'Pan's Labyrinth' and 'The Fast and the Furious.' Picturehouse/Courtesy Everett Collection; Courtesy Everett Collection Pan’s Labyrinth and The Fast and the Furious are set to roar back onto the Croisette as part of this year’s Cannes Classics lineup, a typically eclectic mix of restored masterpieces, rediscoveries and film heritage tributes that underscores the section’s growing clout within the festival’s official selection.
Nearly two decades after its launch, Cannes Classics has become a cornerstone of the Cannes program, spotlighting restoration work from archives, studios and cinematheques around the world. This year’s edition, dedicated to the memory of production designer Dean Tavoularis (The Godfather, Apocalypse Now), will present 22 feature restorations, three shorts and six documentaries, alongside two contemporary films.
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Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth will screen as a pre-opening selection in a newly restored 4K version, marking the 20th anniversary of its Cannes debut, where it famously drew a record-breaking 22-minute standing ovation. Del Toro will be on hand for the screening. At the other end of the Croisette spectrum, Rob Cohen’s street-racing hit The Fast and the Furious gets a midnight slot at the Grand Théâtre Lumière, with cast members Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster attending.
The restored lineup spans continents and eras, from Artavazd Pelechian’s quartet of films in the Pelechian Project to Andrzej Wajda’s Man of Iron, Luchino Visconti’s The Innocent and Akira Kurosawa’s Sugata Sanshiro. Also featured are new restorations of Moonlighting from Jerzy Skolimowski and Metti una sera a cena, with Dario Argento set to present.
Beyond the restorations, Cannes Classics continues to lean into documentary storytelling about cinema itself. This year’s selection includes portraits of Bruce Dern in Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern, with Dern and his daughter Laura Dern attending, and David Lean in Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean. Other titles explore the legacies of Vittorio De Sica and Chris Marker, while Irish documentarian and Cannes regular Mark Cousins returns with The Story of Documentary Film (The 70s).
The section will also host two new works: Bérenger Thouin’s The Golden Age, a sweeping fictional portrait of a woman navigating the 20th century, and Jean-Gabriel Périot’s A Life, A Manifesto, a documentary tracing the life of critic, filmmaker and revolutionary Michèle Firk.
Three short films will screen in a special program featuring Jia Zhang-Ke, Dustin Yellin and Amirhossein Shojaei, with talent including Zhao Tao, Paul Rudd and Darren Aronofsky expected on the Croisette.
Screenings will take place across the Buñuel and Agnès Varda theaters as well as at the Cinéma de la Plage.
Full lineup:
Restored prints: Pan’s Labyrinth (Guillermo del Toro, 2006) The Fast and the Furious (Rob Cohen, 2001) Pelechian Project (Artavazd Pelechian, 1966–1975) Sierra de Teruel (Espoir) (André Malraux, 1938) Moonlighting (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1982) Metti una sera a cena (Love Circle) (Giuseppe Patroni Griffi, 1968) Amma Ariyan (Report to Mother) (John Abraham, 1986) Farewell My Concubine (Chen Kaige, 1993) Man of Iron (Andrzej Wajda, 1981) Eva (Maria Plyta, 1953) The Devils (Ken Russell, 1971) La casa del angel (The House of Angel) (Leopoldo Torre Nilsson, 1957) La ciociara (Two Women) (Vittorio De Sica, 1960) La dérive (The Drift) (Paula Delsol, 1964) La symphonie pastorale (Pastoral Symphony) (Jean Delannoy, 1946) L’innocente (The Innocent) (Luchino Visconti, 1976) Lu Bing Hua (The Dull-Ice Flower) (Yang Li-Kuo, 1989) Machine Gun Kelly (Roger Corman, 1958) Meeuwen sterven in de haven (Seagulls Die in the Harbour) (Roland Verhavert, Rik Kuypers, Ivo Michiels, 1955) Sugata Sanshiro (Akira Kurosawa, 1943) Tilaï (Idrissa Ouedraogo, 1990) The Stranger (Orson Welles, 1945)
Documentaries: The Story of Documentary Film (The 70s) (Mark Cousins, 2026) Dernsie: The Amazing Life of Bruce Dern (Mike Mendez, 2026) Maverick: The Epic Adventures of David Lean (Barnaby Thompson, 2026) Vittorio De Sica – Staging Life (Francesco Zippel, 2026) Mon Coluche à moi (My Coluche) (Michel Denisot, Camille Bruere, Julie Lazare) Nostalgia for the Future (Brecht Debackere, 2026)
Contemporary films: The Golden Age (Bérenger Thouin, 2026) A Life, A Manifesto (Jean-Gabriel Périot, 2026)
Short films: Goodnight Lamby (Dustin Yellin, 2026) Torino Shadow (Jia Zhang-Ke, 2026) Playground (Zamine Bazi) (Amirhossein Shojaei, 2025)
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