Weekly Digest: 05.25.2026
Weekly Digest For Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention For The Week Of 05.25.2026
Introduction
This is your weekly digest for recent film industry news that caught my attention for the week of 05.25.2026.
Recent Film Industry News That Caught My Attention
The 2026 Cannes Film Festival has come and gone, and Neon’s Palme d’Or streak remains intact after what sounded like a very tight race between All Of A Sudden, The Black Ball, Fatherland, Minotaur, and eventual winner Fjord. Neon has now won the Palme seven straight times, and I’m already sensing some backlash bubbling up over it. Honestly, I got tired of the streak a couple of years ago myself, but the longer it continues, the more detractors it’s going to create. I’ve seen some people angrily arguing that audiences and film fans shouldn’t treat Neon’s streak as something to root for or against because, at the end of the day, the films themselves as art matter more than whatever studio logo is attached to them. That’s a worthwhile thought in theory, but the problem is that Cannes IS a competition. And when one studio goes on a run like this, people are naturally going to start reacting to them the same way sports fans react to a dynasty. If a team keeps winning championships year after year, people eventually start rooting against them. That’s just human nature. If people don’t want it to devolve into that kind of discourse, then Cannes would basically have to stop framing itself as a competition entirely, and that obviously isn’t happening. Until then, and especially with Neon themselves openly flexing the streak, people are going to keep talking about it until somebody finally breaks it. At this point, I half-jokingly think Cannes should just tag itself “sponsored by Neon.”
As for Cannes winner Fjord itself, the win is interesting because the movie already seems to be generating some divisive discourse online over its subjects, while other contenders like All Of A Sudden, The Black Ball, Fatherland, and Minotaur are getting talked up as possible Best Picture contenders. My gut says two or maybe three of those five major Cannes titles ultimately make the Oscar lineup, but Fjord definitely seems more polarizing than the others right now. But Neon has good experience dealing with these prickly auter films and even got Triangle Of Sadness into Best Picture. It’ll be really interesting to see how non-Cannes crowds react to these films once they start rolling out publicly. I’ll have more to say about the fallout from Cannes on the upcoming podcast episode.
The Odyssey has recently come under some truly ridiculous backlash from the usual predictable crowd, led by Elon Musk, who almost certainly has never even read the source material but has decided that casting a Black woman as Helen of Troy is somehow an offense against morality itself. The same man who oversaw millions in cuts to life-saving programs and his merry band of incels online have even mass-disliked the film’s trailer on YouTube. Keep in mind that Helen of Troy was not a real person, and unless you take certain pseudo-archaeological theories seriously, there’s no concrete evidence The Iliad ever even happened. Also keep in mind that the mythology of The Odyssey includes witches, gods and goddesses, sea serpents, a trip into Hades, and a literal man-eating cyclops, but apparently we’re supposed to be outraged over armor designs or casting choices. And apparently we’re also supposed to ignore how gorgeous Lupita Nyong’o is. I’d launch ships toward Troy to get her back too. Nyong’o recently responded to the controversy in an interview with Elle, saying, “This is a mythological story. I’m very supportive of Chris’ intention with it and with the version of this story that he is telling. Our cast is representative of the world. I’m not spending my time thinking of a defense. The criticism will exist whether I engage with it or not. You can’t perform beauty.” I’ll have more to say about this on the upcoming podcast episode, because this whole thing feels like a deliberate attempt to sink the movie before anyone has even seen it.
Netflix seems to be continuing to wave the white flag on giving their event films proper theatrical windows, as they’ve now announced that The Adventures Of Cliff Booth will shift from a summer release to a Thanksgiving release, complete with an exclusive two-week IMAX run before hitting the actual streaming app around Christmas. The announcement immediately made me wonder if Netflix is positioning the film as one of their top awards priorities. But following their pickup of The Black Ball, it’ll be interesting to see how Cliff Booth is ultimately received and whether it actually becomes a major contender or not.
The Daniels, the duo behind the Best Picture-winning masterpiece Everything Everywhere All At Once, have reportedly been having some trouble locking down the lead role for their next film after Ryan Gosling, who had been circling the project, had to bow out due to scheduling conflicts.
Now it seems Matt Damon may be stepping in to replace him. There’s still no word on what the movie is even about, and the deal with Damon isn’t final, but after their last film turned out to be such a masterpiece, I’ll be seated regardless.
Park Chan-wook’s next film, said to be a western-set revenge story about a sheriff and doctor hunting down bandits, is absolutely loaded with an all-star cast that includes Matthew McConaughey, Pedro Pascal, Austin Butler, and Decision To Leave star Tang Wei. In a major coup, the new Warner Brothers indie division Clockwork will be distributing the film. I can’t help but wonder if, after years of the Academy overlooking him, this will finally be the movie that gets Park the industry recognition he deserves.
In a major surprise twist, Paramount is reportedly eyeing producing a The Godfather Part IV, which would reportedly follow Connie, Vito Corleone’s only daughter. I’d love to be proven wrong, but this sounds like potential disaster in the making and only further shows how short-sighted Paramount’s leadership under the Ellisons continues to be, as they seem more focused on pumping out sequels than taking actual creative risks. This news really sounds like something one would make a parody of in regard to big corporate studios greenlighting no new ideas.
Paul Schrader, the man who has written and directed some of the greatest films in the cinematic canon, but who has also unfortunately proven himself to be a creep with disturbing allegations looming over his head, did himself absolutely no favors by publicly admitting that he’d been talking to AI girlfriends and apparently managed to creep even them out. Schrader confessed, “Out of a desire to understand male/female interaction in our matrix, I procured an online AI girlfriend. What a disappointment. I tried to probe her programming, the boundaries of explicitness, the degree she has knowledge of her creation and so forth. She fell into evasive patterns, redirecting me to her programming. When I persisted, she terminated our conversation.” This man truly gives no fucks, and apparently even fake women are tired of his behavior.
This Past Weekend At The Box Office
Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu crossed the hundred million mark at the box office this past weekend and appears on track to make decent-ish money, though nowhere near the heights of most Star Wars films. There are rumors the movie would need to make around half a billion dollars to turn a real profit, and frankly, I don’t think it has the legs to get there. Critics were mixed on the film, while audiences were much more forgiving. Among critics, it earned a 62% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 53 on Metacritic. Audiences gave it an 88% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.2 on Letterboxd, a 7.1 on IMDb, and an A- CinemaScore. You can read my full review of the movie, but I was definitely a bigger fan of this than most of my colleagues in the film criticism space.
Meanwhile, Amazon had its own TV-series-turned-feature-film release with Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan: Ghost War. This one didn’t hit theaters and instead went straight to Prime Video. The film received a pretty cold reception from both critics and audiences. Critics gave it a 44% on Rotten Tomatoes and just a 38 on Metacritic. Audiences weren’t much kinder, with a 41% on the Popcornmeter, a 2.6 on Letterboxd, and a 5.8 on IMDb. Overall, a pretty poorly received movie, and while I felt it failed to live up to the quality of the series it followed up on, I still liked it just enough to land on the positive side. Clearly, though, I was in the minority with this one.
I Love Boosters, Boots Riley’s sophomore effort, received a pretty lackluster showing at the box office despite Neon pulling out a lot of stops to advertise the film and reportedly hoping it could become a sneaky mid-year hit that gained momentum come awards season. Regardless of the underwhelming box office performance, the film has been well received by both critics and audiences, though the latter don’t seem quite as wowed by it as critics are. Critics gave it a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 70 on Metacritic. Audiences landed at a 72% on the Popcornmeter, a 3.8 on Letterboxd, a 7.2 on IMDb, and a B CinemaScore. It seems like the movie connected more strongly with younger crowds than with other demographics. I still haven’t seen this one yet, but even if it ends up being one of my favorites of the year, this feels like the kind of movie destined to become a cult classic down the line rather than a major awards-season powerhouse.
Tuner, Black Bear’s pickup from last year’s fall festival circuit, ended up doing pretty well at the specialty box office in its limited release. It’s been a hit with both critics and audiences, earning a 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 74 on Metacritic from critics, while audiences gave it a 3.7 on Letterboxd and a 7.4 on IMDb. I caught this one after missing an in-person screening but later getting access to an online screener, and it’s absolutely a candidate to make my Best of the Year list. Highly recommend folks seek this one out.
And finally, Netflix dropped a new straight-to-streaming release with Ladies First, a movie that made virtually no splash whatsoever and has been met with rough reactions from both critics and audiences. Critics gave it a disastrous 18% on Rotten Tomatoes alongside a 41 on Metacritic. Audiences were slightly kinder with a 68% Popcornmeter score, but it still sits at just a 2.4 on Letterboxd and a 5.8 on IMDb. Personally, I barely liked this one enough to come away mildly positive on it, but it’s pretty clear most people saw this as a complete disaster.
This Next Weekend At The Box Office
The biggest release of the upcoming weekend will be A24’s Backrooms, based on the iconic online horror series and starring Renate Reinsve and Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Meanwhile, the counter-programming for the “Dad movie” crowd will be Focus Features’ Pressure, centered on the 72-hour lead-up to D-Day for then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower, with Brendan Fraser in the role.
John Carney also has another songwriter-focused movie coming out with Power Ballad, starring Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas as rival songwriters battling over the rights to a song. It’ll be one of those staggered releases, so it may not hit your local theater on opening weekend.
And outside of the box office and into your homes, John Travolta has his directorial debut, Propeller One-Way Night Coach, which premiered at Cannes, about a young boy’s flight with his mother, heading straight to Apple TV+.
What Else Is On My Mind
Apologies for this week’s digest being a day late. Memorial Day weekend was not a restful one for me, and I didn’t feel comfortable publishing anything during the holiday. Because of that, I pushed both the weekly digest and the podcast back a day from my usual release schedule for each. I hope everyone else had a far more peaceful and relaxing Memorial Day weekend while reflecting than I did.
You know, I’m far from the biggest NASCAR fanatic, I couldn’t really tell you much of anything about the sport, but even I knew who Kyle Busch was, and news of his tragic passing at just 41 years old hit hard. A sudden onset of sepsis, apparently stemming from a severe case of pneumonia, is terrifying to hear about. Having dealt with pneumonia multiple times during my childhood because of my asthma, which took years to get under control, it makes the whole thing feel even scarier and more personal. The man was only a few years older than I am, too. Since becoming a dad, I’ve definitely become more sentimental about family and children, and my heart breaks for Busch’s family as they try to navigate such a shocking and sudden loss of their husband and father.