Columbia Filmmakers Receive Standing Ovation at Cannes 2026
Update
Out of 19 student films, chosen from 2,747 submissions from 662 film schools around the world, Silent Voices—directed and produced by Film students Nadine Jin and Yuwen Zhang, respectively—was awarded the second prize of the 29th La Cinef Selection.
La Cinef, an Official Selection of the Festival de Cannes, was founded in 1998 to highlight the next generation of filmmakers, and is accompanied by a generous grant of 11,000 euro (12,816 U.S. dollars). The awarded films will be screened at the Cinéma du Panthéon on June 2, 2026 at 6 pm.
Silent Voices also picked up a Queer Palm, an independently sponsored prize that has honored one short film and one feature film from the Cannes Official Selection and its parallel sections that spotlight LGBTQ+ stories since 2010. "In an era marked by violence and hostility, the director chooses to present queer culture as a possibility, a glimmer of hope, that needs no justification," announced the jury. "We were thrilled to see this new voice emerge, and we can’t wait to see what comes next."
To nobody's surprise, Queer Palm selected the buzzy Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, edited by Graham Mason '11, as their feature winner. The jury called it "a popular, joyful, thoroughly researched cinema, freed from a heteronormative, hetero-centric mold, connecting this genre to other stories, other bodies, other journeys."
-
May 12 through 23 is an exciting time for the Film Program. It might mark the last weeks of spring before summer unofficially takes hold, but for a few lucky filmmakers, it means the 2026 Cannes Film Festival is underway. Learn more about the Columbia films showing in the prestigious festival below.
Silent Voices—directed and produced by Film students Nadine Jin and Yuwen Zhang, respectively—has been accepted into Cannes' prestigious La Cinef short film competition. The short film peers into the separate daily lives of a Korean immigrant family of four living in New York City, and the wounds they conceal from one another. Read more about the film here.
At the Edge of the Volcano, a short directed by Jorge Granados Ross '21, co-written by Granados Ross and fellow alum Melik Kuru '21, and produced by Mariana Saffon '19, is being screened at Semaine de la Critique (Critic's Week) in the International Film Festival of Morelia program. The film—which was created as Granados Ross's thesis project for the MFA—follows two middle-aged couples whose island vacation crashes into disaster after bad news lands ashore. Learn more about our alums' work on the film here.
The opening film of the Un Certain Regard screenings, queer slasher Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma made waves. Edited by Graham Mason '11, the film stars Hannah Einbeinder and Gillian Anderson as the respective director and original star of a remake of a schlocky horror franchise. Things get heated. Kyle Buchanan of The New York Times reviewed it as one of the "freshest, riskiest" films of the festival. It will be released on Mubi on August 7.
Clarissa—a reimagining of Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway set in Lagos, Nigeria which showed at the independent, noncompetitive sidebar, the Quinzaine Director's Fortnight—was deemed "one of the more intriguing titles" at Cannes by Deadline. Co-directed by twin creative pair Ari Esiri '19 and Chuko Esiri, the film stars Sophie Okonedo as Clarissa, a high-society woman preparing to host a party where unexpected guests lead to bittersweet reckonings. The debut screening at the Fortnight—which is characterized by its openness to non-professional audiences—received a lengthy standing ovation.
Now in its 79th edition, Cannes is one of the world's premier international film festivals, with an unparalleled reputation for quality cinema. Its 12-day lineup of film's most promising new voices comes to a close on May 23, 2026.