Nine French (Co-)Productions Officially in the Running for the 2026 Oscars 

Nominations: Actor in a Supporting Role (Stellan Skarsgard), Actress in a Leading Role (Renate Reinsve), Actresses in a Supporting Role (Elle Fanning, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), Directing (Joachim Trier), Film Editing (Olivier Bugge Coutté), International Feature Film (Norway), Best Picture

The Norwegian drama centers on two sisters, Nora and Agnes, who reunite with their estranged father Gustav, a once-celebrated filmmaker, in the family home in Oslo, where past wounds resurface as he prepares an autobiographical film that blurs the line between memory and performance.

Through intimate conversations, rehearsals, and small domestic moments, Trier explores inherited trauma, artistic legacy, and the fragile possibility of reconciliation without resorting to easy catharsis.

Nominations: Actor in a Leading Role (Wagner Moura), Casting (Gabriel Domingues), International Feature Film (Brazil), Best Picture 

Loosely inspired by Joseph Conrad, the Brazilian political thriller follows Armando, a former professor turned underground operative during the military dictatorship, as he navigates surveillance, betrayal, and moral compromise while trying to flee an authoritarian regime. Premiering in Competition at Cannes 2025, the film became the festival’s most awarded title, with praise for Wagner Moura’s performance and Mendonça Filho’s sharp, atmospherically charged direction.

Nominations: International Feature Film (France), Writing (Written by Jafar Panahi; Script Collaborators – Nader Saïvar, Shadmehr Rastin, Mehdi Mahmoudian) 

Directed by Jafar Panahi, the Persian-language thriller follows Vahid, a former political prisoner who becomes convinced that a stranger he encounters late one night is the jailer who once tortured him. Joined by fellow ex-prisoners, Vahid kidnaps the suspect and drives him into the desert, triggering a tense moral reckoning that oscillates between doubt, confession, and the corrosive desire for revenge under an authoritarian regime.

Filmed under restrictive conditions in contemporary Tehran, the film blends social realism with existential suspense. Since its premiere, It Was Just an Accident has received significant acclaim, including the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, as well as nominations at the Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice Awards. The film follows last year’s French submission, Emilia Perez, which won two Oscars, for Best Supporting Actress (Zoe Saldaña) and Best Original Song (“El mal”).

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Nominations: International Feature Film (Spain), Sound (Amanda Villavieja, Laia Casanovas and Yasmina Praderas)

The drama follows a Spanish father who, accompanied by his son, travels to a remote rave in the mountains and deserts of southern Morocco in search of his missing daughter, Mar. As they circulate her photograph among crowds of ravers, they are drawn deeper into an unforgiving landscape. Set against a pulsing electronic soundtrack and an almost trance-like atmosphere, the journey becomes a harrowing descent, forcing father and son to confront grief, guilt, and their own physical and emotional limits.

Nomination: Animated Feature Film

Arco is a science‑fantasy adventure by Ugo Bienvenu in which a 10‑year‑old boy from an idyllic, distant future is accidentally propelled back to the year 2075 and discovers an Earth on the brink of ecological catastrophe. With the help of Iris, a girl his own age, and her robot companion, he embarks on a quest both to return home and to protect this threatened world, a story the director describes as an optimistic, hopeful fable about children imagining a brighter future for the planet.

Nomination: Animated Feature Film 

Adapted from Amélie Nothomb’s autobiographical novel, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain follows a solitary child living in almost complete emotional withdrawal until a series of encounters gradually bring her out of her shell. Directors Maïlys Vallade and Liane‑Cho Han use a delicate, painterly animation style to echo Nothomb’s introspective prose, emphasizing, in their notes, the healing power of human connection and how imagination helps a child negotiate loneliness and family silence.

Nomination: Animated Short Film

In the sea, a man swims. As he swims, memories come to the surface. From his early childhood to his life as a man, all his memories are linked to water. Some are happy, others glorious, others traumatic. This story will be his last swim. It will take us from the source to the river – from the waters of childhood pools to those of swimming pools – from a North African country to the shores of the Mediterranean – from Olympic stadiums to water retention basins – from concentration camps to the dreamy beaches of Reunion Island. Man will finder in the blue infini of the sea.

Nomination: International Feature Film (Tunisia)

Directed by 2022 Villa Albertine resident and filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania. A hybrid documentary, The Voice of Hind Rajab, retraces the final moments of a young girl trapped in Gaza through intercepted emergency calls and digital reconstructions. Merging journalistic testimony with immersive visual storytelling, it has stood out across multiple international film festivals.

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Nomination: Live Action Short Film 

Set in a society where kissing is outlawed and transactions are completed through slaps to the face, the film follows Angine, a discontented woman whose fascination with a playful salesgirl draws suspicion from a jealous colleague.

This 36-minute short film examines themes of repression, desire, and surveillance, using an absurdist premise to explore how intimacy functions in a controlled environment.

Featuring Zar Amir, Luàna Bajrami, Aurélie Boquien, and the voice of Vicky Krieps.

The film is executive produced by Isabelle Huppert.