Middle East and North Africa have made it into the official selection across two categories.
‘Parallel Tales’ — Asghar Farhadi (Main Competition)
Asghar Farhadi returns to the main competition with ‘Parallel Tales’, a Paris-set film that marks his second French-language outing after ‘The Past’ in 2013. The cast includes Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel, Virginie Efira, Catherine Deneuve, Pierre Niney, and Adam Bessa, with Iranian editor Hayedeh Safiyari editing the film in her seventh collaboration with Farhadi. The film is loosely inspired by Krzysztof Kieślowski’s series ‘Dekalog’, with Farhadi adapting one of its episodes, a story centred on a young man who becomes dangerously obsessed with an older woman. Farhadi previously won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2021 for ‘A Hero’, and has two Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film, for ‘A Separation’ in 2012 and ‘The Salesman’ in 2017.
‘The Unknown’ — Arthur Harari (Main Competition)
Also in the main competition is Arthur Harari with ‘The Unknown’. The Egyptian-French filmmaker won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay alongside Justine Triet for ‘Anatomy of a Fall’, and previously debuted as a director at Cannes in 2021 with ‘Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle’, which screened in Un Certain Regard, a section known for spotlighting around 20 films with unconventional styles and non-traditional narratives seeking international recognition.
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‘La Mas Dulce’ — Laila Marrakchi (Un Certain Regard)
Moroccan director Laila Marrakchi presents ‘La Mas Dulce’, her third feature, which follows two young Moroccan women who travel to southern Spain for seasonal strawberry-picking work and decide to report the abuse and harassment they face. Marrakchi first screened at Cannes in 2005 with her debut feature ‘Marock’, in the same section.
‘Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep’ — Rakan Mayasi (Un Certain Regard)
The fourth MENA selection is ‘Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep’ by Palestinian filmmaker Rakan Mayasi. It is Mayasi’s first feature; he was born in Germany and is based between Brussels and Beirut. The film is set in the Bekaa Valley and centres on the search for a missing girl.
Beyond the official selection, Scottish Yemeni director Sara Ishaq will present her drama ‘The Station’ in Critics’ Week, a parallel section of the festival. The film is set in a women-only petrol station in a gender-segregated, war-torn village in Yemen.
The 79th Cannes Film Festival is presided over by South Korean director Park Chan-wook, the first South Korean filmmaker to serve as jury president.
