Focus COPRO celebrates emerging talent with an ambitious, diverse slate spanning six countries. Florian Fernandez praises the 'bold and distinctive visions' of these debut filmmakers, emphasizing international co-production as cinema's future.
Several directors in this year's program already have Cannes credentials through their short films—Thien An Nguyen in Official Selection, Wahjudi and Ryma in Semaine de la Critique, Matheou in Directors' Fortnight. This isn't their first rodeo on the Croisette.
Dean Wei won a Tiger Short Award at IFFR (International Film Festival Rotterdam). Gaël Kamilindi took Berlin's Teddy Award for best short film. Both filmmakers are bringing acclaimed short work to their debut features through Focus COPRO.
These seven projects represent the next generation of international auteurs—and they're not shying away from the heavy stuff. If Focus COPRO is any indication, Cannes 2026 will be a reckoning with colonialism, identity crisis, and the messiness of modern family life.
Cannes' Focus COPRO has dropped its annual showcase of first feature films, and this year's slate reads like a manifesto for bold, unapologetic cinema. Seven projects from seven directors spanning Germany, France, Switzerland, Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Vietnam, South Korea, China, and beyond—each one digging into themes that most Hollywood producers would cross the street to avoid. Florian Fernandez, head of SFC and Rendez-vous Industry, called this year's selection "ambitious, strong and promising," with filmmakers who possess "bold and distinctive visions." But beneath the diplomatic praise lies something more interesting: a crop of debut features tackling colonialism, generational trauma, surrogacy ethics, and identity crisis—all wrapped in genres ranging from teen comedy to satirical musical.
"These projects explore territories as varied as Vietnam, Rwanda, Cyprus, China, and of course Europe," Fernandez noted. "A key driving force in international co-production." The drama runs deep across this lineup. Gaël Kamilindi's "The Zebra's Shadow" (Switzerland) is set in 1994 and follows Pacifique, a man overwhelmed by traumatic flashbacks at a rave that begin revealing a troubled past rooted in Rwanda—a place where colonial history has tried to erase him entirely.
"We follow Pacifique's intimate yet tremendous quest to reclaim a fractured past shaped by colonial violence," Kamilindi explained. "We explore how absence, memory, and inheritance define identity, belonging, and transmission across generations." The film won Teddy Award honors at Berlin for Kamilindi's short work, making this debut one to watch. Meanwhile, Thien An Nguyen's "The Snail Automation" (Vietnam, South Korea) ventures into stranger territory: after a hustler evades murder charges because police refuse to believe his client was turned into a snail, he builds a cult-like service scamming lonely seniors under the guise of spiritual transformation.
Nguyen described it as exploring "a world where people remain chained to antiquated dogmas while desperately trying to invent new forms of faith." That's one way to describe a get-rich-quick scheme masquerading as enlightenment. Several filmmakers in this program already have Cannes connections through their short films—a detail Fernandez highlighted as lying "at the very heart of the program." Berthold Wahjudi and Sarra Ryma were selected in Semaine de la Critique with shorts; Alexandra Matheou in Directors' Fortnight.
Dean Wei, whose "The Apple Doesn't Fall…" is a satirical comedy-musical about a Chinese one-child family, recently won a Tiger Short Award at IFFR. These aren't total unknowns stumbling onto the Croisette—they're rising talents making calculated moves from shorts to features. Other projects promise equally intense material.
Laura Obradors' "The Woodworm" (Spain) follows a teenage girl discovering her painter father's "unsettling creative obsessions" while forming an intense relationship with a foreign exchange student—a film Obradors called "inspired by the life of my best friend," set in a "hostile, male-dominated environment." Alexandra Matheou's "Shibboleth" (Cyprus/Greece) places a surrogate mother on vacation with the expecting couple, watching a love triangle quietly form as she confronts "the emotional cost of surrogacy and the realization that her role doesn't always end at birth." Ryma's "Algiers Haze" captures two 18-year-old Algerians wandering between an oil base and desert, following dromedaries across the margins.
"I want to film this moment just before departure, already steeped in the nostalgia for what we are losing," Ryma said. The project will shoot in the Sahara Desert—because nothing says intimate character study like extreme climate and existential displacement. With seven projects spread across six countries and themes ranging from anti-assimilation comedy ("A Summer Tale's" German-Asian teen trying to impress his crush) to colonial reckoning, Focus COPRO 2026 isn't playing it safe.
These filmmakers are betting that audiences want stories about fractured identities, inherited trauma, and the absurdity of modern life—rather than another superhero sequel. We'll find out if they're right when the festival kicks off.
