Russia's Supreme Court on Thursday effectively criminalized the activities of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights group Memorial, the latest step in an unrelenting crackdown on dissent and civil society organizations in the country amid its war in Ukraine.
Following a closed-door hearing, the court ruled on a petition from the Justice Ministry to designate what it called “the Memorial international civic movement” as extremist and ban its activities in Russia.
Memorial said in a statement issued earlier in the day that there is no such entity but that the ruling still “would allow the authorities to crack down on any Memorial projects, their participants and supporters.”
Memorial is one of the oldest and the most renowned Russian human rights organizations. It was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize, less than a year after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, alongside Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski, who was imprisoned at the time, and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee condemned the actions against the group, calling them “an affront to the fundamental values of human dignity and freedom of expression" and urged Russia to “cease all harassment of Memorial and its members.”
Memorial was founded in the late 1980s to ensure that the victims of the Soviet Union's political repression would be remembered, and grew to a network of smaller organizations both in Russia and abroad.
The group had been declared a “foreign agent,” a designation that brought additional government scrutiny and carried strong pejorative connotations, and over the years was ordered to pay massive fines for alleged violations of the ”foreign agent” law. Russian courts ordered its two main entities — the human rights center and the International Memorial — to shut down in December 2021.
Undeterred, the group continued to operate. In 2023, its members founded an international Memorial association in Geneva. Earlier this year, that association was banned in Russia as “undesirable,” a label that exposes anyone involved with it to prosecution.
An extremist designation puts even more pressure on the group, as involvement with extremist activities is a criminal offense in Russia punishable by long prison terms.
Court judge Vyacheslav Kirillov reads a ruling to outlaw the "international movement" Memorial as extremist in a move against Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights group in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Court judge Vyacheslav Kirillov reads a ruling to outlaw the "international movement" Memorial as extremist in a move against Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights group in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
Court judge Vyacheslav Kirillov reads a ruling to outlaw the "international movement" Memorial as extremist in a move against Nobel Peace Prize-winning rights group in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
New films by Polish filmmaker Paweł Pawlikowski, Japanese writer-director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Spain’s Pedro Almodovar will premiere at the 79th Cannes Film Festival next month.
Organizers for the South of France festival, which runs May 12-23, laid out a lineup heavy on big-name international auteurs at a news conference Thursday in Paris.
Cannes’ most sought-after slots are in its competition lineup. This year, 21 films will vie for the Palme d’Or. That includes “Fatherland,” a Cold War drama starring Sandra Hüller by Pawlikowski (“Ida,” “Cold War” ); “Sudden,” the French language debut for Hamaguchi ( “Drive My Car” ); and Almodovar’s “Bitter Christmas.”
Cannes is so far light on Hollywood releases and American filmmakers. One exception in competition is Ira Sachs' “The Man I Love,” a New York tale starring Rami Malek set during the 1980s AIDS crisis. In the Un Certain Regard sidebar, Jane Schoenbrun will unveil their follow-up to 2014’s “I Saw the TV Glow”: “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” about the making of a slasher movie. It stars Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson.
A number of former Palme winners are in the mix. That includes Romanian auteur Cristian Mungiu’s Norway-set “Fjord,” starring the recently Oscar-nominated Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan. Mungiu’s “4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days” won the Palme in 2007.
Also returning is Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose 2018 drama “Shoplifters” won the Palme. He’ll debut the sci-fi “Sheep in the Box,” about a grieving couple in the near future who bring home a humanoid boy as their son.
The specialty distributor Neon has already boarded “Fjord,” “Sheep in the Box” and “Sudden,” giving it a chance to extend its historic record of six Palme winners in a row. Last year, the Neon release “It Was Just an Accident,” by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, won the Palme.
Neon is also behind an out of competition selection in “Her Private Hell” by Nicolas Winding Refn, the “Drive” filmmaker. A thriller starring Sophie Thatcher and Charles Melton, it's Refn's first feature film since 2016's “The Neon Demon.”
The Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev is also back in the Cannes competition lineup with “Minotaur.” Zvyagintsev's last two films, “Loveless” and “Leviathan,” both debuted at Cannes and went on to land Oscar nominations.
Other competition entries include films by Asghar Farhadi (“Parallel Stories”), Lukas Dhont (“Coward”) and Lazlo Nemes (“Moulin”).
Thierry Fremaux, Cannes’ artistic director, announced the selections in a news conference alongside festival president Iris Knobloch. Fremaux said that 2,541 feature films were submitted for inclusion.
“In this moment, bringing together films and artists from around the world is not a luxury, it’s a necessity," Knobloch said. "Because when the world darkens, we lose our bearings. Showcasing films from all horizons is not a trivial act. It is defending what is most precious to humanity, its ability to dream and think freely.”
Cannes is coming off a 2025 festival that produced a number of Oscar contenders, including two best-picture nominees in Joachim Tier’s “Sentimental Value” and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent.” This year’s Cannes appears well positioned to continue the festival’s stature as the global launching pad of many of the year’s best international films, some of which are bound to show up at next year’s Oscars.
But Hollywood studios appear to be a no-show. Fremaux has said not to expect red carpet premieres like “Top Gun: Maverick” or “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” — both of which made splashy premieres in recent years. This year, Cannes announced ahead of the Paris news conference that John Travolta's directorial debut “Propeller One-Way Night Coach” will debut in the Cannes Premiere section.
“The United States will be present, but the studios will be a bit less so,” Fremaux said. “It’s important to know that when studios are less present at Cannes, it means they are generally less present with the type of cinema that used to allow them to thrive.”
Two prominent American directors will debut documentaries in special screenings: Steven Soderbergh with “John Lennon: The Last Interview” and Ron Howard with “Avedon,” about the photographer Richard Avedon.
Opening the festival, out of competition, is the 1920s French film “The Electric Kiss.” Cannes requires its opening movie to release the same week in French cinemas. And entry to its prestigious competition lineup requires theatrical distribution, a stipulation that — given France’s laws guarding theatrical windows — has excluded Netflix movies and other streaming titles since 2017.
This year, the Korean filmmaker Park Chan-wook will preside over the nine-member jury that will decide the Palme. And a pair of honorary Palmes will be handed out, to Barbra Streisand and to Peter Jackson.
Cannes film festival president Iris Knobloch, right, and Cannes film festival delegate general Thierry Fremaux attend a press conference to announce the International Cannes film festival line up for the upcoming 79th edition, Thursday, April 9, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Cannes film festival president Iris Knobloch, right, and Cannes film festival delegate general Thierry Fremaux attend a press conference to announce the International Cannes film festival line up for the upcoming 79th edition, Thursday, April 9, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
Cannes film festival president Iris Knobloch, right, and Cannes film festival delegate general Thierry Fremaux pose after a press conference to announce the International Cannes film festival line up for the upcoming 79th edition, Thursday, April 9, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
