Coward by Lukas Dhont in Official Competition at Cannes Film Festival
News 09.04.2026Coward, Lukas Dhont’s third feature film, has been selected for the Official Competition at the Cannes Film Festival (12–23 May).
The announcement was made at the festival’s press conference on 9 April.
This is the third time Lukas Dhont has been selected for the Cannes Film Festival. His feature film debut, Girl (2018), was included in the Un Certain Regard section and won the Caméra d’Or for best first feature film. His next film, Close, was invited to the Official Competition in 2022 and won the Grand Prix, the most prestigious award at Cannes after the Palme d’Or. The film was nominated for the Academy Awards in 2023.
Coward tells the story of Pierre, a young Belgian soldier who wants to prove himself on the battlefield during the First World War. Behind the frontlines, he meets Francis, who is asked to find a way to boost morale.
I am deeply honored to once again take part in the competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Coward is the work of many and my most ambitious project yet. A film about love and death, creation and destruction. A film about survival and how, sometimes, even in darkness, something beautiful manages to grow. Coward is a tribute to those who, throughout the centuries, were sent to fight—and those who tried to escape it at any cost.
For Coward, Lukas Dhont brought together a number of familiar partners from Girl and Close. He co-wrote the screenplay with Angelo Tijssens. Frank Van den Eeden once again took charge of the cinematography, and Alain Dessauvage was responsible for editing.
Coward is produced by Michiel Dhont for The Reunion, the production company he founded together with Lukas Dhont. Since Close, the company has also produced Julian by Cato Kusters and co-produced, among others, Young Mothers by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne (Cannes, 2025) and A Family by Mees Peijnenburg (Berlinale, 2026).
The film is a co-production with Versus (Opus)in Belgium, Lumen in France, and Topkapi Films in the Netherlands.
The international rights to Coward are represented by The Match Factory. The film will be distributed in the Benelux by Lumière and in France by Diaphana.
Coward was produced with the support of the Flanders Audiovisual Fund (VAF). The economic fund Screen Flanders also invested in the film.
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