Unifrance, the French promotional movie group, celebrated rising stars at this yr’s Rendez-Vous in Paris. The ten up-and-coming actors and filmmakers named 2026’s Skills to Watch kicked issues off with a ceremony at France’s Ministry of Tradition earlier than hitting a yearlong collection of occasions that may hold these faces within the highlight.
For over a decade, the ten to Watch program has amplified the voices redefining Gallic cinema. In the event you consider any French artist who’s made a world impression in recent times, likelihood is they have been as soon as a part of this checklist. Now, meet the subsequent era shaping the subsequent decade.
Ugo Bienvenue
An acclaimed animator and comic-book artist — who designed the Annecy Animation Competition poster years earlier than finally successful its high prize — Bienvenue started work on his characteristic debut with a guiding concept: to think about a utopian future formed by reminiscence quite than nostalgia.
That impulse gave rise to “Arco,” a sci-fi fable a couple of boy from the yr 2932 who rides rainbows via time and kinds an unlikely bond with a lonely younger lady in 2075.
“Quite a lot of science fiction is about wanting issues to remain the identical, projecting immediately’s world onto the longer term,” Bienvenue says. “Perhaps we’re one of many first generations in a very long time that genuinely needs to go in a special route.”
“Arco” premiered at Cannes, was acquired by Neon, and went on to assert the highest prize at Annecy earlier than successful on the Lumières and the European Movie Awards inside a 24-hour span. With additional accolades anticipated, Bienvenue is now pausing earlier than embarking on a sophomore characteristic.
No matter type that subsequent mission takes, it’s sure to replicate the identical expansive creativeness.
“French animation usually leaves little room for journey or science fiction, and doesn’t all the time prioritize pleasure or spectacle,” he provides. “Budgets are smaller than in Hollywood, so folks are inclined to restrict themselves from the outset. However that’s precisely why it’s our duty to push boundaries—to indicate that we will go additional and intention greater.”
Valentine Cadic
As numerous locals fled the French capital within the run-up to final yr’s Olympic Video games, actor and filmmaker Valentine Cadic did the other — hunkering down, selecting up a digital camera, assembling a small crew, and plunging headlong into the frenzy to shoot “That Summer season in Paris.”
Drawing on her documentary background, Cadic coaxed fiction out of reality, utilizing the crowds and fan zones as high-production-value backdrops for an intimate drama a couple of lovesick younger girl attempting to reconnect together with her estranged household. The movie premiered in Berlin and went on to win France’s prestigious Louis-Delluc Prize for Greatest First Function.
Cadic plans to retain that very same catch-of-life strategy for her subsequent movie, which stays within the very early phases of growth. Within the meantime, 2026 will see her spending extra time in entrance of the digital camera, returning to auditions and touchdown a key function in a characteristic—at the moment beneath wraps—set to shoot this summer season.
“It feels actually good to be performing once more,” she says. “I missed it. Directing entails very totally different phases—writing, taking pictures, post-production, then presenting the movie—and despite the fact that it’s assorted, a single mission takes an enormous period of time. Appearing, in contrast, helps you to immerse your self in different tasks for shorter durations, and I would like that too.”
Anna Cazenave Cambet
Initially educated as a photographer, Anna Cazenave Cambet brings a tactile sensibility to her filmmaking, utilizing bodily sensation to discover inside states in “Gold for Canine” and “Love Me Tender.”
“It’s simpler for me to grasp the world and feelings via the physique,” she says. “I’ve all the time been drawn to the touch, breath, and intimacy, beginning with my very first shorts. I wish to present characters who expertise the world bodily, expressing what can’t be put into phrases.”
Led by Vicky Krieps and unveiled in Un Sure Regard, “Love Me Tender” tells an acutely heart-wrenching story of a mom preventing for custody of her youngster. But regardless of her weighty topic, the filmmaker approached her craft with levity.
“I waited tables, labored as a nanny, did different jobs—so I understand how fortunate I’m to inform tales,” Cazenave Cambet says. “I attempt to hold a childlike relationship to performing and to the set, to keep in mind that we’re right here to play. That concept of play is necessary—it’s virtually a political stance, a manner of working and approaching this occupation.”
She is now contemplating her subsequent mission fastidiously. “This will likely be my third movie, and I wish to take the time to decide on. You spend years on a mission, so it issues the place you place your self. Now I’m reflecting—and getting ready for the subsequent chapter.”
Salif Cissé
Whereas doing an economics internship within the Huge Apple, Salif Cissé found his true ardour when he was unexpectedly referred to as onstage at an East Village comedy membership. By the point he returned to France, he was an actor.
Auditions led to touring productions, which led to bit components — till Cissé got here into his personal with a lead function in Guillaume Brac’s “All Fingers on Deck.”
“Brac’s movies are very open, very sunny, very near folks—virtually documentary-like,’ says Cissé. “That was disorienting for me, coming from theater, the place you play large, outlined characters. Instantly, I used to be being requested to be myself, to virtually do nothing—simply really feel. It was stunning. I had by no means realized performing could possibly be that easy.”
Cissé has since acted in two movies for Arnaud Desplechin earlier than bringing the one-two punch of “Meteors” and “Love Me Tender” to final yr’s Cannes. He’s now contemplating movie affords whereas conserving very energetic in theater.
Regardless of the function, he’ll always remember the teachings he realized on his first main characteristic. “I used to suppose cinema was all about remodeling into another person,” he says. “However now I see it otherwise. I begin from myself. I take the items of who I’m—my habits, my blind spots, my instincts—and let the character develop from there. Finally, the character does issues I by no means would, and that’s the place the magic occurs.”
Alice Douard
For her characteristic debut, “Love Letters,” director Alice Douard drew deeply from her personal expertise of lesbian maternity.
“I began from a really particular feeling—the belief that I used to be going to be the mom of a kid I wasn’t carrying,” she explains. “From there, I met different households and did analysis so the movie wouldn’t be autobiographical. It begins with that intimate sensation after which goes additional.”
Douard additionally grappled with the shortage of illustration she herself had seen on display screen. “Once I was going via this, I didn’t have any pictures to carry on to. There are few movies about it, and in these I don’t acknowledge myself. Both one of many girls dies, or one leaves with a person. I couldn’t perceive why love wasn’t on the heart.”
“Love Letters” premiered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week, connecting with viewers from all walks of life — a dream situation for a filmmaker who sees cinema as a corrective drive.
“Proposing pictures that don’t but exist is a manner of being current on this planet,” she says. “I don’t know if it adjustments the world, however it educates, bears witness, and provides hope to those that come after. The thought was to indicate one thing shared by all {couples}, no matter composition. What we’re doing, everybody does — it’s extraordinary.”
Douard is now taking an identical strategy together with her second characteristic. “I have to reconnect with life earlier than beginning a mission that may take three years,” she says. “So I’m taking it slowly.”
Guillaume Marbeck
At first, Guillaume Marbeck wished to be a director – ultimately shifting to New York to pursue these objectives. However he struggled overseas, and shortly modified his focus to a different craft.
“It wasn’t a query of English versus French, it was about vocabulary — concerning the actor’s language versus the director’s language, that are very particular. And once I realized I used to be actually dangerous at that, I believed, nicely, I’m going to coach as an actor so I can perceive the best way to communicate to them.”
Two years of courses paid off when he landed the lead — as Jean-Luc Godard — in Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Imprecise.” At first, he thought it was a rip-off. “Till they advised me I had the half, I simply had enjoyable. However as soon as I knew it was me, I received scared. Now I actually needed to do the work.”
That work introduced him to Cannes, the place icons like Quentin Tarantino and Claude Lelouch praised his efficiency—Tarantino even moved to tears.
“I’ve all the time had one dream: to make a movie, in entrance of or behind the digital camera. I’ve completed that in entrance of the digital camera. Directing sometime can be the subsequent dream.”
Subsequent, Marbeck seems in Alice Winocour’s “Couture,” persevering with a theme he loves: movies that discover professions. “In ‘Nouvelle Imprecise,’ it’s directing. On this one, it’s style. I wish to make movies about Components 1 drivers, attorneys, the works — I really like discovering different lives.”
Thomas Ngijol
Identified for stand-up and broad comedies, Thomas Ngijol revealed new sides of himself in 2025, first as a psychiatric careworker within the prize-winning Quebecois dramedy “Empathy,” then writing, directing, and starring within the Cameroon-set cop thriller “Untamable,” which made waves in Cannes’ Administrators’ Fortnight.
“I didn’t immediately say, ‘Bye-bye clown, now I’m doing drama,’” he says. “At 47, as a father, as a husband, as my spouse’s companion — you simply comply with what you are feeling. And that’s a good looking message: you’re not a prisoner of something.”
“All of those feelings have been inside me for years,” he provides. “Perhaps it was modesty, perhaps life, perhaps I didn’t really feel prepared. Then at some point, it simply opens up.”
Ngijol stays a dependable comedic draw, however behind the digital camera, he needs to discover totally different registers. “
As a director, comedy doesn’t encourage me proper now. Perhaps as a result of it’s how I categorical myself via phrases quite than the digital camera. What excites me now are different feelings, different tales. Artwork is about doing what you need. It received’t all the time work, positive, however you need to be proud of what you’ve created. And if it finds an viewers, even higher.”
Park Ji-min
Acclaimed visible artist Park Ji-min was celebrated for her display screen debut in Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul” — however performing didn’t instantly seize her.
“It was a query of legitimacy,” she says. “Instantly, I used to be the lead in a characteristic movie, and I believed, ‘That was superb, however perhaps this isn’t actually my place.’ I hadn’t educated in performing, and I wanted to see if I actually belonged. It took a couple of yr. Then, mockingly, it was the absence of it that made me understand, ‘Oh, I form of wish to attempt that once more.’”
Park returned in a serious manner with roles in “Love Me Tender,” “The Little Sister,” and “A Non-public Life” — all screened ultimately yr’s Cannes, with every mission sparked by a private attraction from its director. Given her ongoing artwork observe, Park expects her performing decisions will proceed to be guided by private connection.
“My artwork provides me freedom, as a result of my focus isn’t completely on performing,” she explains. “I’ve discovered a stability between the 2. I don’t rely on a director calling me—I proceed my very own tasks, my exhibitions. That stability is an actual plus, and I really feel extremely fortunate for it.”
Ella Rumpf
Born in Paris and raised in Zurich, Ella Rumpf has labored throughout the Swiss, French, German, British, and American industries — incomes popularity of “Uncooked” and “Marguerite’s Theorem,” and turning heads internationally on “Succession” and “Tokyo Vice.” Final yr, she popped at Cannes with Alice Douard’s “Love Letters.”
“I wouldn’t say I’ve a choice,” she says of the assorted industries. “However the U.S. may be very business-oriented — large machines, structured, industrial. As an actor, you’re answerable for your work, your function, all the things. In France, it’s usually the other: an auteur with a robust imaginative and prescient will obsess over each element. You’ll spend ages deciding which socks your character wears. The eye to element is intense.”
“There’s a special relationship to performing, too,” she provides. “Within the U.S., it’s a severe job, with large duty. In France, it’s nonetheless about taking part in — on va jouer. And truthfully, French units are chaos. Folks in all places, noise, no house. Once I first arrived after working in Germany and the U.S., I believed, ‘How does anybody get something completed?’”
“However that chaos is sensible,” she provides. “It creates power—all the things is imperfect and unstable. Folks argue, collide, experiment. It shapes a special form of movie. French movies really feel much less programmed, extra alive.”
Perhaps she does have a choice in spite of everything.
Théodore Pellerin
Montreal-based Théodore Pellerin landed a gig on Quebecois tv straight out of highschool — and he hasn’t slowed down since. “The set grew to become my movie and performing college,” he says. “I’ve realized all the things from working.”
Alongside the best way, Pellerin has collaborated with an enviable roster of filmmakers, forging an in depth bond with Philippe Lesage earlier than touchdown tasks with Xavier Dolan, Joel Edgerton, Eliza Hittman, Philippe Falardeau and Ari Aster. The run culminated in a profession excessive along with his starring function in Pauline Loquès’s Cannes-acclaimed “Nino.”
“’Nino’ was notably significant,” he says. “It felt like the best movie on the proper second — a form of passage into maturity.”
Using that momentum, Pellerin is already lining up a formidable follow-up yr, taking the title function in Nicole Garcia’s “Milo” reverse Marion Cotillard, and taking pictures Tom Ford’s “Cry to Heaven” alongside Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hunter Schafer, Colin Firth and Adele.
“All I actually need,” he provides, “is entry to well-written scripts. These are uncommon. Once they come alongside—and when the folks really feel proper—it’s sufficient to maintain me curious and enthusiastic about performing.”
