Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2026

AB InBev will open the 2026 Cannes Lions programme, delivering a keynote on the Lumiere Theatre stage at 10:00 AM on Monday June 22. Marcel Marcondes, Global CMO of AB InBev, headlines the opening session as AB InBev takes the Creative Marketer of the Year title.

Oprah Winfrey is the 2026 Cannes LionHeart recipient. She is scheduled to speak on the Lumiere Theatre stage at 10:00 AM on Tuesday June 23 and will receive the LionHeart Award that same evening. The recognition reflects her long-standing impact across media, philanthropy and culture.

Apple's Eddy Cue has been named Cannes Lions 2026 Entertainment Person of the Year. Cue will speak at the Palais on Monday June 22 in a fireside chat with F1: The Movie producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The session covers the creative and commercial thinking behind Apple TV+, from its first original releases to its current position as one of the most critically respected studios in television and film.

Cannes Lions has named agency icon Susan Credle as the 2026 Lion of St. Mark honoree. The lifetime achievement award recognises Credle's remarkable career and contribution to the industry. The Lions of St Mark Seminar with Susan Credle takes place on Monday June 22 at 11:15 AM in the Debussy Theatre.

The Awards will introduce the Creative Brand Lion as a new category, recognising breakthrough creativity at the brand level alongside a number of evolutions to existing categories. This is the first new top-level Lions category in several years.

The inaugural LIONS Sport programme, in partnership with SPORT BEACH, will explore what is driving growth in the rapidly evolving sports marketing ecosystem. Tennis Australia's Britt Wickes and Roddy Campbell will analyse how the Australian Open is using entertainment and culture to pull younger audiences, while Brandon Snow from RedBird Capital Partners will reveal who is scoring the biggest sports marketing deals and how.

Cannes Lions Deconstructed is a newly introduced stream that will feature a live wrap-up of the Festival on Friday June 26. It will present an early-access, onstage version of the annual Cannes Lions Wrap-Up Report, highlighting key trends, major talking points, jury insights and learnings from the Festival.

France's selection as Country of the Year reflects its long-term dedication to creativity across advertising, fashion, craft, tech, culture and commerce.

The programme spans six content streams: Insights and Trends, Innovation Unwrapped, The Creativity Toolbox, Talent and Culture, Creative Impact, and the new Cannes Lions Deconstructed. The programme also includes three dedicated programmes: LIONS Sport, LIONS Creators and LIONS B2B.

Co-curated with Contagious, this stream explores the cultural and strategic shifts redefining the industry. Alex Weller from Patagonia will examine the tension between values and scale, while eBay CEO Jamie Iannone and Stella McCartney will explore how circular commerce is reshaping creative industries.

Focusing on the technologies and transformations shaping the future, this stream brings together pioneers from across tech and creativity. Aude Gandon of The Estee Lauder Companies and Nicola Mendelsohn of Meta will explore using AI to decode why certain ideas endure, while Demis Hassabis from Google DeepMind will join a fireside chat on the future of creativity.

Sir John Hegarty will present his session Stop Working in Advertising: To Engage You Need to Entertain at 11:15 AM in the Debussy Theatre. The stream also includes a live debate on whether creative taste can be objective, with speakers including David Kolbusz, Lynsey Atkin, Richard Brim and Chaka Sobhani.

Centred on people and creative leadership, this stream examines how organisations cultivate talent and culture. Takeshi Sano from dentsu reflects on 125 years of innovation and impact. Global roundtables featuring industry voices from F5 Shanghai, Quiet Storm and Jungle Kid bring together perspectives on the creative landscape across Asia and LATAM.

Co-curated with WARC, this stream focuses on effectiveness and measurable impact. Mark Ritson, Founder of MiniMBA, and Byron Sharp of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute will present five fundamental marketing truths. The CMOs in the Spotlight series brings together Zena Arnold of Sephora US and Jill Kramer of Mastercard to discuss how creativity drives business growth.

LIONS Creators, in partnership with Adobe and now in its third year, blends networking with content, featuring Mel Robbins on turning ideas into movements and Dhar Mann alongside Shopify's Jessica Williams and Gap's Fabiola Tores on building billion-view content ecosystems. Steven Bartlett and Adobe's David Wadhwani will share insight into how AI is reshaping who gets to build, lead and scale brands.

LIONS B2B, in partnership with LinkedIn, explores the evolving landscape of business marketing, with LinkedIn CMO Jessica Jensen and ServiceNow CMO Colin Fleming discussing how they connect creativity and business growth in the boardroom.

The inaugural LIONS Sport programme runs in partnership with SPORT BEACH, exploring the business of competition across sports marketing deals, fan engagement strategy and how sports properties are using entertainment and culture to reach new audiences.

The Lumiere Theatre hosts the headline keynote programme across all five days, including the AB InBev opening keynote on June 22, the Oprah Winfrey LionHeart seminar on June 23, the Eddy Cue and Jerry Bruckheimer fireside chat, and the major daily plenary sessions throughout the week.

The Debussy Theatre hosts the Creative Impact and Creativity Toolbox streams, including the Susan Credle Lion of St. Mark seminar on June 22 at 11:15 AM, the Mark Ritson and Byron Sharp joint session, and Sir John Hegarty's session on entertainment versus advertising.

The Innovation Unwrapped stream hosts the Demis Hassabis fireside chat on the future of creativity and sessions on AI from Meta's Nicola Mendelsohn and The Estee Lauder Companies' Aude Gandon.

Each evening of the Festival, the Lions Awards shows recognise the best creative work in the world across different categories. The 2026 edition introduces the Creative Brand Lion as a new category. Grand Prix winners are announced throughout the week, with the Titanium Lions and Grand Prix for Good awarded on the final evening.

LIONS Sport runs in partnership with SPORT BEACH, a dedicated outdoor venue on the Croisette bringing together the sports marketing community alongside the main Festival programme.

Major brands including Google, Meta, Amazon, Spotify, TikTok, LinkedIn and WPP run branded beach and venue activations along the Croisette throughout the week. UTA Beach debuts the agency's first Creator Lounge at Cannes, a dedicated VIP space for creators with more than 70 creator clients across sports, fashion, food, lifestyle and news, including Mel Robbins, Paris Hilton, Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Karlie Kloss.

The Streaming pass connects delegates to the Festival's most inspiring moments from anywhere in the world, providing access to talks on demand, Awards Shows and live-streamed sessions.

The combination of the Lions Awards, live judging sessions and more than 150 hours of content across six streams gives creative and brand teams a concentrated annual view of what great work looks like and why it works. The new Creative Brand Lion adds a direct benchmark for brand-level creative ambition.

The CMOs in the Spotlight series featuring Zena Arnold and Jill Kramer, the Creative Impact stream co-curated with WARC, and keynotes from Mark Ritson, Byron Sharp and Marc Pritchard give marketing leaders a direct feed of the strategic thinking shaping the discipline globally.

The LIONS Creators programme, Steven Bartlett and Adobe's session on AI and brand building, and the creator-focused activations along the Croisette give founders and independent creatives a direct connection to the commercial side of the creator economy.

The Lion of St. Mark seminar with Susan Credle, the dentsu CEO keynote and the full Creativity Toolbox and Talent and Culture streams give agency leaders the context they need to understand where the industry is heading and how to position their organisations within it.

The Innovation Unwrapped stream, anchored by Demis Hassabis of Google DeepMind and sessions from Meta and The Estee Lauder Companies, gives technology teams a direct view of how AI is reshaping creativity, brand building and the future of ideas at scale.

The launch of LIONS Sport in partnership with SPORT BEACH gives sports marketing professionals their first dedicated programme at Cannes Lions, covering deals, fan engagement, sponsorship strategy and how sports properties are using entertainment and culture to reach new audiences.