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Cannes 2026 Raised an Interesting Question: Do International Filmmakers Still Need to Shoot in English?

Mon, 22 Jun 2026 18:46:17 GMT

I noticed a trend across several high profile Cannes films this year. A number of acclaimed international filmmakers presented films that were either widely reported as English language productions or appeared to include substantial English language dialogue, even when the stories themselves were deeply rooted in their own countries, cultures, and languages.

That raises an interesting question:

Are filmmakers increasingly choosing English language productions to solve a distribution challenge that may no longer exist?

Historically, international filmmakers seeking English speaking audiences faced difficult choices. They could rely on subtitles, traditional dubbing, or produce English language versions from the outset. While English language productions may offer broader commercial opportunities, they can also affect awards eligibility and require creative decisions driven by market realities rather than artistic considerations.

That dilemma is becoming increasingly important.

If a film's dialogue composition is primarily English, it may fall outside Academy eligibility requirements for Best International Feature Film consideration.

The irony is striking. As this year the Academy expanded the opportunity for major international festival winners to enter the Oscar conversation, a Palme d'Or winning film could potentially find itself excluded from the Best International Feature Film category because of its English language content.

Global audiences have become more comfortable consuming international content than ever before. At the same time, advances in language adaptation are creating new distribution opportunities that did not exist a decade ago.

This raises a broader industry question:

If audiences can experience an original international film in English without requiring a remake or separate English language production, does shooting in English remain the best solution for global distribution?

At Adapt Entertainment, we have spent several years working on English language adaptations of international films for a major global streaming platform. Due to confidentiality agreements, those titles cannot be publicly disclosed. However, multiple adapted films became top-performing international releases on the platform, with audience engagement significantly exceeding comparable international titles.

Audience feedback revealed an interesting pattern.

Many viewers reported they were unaware they were watching a film originally produced in another language.

That experience revealed something important: the challenge facing many international films may not be the quality of the storytelling. It may be the ability to make those stories accessible to audiences who might otherwise never watch them because of subtitles or poor dubbing.

A recent example is The Champion, the Polish German World War II drama based on the true story of Auschwitz prisoner and boxer Tadeusz "Teddy" Pietrzykowski, directed by Maciej Barczewski. The film was released last week in a new English language version across major digital platforms, including Apple TV, Prime Video, Fandango, Google TV, YouTube, and other platforms.

This Rotten Tomatoes reviewer remarked that they initially believed The Champion had been produced in English, only later discovering it had been adapted for English speaking audiences.

The original film remains intact. The original performances remain intact. The original creative vision remains intact. Yet the film is now available to audiences who otherwise may never have discovered it. For filmmakers, this creates a powerful opportunity.

A new model is emerging in which filmmakers no longer need to choose between awards eligibility and audience reach. Instead, they can preserve the original language version for festivals, awards consideration, and cultural authenticity while simultaneously making the same film accessible to English speaking audiences through a separate English language version.

One production. One cast. One creative vision. Two versions serving different audiences and distribution objectives.

In other words, filmmakers may no longer need to choose between authenticity and accessibility.

As international cinema continues to evolve, Cannes 2026 may ultimately be remembered not only for the films that premiered there, but for the larger question those films helped highlight:

In a world where audiences can increasingly access stories in multiple languages, do international filmmakers still need to shoot in English to reach English speaking audiences?

The answer may help shape the next decade of global filmmaking.

What do you think? Will international filmmakers continue shooting in English, or will a new model emerge one that preserves the original film for festivals, awards consideration, and cultural authenticity while using separate versions to reach broader global audiences?

Where have I seen this face before?

Mon, 08 Jun 2026 18:19:30 GMT

“Where have I seen this face before? ” In our continuing series, it is a question more audiences are starting to ask as international actors step into major blockbuster roles and global recognition. The truth is many of these performers have been delivering incredible work for years in films that never reached mainstream audiences. Not because of a lack of talent or storytelling, but because language barriers have kept those performances from being seen. This series highlights the familiar faces you are just now discovering and uncovers the international films that made them remarkable long before the spotlight found them.

Here is the story behind one of those familiar faces.

On Monday night at the Cannes Film Festival, audiences responded passionately to Fjord, Cristian Mungiu’s heart-wrenching family legal drama starring Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve. The film premiered at the Grand Palais and reportedly received a major standing ovation.

Reinsve returned to Cannes after last year’s success of Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier’s Norwegian drama, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes and early this year became the first Norwegian film to win the Oscar for Best International Feature.

For many international film fans, Reinsve first broke through with Trier’s The Worst Person in the World in 2021. Her performance won Best Actress at Cannes and earned her a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress. The film itself was nominated for two Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film and Best Original Screenplay.

The Worst Person in the World is a modern dramedy about the search for love, identity, and meaning in contemporary Oslo. It became one of the most acclaimed films of its year, earning a 91 Metascore and 96% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. Again, placing it among a very rare group of films to receive such high marks across both platforms. I’ll call it the 90/90 club and more articles in the future regarding this unique phenomenon.

And yet, despite that critical success, the film remained limited for many mainstream American viewers because it was in Norwegian with English subtitles. That is the larger issue, some of the world’s best performances are still being kept at a distance from broader audiences because of language barriers.

You can watch this film on Amazon Prime however it's in Norwegian with English subtitles, but you'll see from her performance and discover why she’s one of the leading actors in the world today.

That brings us back to Fjord. The film is set in Norway and tells a Norwegian-centered story, but it is directed by Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu and performed in English. It reflects a growing pattern: major international directors and actors are increasingly moving into English-language productions in order to reach wider audiences .

Reinsve will also be seen this month in another English-language film, A24’s Backrooms, starring opposite Chiwetel Ejiofor and opening in theaters on May 29th.

There are many extraordinary international actors now being recognized in the United States because their talent is undeniable. But many of their greatest performances, especially in their native-language films, are still not widely seen.

But today, international performances no longer have to be limited by subtitles. With Adapt’s technology, international films can now be experienced in English as they were originally performed with no subtitles, without compromising the script, the actor, or the integrity of the film.

2001: A Space Odyssey and the Stories Behind Great Films

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 17:52:58 GMT

That thought led me to one of the most influential science fiction films ever made: Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey . The film was so original and so far ahead of its time that I started wondering whether it had been based on a book because I couldn't remember there being one.

To understand how revolutionary 2001 was, you have to go back to the 1960s. Space travel was beginning to capture the public imagination because of the Space Race, but the idea of human beings actually walking on the Moon still seemed far-fetched to many people.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy challenged the United States to land a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. At the time, it was an ambitious goal that many considered nearly impossible.

Then, in 1966, Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek , which premiered as a weekly television series. A little-known fact is that without the support of Lucille Ball's Desilu Productions the same company behind I Love Lucy, the series might never have reached television screens. This was long before streaming platforms, prestige science fiction programming, or the massive franchise universe that Star Trek would eventually become.

It was an unusual creative experiment then, and it remains unusual today.

The collaboration produced not only one of cinema's greatest achievements but also one of the most influential science fiction stories ever told. More than half a century later, audiences are still discussing its meaning, imagery, and predictions about the future.

Perhaps that's the lesson. Whether it's a true story like The Champion, a bestselling novel like Project Hail Mary , or a short story transformed into a cinematic masterpiece like 2001: A Space Odyssey , many of the films that endure begin with a great story on the page.

Watch the clip below and listen to Arthur C. Clarke explain how he and Stanley Kubrick developed the idea and created the story behind 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Where have I seen this face before?

Fri, 24 Apr 2026 16:04:28 GMT

“Where have I seen this face before?” It is a question more audiences are starting to ask as international actors step into major blockbuster roles and global recognition. The truth is many of these performers have been delivering incredible work for years in films that never reached mainstream audiences. Not because of a lack of talent or storytelling, but because language barriers have kept those performances from being seen. This series highlights the familiar faces you are just now discovering and uncovers the international films that made them remarkable long before the spotlight found them.

Here is the story behind one of those familiar faces.

Sandra Hüller most recent appearance was being an actress in the film Project Hail Mary with Ryan Gosling that's become a big hit and recognition of her great acting skills.

What is especially interesting is that she is not American, but German. In fact, one of her most notable recent performances came in the French film Anatomy of a Fall , for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 2024.

If you really want to see where Sandra first broke through, look back to the German film subtitled in English, Toni Erdmann . The film was Germany’s official Oscar submission and went on to receive a nomination for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2017 Academy Awards.

Even more impressively, the film earned a 93 on Metacritic and a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes , placing it among a very rare group of films to receive such high marks across both platforms. Unfortunately, due to language barriers of using subtitles, very few people saw the movie.

And she is not only a talented actress she also appears to be a gifted singer and perhaps even a future director.

In Project Hail Mary , the character Eva Stratt, played by Sandra Hüller, performs a karaoke version of Harry Styles’ debut solo hit, “Sign of the Times,” while saying goodbye to her team. How did that particular song end up in the film and on its soundtrack? It turns out it was Sandra Hüller’s idea.

It's screenwriter Drew Goddard's favorite scene in the film, although he claims no credit for the Styles song choice.

"I had nothing to do with it," Goddard told Mashable in a video interview. "We knew we needed this sort of hangout scene. I call it the 'calm before the storm' scene."

Directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller suggested karaoke for the scene and Goddard recalled, just a few nights before shooting, they decided to try to get Hüller to sing in the film.

"She said, 'I'll only do it if I can do the Harry Styles song,'" Goddard said. "So, it was Sandra's choice, which is insane to think about, because it lines up so perfectly with the point of the movie. It actually says, 'breaking through the atmosphere,' for God's sake. I could not have chosen a better song. That's all Sandra. She picked it and thank God s he did."

If you want to see where she first showed off those karaoke chops, you can watch her in Toni Erdmann and check out the clip below.

You can watch this film on Amazon Prime however it's in German with English subtitles, but you'll see from her performance and discover why she’s one of the leading actors in the world today. Luckily her karaoke song is in English!

There are so many of these incredible international stars that are finally getting recognized in US today because of their incredible acting skills.

Unfortunately, many of their international films are still not being widely seen because of language barriers, and filmmakers still have to rely on subtitles and dubbing.