Cannes 79: Italy on the Croisette, with co-productions and locations

Three Italian co-productions have been selected for competition at the 79th Cannes Film Festival (May 12-23, 2026): Fatherland by Pawel Pawlikowski (UK/Italy/Poland/Germany/France); the new film from Iranian double-Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi, Histoires Parallèles (Parallel Tales) (France, USA, Belgium, Italy); and L'inconnue (The Unknown) by Arthur Harari (France, Italy, produced by Bathysphere, To Be Continued, Ascent Film with Rai Cinema).  Arthur Harari’s previous film, Onoda – 10,000 Nights in the Jungle, premiered at Cannes 74 opening the 'Un Certain Regard' section, the same year that Farhadi won the Special Jury Grand Prix for A Hero (2021) while Pawel Pawlikowski won the Best Director Award for Cold War (2018) at the 71st Cannes Film Festival.

'Fatherland' by Pawel Pawlikowski

Fatherland chronicles the relationship between writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller), an actress, journalist, and rally driver at the height of the Cold War. Mann returns to his native Germany for the first time since the end of WWII, having reluctantly fled to the United States for the duration of the war. Father and daughter embark on a journey across a shattered Germany in a black Buick, travelling from a US-influenced Frankfurt to Weimar controlled by the Soviets. With Fatherland, Pawlikowski picks up where he left off with the award-winning Ida and Cold War, exploring themes of identity, guilt, family and love against the backdrop of the turmoil and moral confusion of postwar Europe.

Produced by Mubi, Our Films, Nine Hours, Chapter 2, Circle Production, and co-written by Pawlikowski and Henk Handloegten, the film stars Oscar nominee Sandra Hüller (The Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall), Hanns Zischler (Munich, Germany Nine-O, A Course in Time), August Diehl (A Hidden Life, Inglourious Basterds), Devid Striesow (All Quiet on the Western Front), and Anna Madeley (Patrick Melrose, All Creatures Great and Small).

'The Unknown' by Arthur Harari

A French/Italian co-production - produced by Bathysphere, To Be Continued, Ascent Film with Rai Cinema, in co-production with Pathé, France 2 Cinéma, Logical Content Ventures - L'inconnue (The Unknown) is the story of David Zimmerman, a man in his late thirties who takes secret photographs. Although he rarely leaves his house, friends drag him to a wild party, where he spots a woman in the crowd. He can't take his eyes off her and follows her. In the dead of night, his life is turned upside down and he wakes in the body of an unknown woman.

Starring Léa Seydoux, Niels Schneider, Victoire Du Bois, Valérie Dréville, Shanti Masud, Lilith Grasmug, Alexandre Pallu. Italian distributor: Adler Entertainment.

'Parallel Tales' by Asghar Farhadi

A French/American/Belgian/Italian co-production, the new film from double-Oscar winner Asghar Farhadi, Histoires Parallèles (Parallel Tales), is in competition at Cannes 79. This is Farhadi's second French-language film after The Past (2013), and comes four years after A Hero (2021) which won the Special Jury Grand Prix at the 74th Cannes Film Festival. The cast includes Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Cassel, Virginie Efira, Pierre Niney, Adam Bessa, with the participation of Catherine Deneuve.

Looking for inspiration for her new novel, Sylvie spies on her neighbours across the street. She hires young Adam to help with daily tasks, never suspecting that he will upend her life and her work, until the fiction she had imagined overtakes reality.

The film—edited by Iranian Hayedeh Safiyari, her seventh collaboration with Farhadi—is produced by Memento Production (France), Anonymous Content (USA), with Panache Productions and La Compagnie Cinématographique (Belgium) and Lucky Red (Italy).

'Roma elastica' by Bertrand Mandico

Partly shot in Rome, on sets at Cinecittà Studios, Bertrand Mandico’s new film will mark his debut at Cannes: Roma Elastica is scheduled to premiere in the "Séances de Minuit" (Midnight Screenings) section at Cannes. (See ON-SET)

A sort of exceptional "Fellini opera," as general delegate Thierry Frémaux described the film during the Official Selection press conference, the plot revolves around an actress about to shoot her last film in Rome in the 1980s. It is a French/Italian co-production, produced by Atelier de Production, Dugong Films and REdibis Film in collaboration with Rai Cinema, with the contribution of the Ministry of Culture and support from Eurimages.

The large cast includes Marion Cotillard, with Noémie Merlant, Agnese Claisse, Zlatko Buric, Milutin Dapcevic, Josephine Thiesen. Italians include Martina Scrinzi, Isabella Ferrari, Maurizio Lombardi, Michele Bravi, Alessio Gallo, Ondina Quadri, Tea Falco, with the extraordinary participation of Ornella Muti and Franco Nero.

'Congo Boy' by Rafiki Fariala

The Italian minority co-production Congo Boy by Rafiki Fariala will be presented in the parallel section "Un Certain Regard". A Makongo Films, Karta Film, Unité, Kiripifilms production in collaboration with Rai Cinema, the film is set in Bangui, Central African Republic.

The story has a strong autobiographical feel, and focusses on a seventeen-year-old Congolese refugee who wants to pursue a career in music despite his father's opposition. When the Central African Republic plunges into crisis in late 2013, his parents try to flee the country on false passports but are stopped at the border and sent to prison. Left to fend for himself with no support, the boy has to care for his four younger siblings and find the money to secure his parents' release. Against all odds, music will help him.

"I was born in a country at war, Congo, and came to the Central African Republic (CAR) when I was still a child," said the director, whose first documentary, We, Students! (2022), premiered in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival. "I consider CAR my country: it's where I grew up, where I have my friends, and where I live every day. Yet, it's not my country: I'm not a citizen. I'm a refugee. This film tells my story to everyone; what it means to be a young refugee in CAR, what it means to be sixteen and have to care for your brothers and sisters alone after your parents are unjustly imprisoned. These painful memories have haunted me for years; even today, our situation is not resolved. I want to bring a message of hope to all my refugee brothers and sisters around the world: We can do this."

Erri De Luca in 'La Vie d’une femme'

Other Italians at the Festival include writer Erri De Luca (who previously served on the jury at Cannes in 2003) in the cast of Charline Bourgeois-Taquet's La Vie d’une femme (A Woman's Life), in Competition. Regarding his participation in the film, he says: "I'm little more than an extra, a small, tailor-made part. An elderly writer living isolated in the mountains is approached by the two protagonists, one of them interviews him. When the director asked me to participate, I felt I could do it. I read the script and the idea of ??spending a few days as a guest in the mountains appealed to me."

The film, starring Lea Drucker and Mélanie Thierry, is the story of a head surgeon, Gabrielle (Drucker), in crisis, both professional and personal, exacerbated by her mother’s accelerating Alzheimer’s disease. She develops an increasingly strong bond with a writer who requests to observe her at work as research for a book. "During filming, I appreciated the smiling calm that director Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet conveyed to me and the crew, and I had the experience of acting with two incredible actresses. They made me feel at ease off-set too," notes De Luca.

Croisette: Monica Bellucci and Lorenzo Zurzolo expected

Italian actress Monica Bellucci is in the cast of Histoires de la nuit (The Birthday Party) by Léa Mysius, one of the most original voices in contemporary French cinema and nominated for the Best Screenplay Oscar for Emilia Pérez, which will screen In Competition. Based on Laurent Mauvignier's best-selling novel, the thriller delves into the darkest recesses of family relationships - isolation, desire, latent violence – and will be distributed in Italy by Minerva Pictures. The cast includes Hafsia Herzi, Benoît Magimel, Bastien Bouillon.

Completing the Italians expected to appear on the Croisette is Lorenzo Zurzolo—recently seen in Strike (2026) and Squali (2025), Skolimowski's EO (2022)— who appears in La bola negra (The Black Ball) by Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo (Spain), also in Competition and starring Penélope Cruz and Glenn Close. The film is based on an unfinished play by Federico García Lorca, which sparked a small theatrical phenomenon in 2015 with Alberto Conejero’s theatrical adaptation, La piedra oscura.