Of the ten projects recently selected to participate at the Marche du Film’s pitch event called the Investors Circle initiative, we placed Flemish Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont‘s third feature film as one of the more anticipated films we’ll be tracking and obviously watching out for in 2026.
Following in a film per every four years pace, Dhont is attached by the limb to the Cannes Film Festival since he workshopped Girl at the Cinéfondation Residence at Cannes in 2016. In 2018, his feature debut was included in the Un Certain Regard section and beat out the masses to collect the Caméra d’Or for Best First Film. Invited to the Palme d’Or competition in 2022, Close (read review) landed the second highest at the fest winning Grand Prix prize. Here is Everything We Know So Far … about Lukas Dhont’s Coward.
After long promotional tour for Girl, Dhont took some time off to write the project once again with Angelo Tijssens. Recent coin from Screen Flanders and an advance on receipts for the CNC tell us this is moving forward to it’s summer start date.
There is no plot details at this time – however, don’t be surprised if we get some logline description in Cannes later this month.
We’re expecting a mix of professional and non-professional talent and possibly work with youth. A recent casting notice mention thesps between ages 18 to 27.
Dhont’s shares producer duties with his brother Michiel Dhont for their The Reunion label. Lumen’s Juliette Schrameck is also producing and we imagine Cinematographer Frank van den Eeden will be back for a third time out.
Look for casting news this summer and for this to be selected for the Palme d’Or competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
