Minotaur Wins Cannes Grand Prix, France’s Oscar Entry — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Minotaur premiered at Cannes, won the Grand Prix and was later selected for Telluride, Toronto, New York and the BFI London Film Festival.
- Minotaur received several Gotham nominations, including Best International Feature, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay.
- France submitted Minotaur as its Best International Feature Film entry for the 99th Academy Awards.
- Mubi will release Minotaur in U.S. theaters on November 20, 2026; mk2 handles international sales and Films du Losange distributes the film in France.
- Dmitriy Mazurov plays company director Gleb, whose seemingly perfect life unravels because he suspects his wife, played by Iris Lebedeva, of having an affair—not because of the conflict.
- Minotaur draws on 2022 Russia, where provincial businessmen confront worker conscription, financial contributions to the war effort and the implications of the invasion of Ukraine.
- Andrey Zvyagintsev co-wrote Minotaur with Semen Liashenko as his sixth feature, his first since Loveless in 2017; Loveless won Cannes’s Jury Prize and received an Oscar nomination.
Why it matters: France has submitted Minotaur in the Best International Feature Film category at the 99th Academy Awards, giving the film national backing while Zvyagintsev arrives with Loveless’s prior Oscar nomination. Three Gotham nominations and Mubi’s November 20, 2026 U.S. release broaden its visibility beyond Cannes.
Ask SkimNews
