ACID, the filmmaker-selected Cannes parallel section which first championed the early works of Justine Triet, Kaouther Ben Hania and Radu Jude, has announced the lineup for it 2026 edition.
The selection, showcasing nine independent productions, will open with French fiction Born Under A Bad Star (Mauvaise Étoile).
Set on a scorching hot day in a nondescript outer city suburban somewhere in the South of France, it follows 24-hours in the life of a young woman called Kiki living under the control of a violent partner.
It is the first feature of directorial duo Lola Cambourieu and Yann Berlier after buzzy shorts The Lost Children (Les Enfants Perdus) and Bachelorette Party (Enterrement de vie de jeune fille).
“The film takes the risk of showing us something in a rather atypical way: the issue of control… but without ever offering any potentially explanatory commentary on it. It never tries to hold our hand,” says Pauline Ginot, director of France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (l’ACID) which oversees the section.
Other fiction features in the lineup include Paul Nouhet’s Rewind Barcelona (Barça Zou) about a group of 18-year-olds who head to the titular Catalonian capital for their first vacation without parents and then catch up a decade later and recall those days.
International titles in the selection include Iranian director Karim Lakzadeh’s clandestinely shot Living Twice, Dying Thrice about three miners who survive the collapse of a mine but pretend they are dead so their families can claim compensation.
They soon realize that playing dead is not so easy with their clandestine life leading to new crises, as Iranian authorities await proof of death in the backdrop.
The lineup also features the hybrid Geneva-set work Summer Drift (Virages) by Swiss director Céline Carridroit and Aline Suter about a woman working on the assembly line of a luxury watch factory who decides to revive her old VW Beetle and confront the world of mechanics that once rejected her.
Further international titles include Serbian director Ivan Marković’s Cambodia-set and shot drama Promised Spaces.
It takes its cue from the contrasting realities of construction worker Sokun, who leaves his crowded dormitory and joins a community of fellow workers living in one of many unfinished high-rises, and Seda, the first tenant of the long-awaited luxury homes, who feels trapped in the vast gated complex.
There are three documentaries in the selection: French director Tom Fontenille’s A Secret Heart, French Iranian filmmaker Mahsa Karampour’s Dans La Gueule de l’Ogre and Detention by Guillaume Massart.
Fontenille’s deeply personal work A Secret Heart documents his father’s transition to becoming 64-year-old grandmother Lilou over the course of four years, following the death of his wife and the director’s mother, capturing the journey as well as the family’s reaction to the transformation.
Dans La Gueule de L’Ogre, sees France-based director Karampour reunite with her brother Siavash “Obash” Karampour, the lead singer of the Iranian-American rock band The Yellow Dogs, in New York, where he has been living in exile since 2010. The Iran-born siblings attempt to reconnect after more than a decade apart and difference formative experiences living in France and the U.S.
Massart’s Detention explores France’s penitentiary system through the prism of the country’s prison officer academy, observing men and women as they learn to become prison guards and asking wider question about the practice of incarceration in the process.
The lineup also features the animated feature Blaise by Dimitri Planchon and Jean-Paul Guigue, following the comedic trials and tribulations of the Savage Family as it strives for societal acceptance. It takes its title from the family’s 16-year-old loner son who has set his sights on a girl he met at a party.
Blaise is the latest work inspired by Planchon’s comic strip following the titular protagonist through his tween years through to adolescence.
Kicking off when the protagonist was 12-years-old, the comic strip was adapted for the ARTE-backed animated TV series of the same name following Blaise at the age of 14. Co-director Guigue previously took credits on the Silex and the City. The voice cast features Léa Drucker, Jacques Gamblon, Timéo, Nina Blanc-Francard
Previous animation selections by ACID, include feature Chicken for Linda!, which played in the section in 2023 and went on to win best film at Annecy and a César the following year.
ACID has has previously championed the first features of Oscar winner Triet (Age of Panic) and Oscar-nominated director Ben Hania (Challet Tunes) as well as award winning filmmakers Jude, Guy Maddin and Robert Guédiguian.
The parallel sidebar enjoyed a buzzy 2025 edition in which it world premiered Iranian-French director Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk, and French drama Laurent dans Le Vent, which went on to enjoy a successful theatrical release at home.
Launched in 1992, ACID is Cannes’ youngest parallel section. With it lineup selected by a committee of filmmakers, its main aim is to help independent films, which could struggle to find an audience, exist in cinemas.
Ginot explains that the ACID screenings in Cannes mark the kick-off of a year-long campaign for the selected films in France, with the body organizing hundreds of events around the lineup every year.
“Everything we do revolves around the question of how to ensure that films beloved by filmmakers are seen by the widest possible audience throughout France,” she says.
“The idea is always to go beyond just the major cities, to reach areas less culturally rich, and to reduce inequalities in access to films by never prejudging people’s opinions.”
This year’s selection committee consisted of Valérie Bert, Anne Colson, Sylvain George, Martin Jauvat, Maxime Jean-Baptiste, Julien Meunier, Hélène Milano, Marion Naccache, Thomas Paulot, Philippe Petit, Déni Pitsaev, Paola Termine and Pamela Varela.
ACID 2026 Lineup
A Secret Heart (Cœur Secret) documentary
France
Dir: Tom Fontenille
Blaise
France
Dir: Dimitri Planchon & Jean-Paul Guigue
Born Under A Bad Star (Mauvaise Étoile) – Opening film
France
Dirs: Lola Cambourieu and Yann Berlier
Dans La Gueule de L’Ogre – documentary
France
Mahsa Karampour
Detention (La Détention) – documentary
France
Dir: Guillaume Massart
Living Twice, Dying Thrice
Iran
Dir: Karim Lakzadeh
Promised Space
France, Germany, Serbia, Cambodia
Dir: Ivan Marković
Rewind Barcelona (Barça Zou)
France
Dir: Paul Nouhet
Summer Drift (Virages)
Switzerland, France
Dir: Céline Carridroit & Aline Suter