Filmgate Films Co-Production Fjord Wins the Palme d’Or at Cannes 2026
Cristian Mungiu’s latest film receives the festival’s highest honour
Filmgate Films announces that Fjord, written and directed by Cristian Mungiu, was awarded the Palme d’Or at the
2026 Cannes Film Festival.
With Fjord, Filmgate Films receives its first Palme d’Or while further strengthening its long-standing presence at Cannes, with six selected projects in eight years — four of them in the main competition.
Starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve, Fjord follows two neighbouring families in a small Norwegian village whose relationship gradually becomes strained as differing views on tradition, parenting, and individual freedom come into conflict. Based on Cristian Mungiu’s research into real-life cases, the film explores themes of social division and cultural identity.
Filmgate and Cristian Mungiu
The project continues Filmgate Films’ longstanding collaboration with Mungiu, following R.M.N. (Cannes 2022) and Traffic, and builds on a partnership that began with Lemonade, Dir: Ioana Uricaru (Berlin 2018). Fjord is Mungiu’s sixth feature as writer-director and his first to be developed as a multilingual production, with dialogue spanning Norwegian, English, Swedish, and Romanian.
Filmgate is part of a Swedish collaboration as co-producers of the film
The production brings together a broad European partnership, with Filmgate Films and Garagefilm International co-producing alongside Film i Väst and international companies across France, Denmark, and Finland. The project highlights Filmgate Films’ role of navigating complex co-productions within the European financing landscape.
Filmgate Films remains focused on developing and co-producing projects with leading international filmmakers, combining creative collaboration with production and financing expertise across European markets.
Filming
Shot on location along the Norwegian coastline from Ålesund to the Stranda fjord in early 2025, the film is based on Mungiu’s long-term documentation of several real cases that reached the press, examining the clash between ‘progressist’ and ‘traditional’ views on life, education, and values.
More information
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Writer/Director: Cristian Mungiu
Producer: Cristian Mungiu, Mobra Films
Executive Producer: Tudor Reu
Co-producers: Filmgate Films, Film i Väst, Garagefilm International, Why Not Productions, Eye Eye Pictures, Snowglobe, AAMU Film Company -
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Our sister company Filmgate VFX provided the film’s visual effects, supporting the storytelling with a narrative-driven approach aligned with the film’s naturalistic style.
The company continues to build on its established presence at A-list festivals—most notably Cannes—with visual effects work in projects such as Antichrist, Melancholia, Force Majeure (Turist), A Ciambra, The Apprentice, The Whistlers, and Urchin.
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PR
Beatrice Vezzoli
Beatrice.vezzoli@filmgate.se
+46 (0) 73 910 88 44
Office
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Filmgate Films at Cannes