Cannes Film Nights 2026 at Louvre Abu Dhabi: Five Nights, Five Films, AED 30
Every now and then, the Louvre Abu Dhabi reminds you it is not just a museum. It is a cultural venue that treats cinema with the same seriousness it treats a Picasso hanging three rooms away. And for five consecutive nights in May, it is turning its auditorium into a proper film house.
Cannes Film Nights 2026, in collaboration with Institut français in the UAE, runs from 12 to 16 May. Five films. Five nights. AED 30 per screening. Five languages, five decades, one auditorium. Cannes without the flight.
The concept is simple: a curated selection of films that have screened at or been recognised by the Cannes Film Festival, shown inside a universal museum that was built to celebrate what cultures share. Cinema from France, Japan, Egypt, Latvia, and the US, all under one roof. The lineup spans languages, decades, and moods.
The Lineup
Monday, 12 May: The Count of Monte Cristo (2024)
Director: Matthieu Delaporte & Alexandre de la Patellière
Language: French with English subtitles
Duration: 178 min
Rating: 15+
Alexandre Dumas' revenge epic, reimagined for a new generation. Edmond Dantès, a young sailor falsely accused and imprisoned for 14 years in the Château d'If, escapes and reinvents himself as the wealthy Count of Monte Cristo to systematically dismantle the lives of those who betrayed him. This 2024 adaptation premiered at Cannes and became the highest-grossing French film of the year, praised for its pacing across nearly three hours and Pierre Niney's performance in the lead. It is a revenge story that earns its runtime, which is rare. Settle in.
Tuesday, 13 May: Sweet Bean (2015)
Director: Naomi Kawase
Language: Japanese with English subtitles
Duration: 113 min
Rating: PG-13
Sentaro runs a small dorayaki (pancake sandwich) shop in Tokyo with little enthusiasm and a lot of debt. Then Tokue, a 76-year-old woman, shows up asking for a job and brings with her a bean paste recipe she has spent fifty years perfecting. What unfolds is a story about purpose, dignity, and what it means to truly listen to the world around you. The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes 2015 and is adapted from Durian Sukegawa's novel. Kawase handles the material with extraordinary restraint. It is quiet and devastating in equal measure.
Wednesday, 14 May: Said Effendi (1966)
Director: Niazi Mostafa
Language: Arabic with English subtitles
Duration: 95 min
Rating: PG-13
Note: Cannes Classics selection
A golden-age Egyptian comedy selected for the Cannes Classics programme, which restores and celebrates landmark films from world cinema history. The film is a satire of social climbing and pretension in 1960s Cairo, carried by the kind of sharp comedic writing that defined Egyptian cinema's mid-century peak. If you have never experienced classic Arabic cinema on a proper screen with a proper audience, this is your entry point. The fact that it sits in this lineup alongside contemporary Cannes selections says something about how well it holds up.
Thursday, 15 May: Sentimental Value (2024)
Director: Ira Sachs
Language: English
Duration: 100 min
Rating: 18+
Ira Sachs is a filmmaker who builds entire worlds inside domestic spaces. In Sentimental Value, two adult brothers, played by Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg, inherit their mother's Manhattan apartment and proceed to unravel over what to do with it. It is about money, memory, family obligation, and the particular cruelty of siblings who know exactly where to aim. It competed in the main competition at Cannes 2024. Rated 18+ for language and themes, so this one is an adults-only evening.
Friday, 16 May: Flow (2024)
Director: Gints Zilbalodis
Language: No dialogue
Duration: 85 min
Rating: PG
A black cat wakes up in a world where the water is rising. No humans remain. It boards a sailboat already occupied by a capybara, a golden retriever, a lemur, and a secretary bird, none of whom particularly want it there. What follows is 85 minutes of animated survival story with zero dialogue, hand-crafted by Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis and a tiny team using game-engine technology. It won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, was nominated for the Academy Award, and swept nearly every animation award in between. This is the screening most likely to sell out, and it falls on the opening night of Louvre Abu Dhabi's International Museum Day programming. Plan accordingly.
Practical Details
Dates: 12-16 May 2026 (Monday to Friday)
Time: 7:00 PM each evening
Doors open: 6:30 PM
Doors close: 6:55 PM. Late entry is not guaranteed, so do not test it.
Location: Louvre Abu Dhabi Auditorium, Saadiyat Island
Screening price: AED 30 per film (VAT inclusive). No museum entry ticket required. The screenings take place after gallery hours, so you only need the film ticket. If you want to visit the galleries before the screening, that is a separate museum entry ticket (AED 70 for adults, free for under 18).
Tickets: Book via the Louvre Abu Dhabi website
A few things worth noting: Louvre Abu Dhabi is running its own International Museum Day programming from 16 to 18 May, which means the Flow screening on Friday the 16th coincides directly with the start of those celebrations. Expect Saadiyat to be noticeably busier than a regular Friday evening. If you are planning to catch Flow, give yourself extra time getting there and plan your parking ahead.
Also worth marking in the calendar: many museums across the island are expected to offer free entry for International Museum Day weekend. If you are planning a full Saadiyat visit, our complete guide to Saadiyat Cultural District covers all four museums, tickets, and logistics. Official announcements are still pending, but if last year is anything to go by, it will be confirmed shortly. We are waiting with bated breath.
Five films from five different worlds, screened inside a building that was built to celebrate what cultures share rather than what separates them. AED 30 a ticket.
