^{Credit: Lucy Lost (Xilam Animation) & Tangles (Giant Ant)}

Two more animated Features have been announced for the 2026 Cannes Film Festival lineup. Olivier Clert’s Lucy Lost has been locked in as a Family Screening, while Leah Nelson’s Tangles is part of the Special Screenings section. Both films mark feature directorial debuts, although Clert isn’t new to animation. His previous credits include The Little Prince, Little Amélie or the Character of Rain, Klaus, The Lorax, and Smallfoot. He also co-directed the 2008 short Blind Spot, which was nominated for Cannes’ Cinéfondation Award. Nelson, meanwhile, is the co-founder of the studio Giant Ant.

^{Credit: Lucy Lost (Xilam Animation)}

Among the producers for Lucy Lost are Lucie Bolze and Marc Du Pontavice, who worked on another animated feature that previously played at Cannes, the Oscar-nominated I Lost My Body. It’s also from the same studio that produced I Lost My Body, Xilam Animation. Based on Michael Morpurgo’s 2014 children’s novel, Lis­ten to the Moon, Lucy Lost was nearly adapted into an eight-episode series before being retooled as a feature instead. The synopsis for the film reads, “Set in 1915 in the Isles of Scilly just off the Cornish coast, a young girl named Lucy is raised by a clan of fishermen she knows not to be hers. However, she remembers little else about her past, and as the Great War rages down on the continent, a chance encounter with the mysterious girl her own age soon helps Lucy put back the pieces of her own life’s story and come to better understand her place in the world.”

^{Credit: Tangles (Giant Ant)}

Tangles has assembled a stacked voice cast that includes Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Seth Rogen, Beanie Feldstein, Sarah Silverman, Pamela Adlon, Abbi Jacobson, Samira Wiley, Bowen Yang, and Wanda Sykes. Louis-Dreyfus and Rogen are producers as well. The film draws from Sarah Leavitt’s graphic novel/memoir, Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer's, My Mother and Me. The synopsis reads, “When Alzheimer’s disease begins to strip away her mother’s vibrant personality, a headstrong young woman is forced to return to her oddball family in the conservative small town she recently fled in order to care for her. She quickly realizes she must accept the cruel and warped reality of the disease, and the imperfect beauty of her family, in order to become the daughter they need.”

Lucy Lost and Tangles join a truly monumental year for animation at Cannes. Directors’ Fortnight includes three animated features: Sébastien Laudenbach's Carmen, The Rebel Bird, Kohei Kadowaki's We Are Aliens, and Quentin Dupieux's Vertiginous. Also announced are Louis Clichy’s Iron Boy (Un Certain Regard section), Nicolas Athane and Marco Nguyen’s Jim Queen and the Quest for Chloroqueer (Midnight Screenings section), Phuong Mai Nguyen’s In Waves (Critics’ Week), and Jean-Paul Guige and Dimitri Planchon’s Blaise (ACID section).

That’s nine animated features announced for Cannes thus far. For context, last year saw four animated features play at Cannes: Arco, Little Amélie, A Magnificent Life, and Dandelion's Odyssey. The year before, Flow went on to win the Best Animated Feature Oscar after premiering at Cannes. More than ever, the festival has become a major launchpad for Best Animated Feature hopefuls. Of these nine films and counting, which will have the best shot at the Academy Award? Their reception at Cannes in a month from now will give us an idea.

The 79th Cannes Film Festival takes place from May 12–23, 2026.

Nick Spake is the Author of Bright & Shiny: A History of Animation at Award Shows Volumes 1, 2, and 3. Available Now!