D007-FRANCIA POSTER GIGANTE FESTIVAL DE CANNES

Three copies of the official poster for the 79th Cannes Film Festival were unfurled outside the Palais des Festivals on Sunday morning (May 10), showcasing the image that will be seen across the Croisette for the 2026 edition.

This year, the poster celebrates Ridley Scott’s iconic film "Thelma & Louise", 35 years since its world premiere in Cannes on May 20, 1991.

The poster image - a black-and-white still of Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon looking out from a 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible - was captured on set by photographer Roland Neveu.

Festival organisers praised the film’s lasting impact, saying the two characters shattered gender stereotypes and showed the path to emancipation, embodying absolute freedom and unwavering friendship. Celebrating them now, they said, means acknowledging how far we’ve come, while recognising there is still progress to be made.

The film was nominated for six Academy Awards and the French Cesar Award for Best Foreign Film. In 2016, the U.S. Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Ridley Scott's history with Cannes stretched back long before "Thelma & Louise" - in 1977, he won the Jury Prize for Best Debut Film at Cannes for his very first film, "The Duellists".

This year’s Cannes Film Festival, which runs from Tuesday (May 12) until May 23, will pit stalwarts of arthouse cinema such as Poland's Pawel Pawlikowski and Spain's ‌Pedro Almodovar against a small pool of newer voices. A-listers with films premiering this year include Scarlett Johansson, Rami Malek, ⁠Javier Bardem, John Travolta and Lea Seydoux.

Denmark’s Nicolas Winding Refn and U.S. directors Steven Soderbergh and Ron Howard will also be presenting films at the festival.

Award-winning Korean director Park Chan-wook will head the jury for the main competition.