Ryusuke Hamaguchi makes gentle, quiet, long films. And he might win the Palme d'Or

CANNES, France (AP) — The Cannes Film Festival is not a place that’s conducive to taking your time. Festivalgoers rush frantically between screenings. The protocol department enforces precisely timed red carpet premieres. Standing ovations are clocked.

But one of the most lauded films of this year’s Cannes is a patiently plotted, sensitively told three-hour drama about giving people the time they deserve.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden” has been one of the most widely acknowledged knockouts of the festival — in part because of how much it cultivates and nurtures its own gentle rhythm. For anyone who feels life may be moving too fast, the ironically titled “All of a Sudden” may be welcome recalibration.

“I face the same issues,” Hamaguchi, the Japanese filmmaker, said in an interview. “Just living and working in a society like the one we live in today, we all feel this. It’s about not having the time and the availability to give our interest to others. To find that time, we have to be conscious about it.”

Hamaguchi spoke over coffee on a quiet morning in Cannes. His manner is humble and reflective, but he also has a steely determination. You would have to make such sprawling humane movies that defy convention. His three-hour 2021 opus, “Drive My Car,” tenderly accrued such power that it became an international sensation, landing four Oscar nominations and becoming the first Japanese film ever nominated for best picture.

In “All of a Sudden,” which Neon will release in the U.S. later this year, Hamaguchi’s story could be a metaphor for his own quietly radical cinema.

Virginie Efira plays Marie-Lou Fontaine, who leads a Paris elderly care facility that's trying to instruct its workers in Humanitude, a program emphasizing personal, compassionate care for residents. It prioritizes things like looking residents in the eye and, yes, spending more time with them.

But not everyone is on board. There are realities to deal with for the hard-working staff that can make the Humanitude methods more idealistic than practical. Through a random encounter, Marie-Lou meets a theater director, Marie Morisaki (Tao Okamoto) whose moving play includes a role for a young man with a developmental disability (Kodai Kurosaki).

When Marie-Lou and Marie meet, their connection is immediately deep and their conversation continues not just into the night but into the following day. Their evolving relationship and the changing atmosphere of the facility gracefully move “All of a Sudden” toward something hopeful and profound about the possibility of real connection.

“My own values and thoughts around filmmaking come into the film,” grants Hamaguchi. “I first learned about Humanitude in a different context and I decided to work within the field of caregiving. But when I started to research about it, I realized there were so many shared issues in common with the film industry.”

While Hamaguchi is a well-traveled movie watcher — in conversation, he praised John Cassavetes and the Nicholas Ray Western “Johnny Guitar” — he’s resistant to some of the plot mechanics that tend to reflexively dictate many mainstream movies.

“I rely very much on my discomfort,” explains Hamaguchi. “Storytelling as an action, you’re sort of forcing certain things to happen to make an interesting film. Oftentimes, when I watch other films, they say this is how it is and continue to push the plot forward. I find that to be uncomfortable.”

Just as abuse might occur at an elderly care facility, Hamaguchi notes young film crew members might be treated harshly. He strives for an approach to moviemaking closer to the Humanitude ethos.

“There are so many parts of the film industry where the system is built in a way that doesn’t treat actors as people,” he says. “They’re seen as people who prepare their emotions and then bring that emotion to the set. What I want to record is not the prepared emotions but the emotions that arise out of reacting with each other. For that to happen, it’s important to have time.”

Hamaguchi spent five months shooting “All of a Sudden” in an elderly care facility in Paris. Many of the residents appear as extras in the movie. Asked if this proximity to the residents reframed anything for Hamaguchi, he pauses to consider.

“The residents have a quiet acceptance of what is to come,” Hamaguchi says. “It’s hard to say whether this experience changed my thoughts around death and illness. Yet I do have this belief that despite what's to come, no matter how definitive, we can always find other ways to live or find happiness.”

Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi poses for portrait photographs for the film 'All of a Sudden' during the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 18, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Director Ryûsuke Hamaguchi poses for photographers at the photo call for the film 'All of a Sudden' during the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Virginie Efira, from left, director Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Tao Okamoto pose for photographers at the photo call for the film 'All of a Sudden' during the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi poses for portrait photographs for the film 'All of a Sudden' during the 79th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Monday, May 18, 2026. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 20, 2026--

Global data center markets are entering a new phase of expansion defined not simply by growth, but by increasingly strategic and selective development, according to Cushman & Wakefield’s 2026 Global Data Center Market Comparison report. For the first time, Dallas ranked as the No. 1 primary data center market in the world, followed by Atlanta (2), Virginia (3), Columbus (4) and Johor (5). Austin-San Antonio and West Texas led the secondary and tertiary market rankings, underscoring Texas’ growing importance as a large-scale AI infrastructure hub.

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Driven by accelerating AI adoption, cloud computing demand and digital infrastructure investment, global capacity under construction approached 31.7 gigawatts (GW) in 2025, more than doubling from 12.5GW reported in the prior edition of the report. At the same time, developers, occupiers and investors are facing intensifying constraints tied to power availability, land use, permitting timelines and growing regulatory scrutiny.

“The global data center industry has entered a period of managed growth,” said John McWilliams, Head of Data Center Insights at Cushman & Wakefield. “Demand fundamentals remain extraordinarily strong, but the industry is no longer operating in an environment of unconstrained expansion. Power delivery timelines, land availability, community sentiment and regulation are now playing a much larger role in determining where and how data centers get built.”

The report analyzes 107 global markets across 24 variables tied to commercial real estate fundamentals, power infrastructure, development activity, regulation and operational risk and provides a more forward looking approach to evaluate market dynamics than previous editions.

Americas Continue to Dominate Global Development Activity

The Americas remain the center of global data center development activity, accounting for approximately 80% of all capacity currently under construction worldwide.

Virginia maintained its position as the world’s largest data center market with 11.3GW of operational capacity, while Texas emerged as one of the industry’s fastest-growing and most scalable regions as large scale data center development activity expands into numerous parts of the state.

The report highlights West Texas as a rapidly growing AI infrastructure hub, with 2.9GW currently under construction, exceeding the entire amount of capacity underway across the EMEA region.

“The scale of development occurring across parts of the U.S. is unprecedented from a commercial real estate perspective,” McWilliams said. “Developers are increasingly prioritizing markets that can provide scalable land, reliable power infrastructure and a regulatory environment supportive of long-term expansion.”

Across the Americas, preleasing activity remains exceptionally strong. Approximately 89% of capacity currently under construction is already pre-committed when hyperscale self-build activity is included, underscoring continued imbalance between supply and demand.

The report also notes that planned capacity across the Americas increased more than fourfold year-over-year, rising from 46.1GW in 2024 to 191.3GW by the end of 2025.

Power Availability Continues to be a Defining Commercial Real Estate Variable

According to the report, access to power has remained one of the defining variables shaping global data center development strategy.

Globally, average power delivery timelines for new large-load requests now stand at 4.4 years, with timelines extending to approximately five years across both the Americas and EMEA.

As a result, developers are increasingly pursuing powered land opportunities, integrating private generation into projects and expanding into secondary and tertiary markets where infrastructure constraints may be less severe.

“The industry’s focus has shifted from simply securing land to securing deliverable power,” said McWilliams. “That dynamic is fundamentally reshaping data center real estate strategy worldwide.”

The report also identifies growing divergence between markets able to support long-term AI infrastructure expansion and those facing mounting regulatory, infrastructure or community-related barriers to growth.

About the Report

The 2026 Global Data Center Market Comparison evaluates 107 global markets using 24 variables across market fundamentals, terrestrial considerations, power infrastructure and political/regulatory conditions. The report examines operational capacity, development pipelines, vacancy, absorption, cloud presence, land availability, power delivery timelines and other factors influencing global data center development decisions.

The full report can be found here.

About Cushman & Wakefield

Cushman & Wakefield (NYSE: CWK) is a leading global commercial real estate services firm for occupiers and investors with approximately 53,000 employees in over 350 offices and nearly 60 countries. In 2025, the firm reported revenue of $10.3 billion across its core service lines of Services, Leasing, Capital markets, and Valuation and other. Built around the belief that Better never settles, the firm receives numerous industry and business accolades for its award-winning culture. For additional information, visit www.cushmanwakefield.com.

Top cities for data centers as ranked by Cushman & Wakefield's 2026 Global Data Center Market Comparison