Cannes Lions, the world's biggest gathering for the advertising and marketing industry, opens on the Croisette today, bringing thousands of delegates and a run of high-profile guests to the city for five days of awards, talks and brand activations.
The 73rd edition of the festival runs from Monday, June 22 to Friday, June 26 at the Palais des Festivals, with the programme opening with a keynote from AB InBev on the Lumière Theatre stage at 10am. More than 350 brands and 550 agencies are expected to bring around 13,000 trade visitors to Cannes over the week, with judges sifting through more than 28,000 entries across categories from film and design to PR and data.
Among this year's headline guests are media icon Oprah Winfrey, who will receive the festival's LionHeart Award recognising individuals who use their influence to create positive social change, alongside actress and producer Priyanka Chopra Jonas, fashion designer Stella McCartney and Formula 1 driver George Russell.
France holds this year's Creative Country of the Year title, putting French agencies and brands under a brighter spotlight than usual throughout the week. Artificial intelligence is also a major theme of the 2026 programme, with new award categories recognising collaboration between human creativity and AI, alongside organisers tightening entry verification rules following recent industry debate over AI-generated submissions.
For Cannes itself, the festival means a week of full hotels, packed restaurants and a transformed Croisette, as brand activations, beach takeovers and pop-up venues line the seafront from the Palais out towards the Old Port. Local businesses typically see one of their busiest weeks of the summer, with the surge in visitor numbers extending well beyond the industry crowd itself.
The Cannes Lions Awards take place nightly at the Lumière Theatre through the week, building to the festival's final day on Friday, June 26.