#FIRSTLOOK: “FATHERLAND” IN-COMPETITION AT CANNES 2026

FATHERLAND, the latest feature film from Paweł Pawlikowski (Ida, Cold War), has been selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, after being announced as part of this year’s official competition. MUBI holds all rights in North America, Latin America, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Benelux, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Australia, New Zealand, and India, and is pleased to reveal the first-look image of the film, available here.

Written by Pawlikowski and Henk Handloegten, the film stars Academy Award®-nominated Sandra Hüller (Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall), Hanns Zischler (Munich, Germany Year 90 Nine Zero, Kings of the Road), August Diehl (A Hidden Life, Inglourious Basterds), Devid Striesow (All Quiet On The Western Front), and Anna Madeley (Patrick Melrose, All Creatures Great And Small).

The film is a MUBI, OUR Films (a Mediawan Company, Italy), Extreme Emotions (Poland), Nine Hours (Germany), and Chapter 2 (a Mediawan Company, France) production, in collaboration with Circle One (Italy) and Apocalypso Pictures, with the participation of Arte and Pathé. It is produced by Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Mieli for OUR Films, Ewa Puszczynska for Extreme Emotions, Jeanne Tremsal and Edward Berger for Nine Hours, Dimitri Rassam for Chapter 2, and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Circle One.

The Match Factory is handling international sales.

Pawlikowski reunites with his longtime filmmaking team, which includes the Academy Award® nominated cinematographer Lukasz Zal, costume designer Aleksandra Staszko, and production designers Katarzyna Sobańska and Marcel Sławiński.

Pawlikowski’s Ida garnered 70 international awards, including 5 European Film Awards and the 2015 Academy Award® for Best Foreign Language Film. He won the Best Director Prize at Cannes in 2018 for Cold War and the film had 52 wins and 126 nominations, including Academy Award® nominations for Best Foreign Film, Best Director, and Best Cinematography.

SYNOPSIS
FATHERLAND centres on the relationship between the Nobel Prize-winning writer Thomas Mann (Hanns Zischler) and his daughter Erika (Sandra Hüller) – actress, writer and rally driver. Set at the height of the Cold War, father and daughter embark on a challenging and emotional road trip in a black Buick taking them across a Germany in ruins – from US dominated Frankfurt to Soviet controlled Weimar. For the first time since the war, Mann returns to his native Germany, having made the difficult decision to flee for the safety of the US.

With FATHERLAND Pawlikowski picks up where he left off with his award-winning Ida and Cold War, exploring the themes of identity, guilt, family and love, amid the turmoil and moral confusion of post War Europe.