The complete list of contenders for the 2026 Lumière Awards is now official. The nominations highlight the best in French-language cinema from the past year and set the stage for a major event in Paris this January.
François Ozon’s black-and-white adaptation of Albert Camus’s The Stranger leads the field with a total of six nominations. These include the top categories of Best Film, Best Director, and Best Actor. Close behind is American director Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, a tribute to French film history, which earned five nominations. The awards are voted on by a large body of international journalists and are considered France’s equivalent to the Golden Globes.
Full List of Nominees for Every Category
The 31st Lumière Awards will honor achievements across fourteen categories, from major awards like Best Film to technical recognition for music and cinematography. Here is the complete breakdown of all the nominees.
Best Film
- Case 137 (Dominik Moll)
- The Stranger (François Ozon)
- The Great Arch (Stéphane Demoustier)
- Mektoub My Love: Canto Due (Abdellatif Kechiche)
- Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)
Best Direction
- Stéphane Demoustier – The Great Arch
- Abdellatif Kechiche – Mektoub My Love: Canto Due
- Richard Linklater – Nouvelle Vague
- Dominik Moll – Case 137
- François Ozon – The Stranger
Best Actress
- Léa Drucker – Case 137
- Jodie Foster – A Private Life
- Isabelle Huppert – The Richest Woman In The World
- Vicky Krieps – Love Me Tender
- Mélanie Thierry – Mariana’s Room
Best Actor
- Swann Arlaud – La Condition
- Claes Bang – The Great Arch
- Laurent Lafitte – The Richest Woman in the World
- Alexis Manenti – The Mohican
- Benjamin Voisin – The Stranger
Best Screenplay
- Stéphane Demoustier – The Great Arch
- Holly Gent, Vince Palmo, Michèle Halberstadt – Nouvelle Vague
- Pauline Loquès – Nino
- Dominik Moll, Gilles Marchand – Case 137
- François Ozon – The Stranger
International Stars and Rising Talents Recognized
The nominee list features a notable mix of global stars and new faces breaking into the industry. In the Best Actress category, American icon Jodie Foster is nominated for her role in A Private Life, where she plays a psychiatrist investigating a potential murder. She competes against celebrated French actors like Isabelle Huppert and Léa Drucker.
The Best Actor category sees Danish star Claes Bang nominated for his portrayal of architect Johan Otto von Spreckelsen in The Great Arch. He is up against French talents such as Benjamin Voisin, who plays the lead role of Meursault in The Stranger.
The awards also spotlight new performers. The Female Revelation category includes Jessica Pennington for Mektoub My Love: Canto Due and Bella Kim for Winter in Sokcho. The Male Revelation nominees feature Guillaume Marbeck for his role as Jean-Luc Godard in Nouvelle Vague and Théodore Pellerin for Nino.
Animated and Documentary Features in Competition
Five films are competing for the award for Best Animated Film. The nominees are:
- Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (Liane-Cho Han and Maïlys Vallade)
- Arco (Ugo Bienvenu)
- My Life In Versailles (Nathaniel H’Limi and Clémence Madeleine-Perdrillat)
- A Magnificent Life (Sylvain Chomet)
- A Boat In The Garden (Jean-François Laguionie)
Both Little Amélie or the Character of Rain and Arco are also nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, highlighting their international appeal. Last year’s winner in this category, Flow, went on to win both the Golden Globe and the Academy Award.
The Best Documentary category presents a diverse selection of non-fiction work. The nominees include Whispers in the Woods by Vincent Munier, Tell Her That I Love Her by Romane Bohringer, and the historical investigation Sarkozy – Gaddafi: the Scandal of Scandals by Yannick Kergoat.
Awards Ceremony and Voting Details
The 31st Lumière Awards ceremony is scheduled for Sunday, January 18, 2026. The event will be held at the Arab World Institute in Paris. The timing coincides with Unifrance’s Rendez-Vous in Paris, a key industry event that brings international press to the city for interviews with French film talent.
The winners are decided by the Académie des Lumières, which is composed of international press members based in Paris and representing 36 countries worldwide. This voting body of journalists is what draws the comparison to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globes.
Other notable categories include Best First Film, with nominees like Louise Hémon’s The Girl in the Snow and Pauline Loquès’s Nino, and Best International Coproduction, which features works by acclaimed directors such as Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value and Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab.
François Ozon recently reflected on the differences between the French and American film systems, stating, “When you are used to working in the French system with final cut, the American way can be hard.”
