The industry-leading Marché du Film, Cannes’s prestigious market, has reinforced its commitment to looking ahead as it gears to deliver its 2026 edition between May 12-20 in the buzzy French city. Having recently announced its first-ever Creator Economy Summit, the market has now also confirmed it will bring back last year’s AI for Talent Summit, as well as hold specialized events around innovation and immersive.
Cinando, the leading networking and database platform launched by the Marché back in 2003, was relaunched this year with “smarter tools and enhanced features.” For its upcoming edition, the market’s online platform will be migrating entirely to the new Cinando. Renamed Marché du Film by Cinando, this new online platform will “bring together online screenings, live and catch-up conference videos, and networking tools within a single, unified market environment – offering a seamless and intuitive experience for sales agents, buyers and professionals worldwide.”
The initiatives all feed into the Marché’s desire to “showcase how emerging technologies and bold storytelling approaches are reshaping creation, production, and distribution practices.” They have also been conceived as ways of maximizing industry connection and networking, both on the ground and within the market’s virtual offerings.
Courtesy of Claire LeBeau
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“We advocate innovation that serves both artistic creativity and the growth of the industry as a whole,” said the Cannes market’s Executive Director Guillaume Esmiol. “At the Marché, we are dedicated to supporting and driving innovation, from technological advances that have continuously reshaped how films are conceived, produced, and distributed, to a broader mindset that reimagines business models, partnerships, and relationships.”
The previously announced inaugural Creator Economy Summit will explore “opportunities at the intersection of traditional cinema and the creator economy.” The event taps into a broader effort by the entire Cannes ecosystem to converse with the creator industry, with TikTok having come on board as a festival sponsor back in 2022 — the first digital-media app to do so. The summit is set to present “a comprehensive overview of how the two worlds connect – from adapting digital IP into cinematic projects and scouting emerging talent, to engaging audiences that drive communities to theaters and exploring innovative marketing strategies.”
The AI for Talent Summit will return for “an enhanced edition” held over two mornings on May 15-16 and working on an invitation-only basis for top executives from film and tech. The summit will bring together these two worlds to “explore the latest real-world applications of AI in creative and business processes,” focusing on three key themes: integrating AI into production workflows, the ethical & responsible use of AI, and education. A “high-level” speaker lineup is set to be announced soon.
Courtesy of Michael Jan
Another sophomore effort, the Village Innovation will return as the main hub for Cannes Next, the Marché’s innovation-focused program. The venue will offer hands-on virtual production demonstrations on the largest VP stage ever presented at a film market, plus office spaces and a curated program of conferences. The Immersive Market will expand to the Carlton Hotel this year, as well as introduce a new demo space. It will run alongside the film festival’s Immersive Competition, which will introduce the first competition of its kind in 2026 — designed specifically for shared audience experiences in a new space able to host up to 225 participants simultaneously.
The Immersive Market will also use the new space for live demos from 150 immersive producers and catalog holders, presented to 90 leading distributors and curators. The newly-boosted Immersive Market aims to “be the most efficient platform for location-based immersive distribution, featuring high-impact pitching sessions, curated networking events, and concrete business opportunities.”
The Marché du Film 2026 runs between May 12-20, while the Cannes Film Festival runs between May 12-23.
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