Unifrance, the French promotional film organization, celebrated rising stars at this year’s Rendez-Vous in Paris. The 10 up-and-coming actors and filmmakers named 2026’s Talents to Watch kicked things off with a ceremony at France’s Ministry of Culture before hitting a yearlong series of events that will keep these faces in the spotlight.
For over a decade, the 10 to Watch program has amplified the voices redefining Gallic cinema. If you think of any French artist who’s made a global impact in recent years, chances are they were once part of this list. Now, meet the next generation shaping the next decade.
Ugo Bienvenue
An acclaimed animator and comic-book artist — who designed the Annecy Animation Festival poster years before ultimately winning its top prize — Bienvenue began work on his feature debut with a guiding idea: to imagine a utopian future shaped by memory rather than nostalgia.
That impulse gave rise to “Arco,” a sci-fi fable about a boy from the year 2932 who rides rainbows through time and forms an unlikely bond with a lonely young girl in 2075.
“A lot of science fiction is about wanting things to stay the same, projecting today’s world onto the future,” Bienvenue says. “Maybe we’re one of the first generations in a long time that genuinely wants to go in a different direction.”
“Arco” premiered at Cannes, was acquired by Neon, and went on to claim the top prize at Annecy before winning at the Lumières and the European Film Awards within a 24-hour span. With further accolades expected, Bienvenue is now pausing before embarking on a sophomore feature.
Whatever form that next project takes, it is certain to reflect the same expansive imagination.
“French animation often leaves little room for adventure or science fiction, and doesn’t always prioritize pleasure or spectacle,” he adds. “Budgets are smaller than in Hollywood, so people tend to limit themselves from the outset. But that’s exactly why it’s our responsibility to push boundaries—to show that we can go further and aim higher.”
Valentine Cadic
As countless locals fled the French capital in the run-up to last year’s Olympic Games, actor and filmmaker Valentine Cadic did the opposite — hunkering down, picking up a camera, assembling a small crew, and plunging headlong into the frenzy to shoot “That Summer in Paris.”
Drawing on her documentary background, Cadic coaxed fiction out of fact, using the crowds and fan zones as high-production-value backdrops for an intimate drama about a lovesick young woman trying to reconnect with her estranged family. The film premiered in Berlin and went on to win France’s prestigious Louis-Delluc Prize for Best First Feature.
Cadic plans to retain that same catch-of-life approach for her next film, which remains in the very early stages of development. In the meantime, 2026 will see her spending more time in front of the camera, returning to auditions and landing a key role in a feature—currently under wraps—set to shoot this summer.
“It feels really good to be acting again,” she says. “I missed it. Directing involves very different phases—writing, shooting, post-production, then presenting the film—and even though it’s varied, a single project takes a huge amount of time. Acting, by contrast, lets you immerse yourself in other projects for shorter periods, and I need that too.”
Anna Cazenave Cambet
Originally trained as a photographer, Anna Cazenave Cambet brings a tactile sensibility to her filmmaking, using physical sensation to explore interior states in “Gold for Dogs” and “Love Me Tender.”
“It’s easier for me to understand the world and emotions through the body,” she says. “I’ve always been drawn to touch, breath, and intimacy, starting with my very first shorts. I want to show characters who experience the world physically, expressing what can’t be put into words.”
Led by Vicky Krieps and unveiled in Un Certain Regard, “Love Me Tender” tells an acutely heart-wrenching story of a mother fighting for custody of her child. Yet despite her weighty subject, the filmmaker approached her craft with levity.
“I waited tables, worked as a nanny, did other jobs—so I know how lucky I am to tell stories,” Cazenave Cambet says. “I try to keep a childlike relationship to acting and to the set, to remember that we’re here to play. That idea of play is important—it’s almost a political stance, a way of working and approaching this profession.”
She is now considering her next project carefully. “This will be my third film, and I want to take the time to choose. You spend years on a project, so it matters where you place yourself. Now I’m reflecting—and preparing for the next chapter.”
Salif Cissé
While doing an economics internship in the Big Apple, Salif Cissé discovered his true passion when he was unexpectedly called onstage at an East Village comedy club. By the time he returned to France, he was an actor.
Auditions led to touring productions, which led to bit parts — until Cissé came into his own with a lead role in Guillaume Brac’s “All Hands on Deck.”
“Brac’s films are very open, very sunny, very close to people—almost documentary-like,’ says Cissé. “That was disorienting for me, coming from theater, where you play big, defined characters. Suddenly, I was being asked to be myself, to almost do nothing—just feel. It was beautiful. I had never realized acting could be that simple.”
Cissé has since acted in two films for Arnaud Desplechin before bringing the one-two punch of “Meteors” and “Love Me Tender” to last year’s Cannes. He’s now considering film offers while keeping very active in theater.
Whatever the role, he’ll never forget the lessons he learned on his first major feature. “I used to think cinema was all about transforming into someone else,” he says. “But now I see it differently. I start from myself. I take the pieces of who I am—my habits, my blind spots, my instincts—and let the character grow from there. Eventually, the character does things I never would, and that’s where the magic happens.”
Alice Douard
For her feature debut, “Love Letters,” director Alice Douard drew deeply from her own experience of lesbian maternity.
“I started from a very specific feeling—the realization that I was going to be the mother of a child I wasn’t carrying,” she explains. “From there, I met other families and did research so the film wouldn’t be autobiographical. It begins with that intimate sensation and then goes further.”
Douard also grappled with the lack of representation she herself had seen on screen. “When I was going through this, I didn’t have any images to hold on to. There are few films about it, and in those I don’t recognize myself. Either one of the women dies, or one leaves with a man. I couldn’t understand why love wasn’t at the center.”
“Love Letters” premiered in Cannes’ Critics’ Week, connecting with viewers from all walks of life — a dream scenario for a filmmaker who sees cinema as a corrective force.
“Proposing images that don’t yet exist is a way of being present in the world,” she says. “I don’t know if it changes the world, but it educates, bears witness, and gives hope to those who come after. The idea was to show something shared by all couples, regardless of composition. What we’re doing, everyone does — it’s ordinary.”
Douard is now taking a similar approach with her second feature. “I need to reconnect with life before starting a project that will take three years,” she says. “So I’m taking it slowly.”
Guillaume Marbeck
At first, Guillaume Marbeck wanted to be a director – eventually moving to New York to pursue those goals. But he struggled abroad, and soon changed his focus to another craft.
“It wasn’t a question of English versus French, it was about vocabulary — about the actor’s language versus the director’s language, which are very specific. And when I realized I was really bad at that, I thought, well, I’m going to train as an actor so I can understand how to speak to them.”
Two years of classes paid off when he landed the lead — as Jean-Luc Godard — in Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague.” At first, he thought it was a scam. “Until they told me I had the part, I just had fun. But once I knew it was me, I got scared. Now I really had to do the work.”
That work brought him to Cannes, where icons like Quentin Tarantino and Claude Lelouch praised his performance—Tarantino even moved to tears.
“I’ve always had one dream: to make a film, in front of or behind the camera. I’ve done that in front of the camera. Directing someday would be the next dream.”
Next, Marbeck appears in Alice Winocour’s “Couture,” continuing a theme he loves: films that explore professions. “In ‘Nouvelle Vague,’ it’s directing. In this one, it’s fashion. I want to make films about Formula 1 drivers, lawyers, the works — I love discovering other lives.”
Thomas Ngijol
Known for stand-up and broad comedies, Thomas Ngijol revealed new sides of himself in 2025, first as a psychiatric careworker in the prize-winning Quebecois dramedy “Empathy,” then writing, directing, and starring in the Cameroon-set cop thriller “Untamable,” which made waves in Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
“I didn’t suddenly say, ‘Bye-bye clown, now I’m doing drama,’” he says. “At 47, as a father, as a husband, as my wife’s partner — you just follow what you feel. And that’s a beautiful message: you’re not a prisoner of anything.”
“All of these emotions have been inside me for years,” he adds. “Maybe it was modesty, maybe life, maybe I didn’t feel ready. Then one day, it just opens up.”
Ngijol remains a reliable comedic draw, but behind the camera, he wants to explore different registers. “
As a director, comedy doesn’t inspire me right now. Maybe because it’s how I express myself through words rather than the camera. What excites me now are other emotions, other stories. Art is about doing what you want. It won’t always work, sure, but you have to be happy with what you’ve created. And if it finds an audience, even better.”
Park Ji-min
Acclaimed visual artist Park Ji-min was celebrated for her screen debut in Davy Chou’s “Return to Seoul” — but acting didn’t immediately capture her.
“It was a question of legitimacy,” she says. “Suddenly, I was the lead in a feature film, and I thought, ‘That was amazing, but maybe this isn’t really my place.’ I hadn’t trained in acting, and I needed to see if I truly belonged. It took about a year. Then, ironically, it was the absence of it that made me realize, ‘Oh, I kind of want to try that again.’”
Park returned in a major way with roles in “Love Me Tender,” “The Little Sister,” and “A Private Life” — all screened at last year’s Cannes, with each project sparked by a personal appeal from its director. Given her ongoing art practice, Park expects her acting choices will continue to be guided by personal connection.
“My art gives me freedom, because my focus isn’t entirely on acting,” she explains. “I’ve found a balance between the two. I don’t depend on a director calling me—I continue my own projects, my exhibitions. That balance is a real plus, and I feel incredibly lucky for it.”
Ella Rumpf
Born in Paris and raised in Zurich, Ella Rumpf has worked across the Swiss, French, German, British, and American industries — earning acclaim for “Raw” and “Marguerite’s Theorem,” and turning heads internationally on “Succession” and “Tokyo Vice.” Last year, she popped at Cannes with Alice Douard’s “Love Letters.”
“I wouldn’t say I have a preference,” she says of the various industries. “But the U.S. is very business-oriented — big machines, structured, industrial. As an actor, you’re in charge of your work, your role, everything. In France, it’s often the opposite: an auteur with a strong vision will obsess over every detail. You’ll spend ages deciding which socks your character wears. The attention to detail is intense.”
“There’s a different relationship to acting, too,” she adds. “In the U.S., it’s a serious job, with huge responsibility. In France, it’s still about playing — on va jouer. And honestly, French sets are chaos. People everywhere, noise, no space. When I first arrived after working in Germany and the U.S., I thought, ‘How does anyone get anything done?’”
“But that chaos is brilliant,” she adds. “It creates energy—everything is imperfect and volatile. People argue, collide, experiment. It shapes a different kind of film. French films feel less programmed, more alive.”
Maybe she does have a preference after all.
Théodore Pellerin
Montreal-based Théodore Pellerin landed a gig on Quebecois television straight out of high school — and he hasn’t slowed down since. “The set became my film and acting school,” he says. “I’ve learned everything from working.”
Along the way, Pellerin has collaborated with an enviable roster of filmmakers, forging a close bond with Philippe Lesage before landing projects with Xavier Dolan, Joel Edgerton, Eliza Hittman, Philippe Falardeau and Ari Aster. The run culminated in a career high with his starring role in Pauline Loquès’s Cannes-acclaimed “Nino.”
“’Nino’ was particularly meaningful,” he says. “It felt like the right film at the right moment — a kind of passage into adulthood.”
Riding that momentum, Pellerin is already lining up a formidable follow-up year, taking the title role in Nicole Garcia’s “Milo” opposite Marion Cotillard, and shooting Tom Ford’s “Cry to Heaven” alongside Nicholas Hoult, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Hunter Schafer, Colin Firth and Adele.
“All I really want,” he adds, “is access to well-written scripts. Those are rare. When they come along—and when the people feel right—it’s enough to keep me curious and excited about acting.”
