Cannes 2026: Shana
2026 Cannes Film Festival
Screening as part of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, Lila Pinell's Shana opens on a group of friends playing Werewolf one night. What starts as fun turns sour as Shana (Eva Huault) gets into a screaming match with another woman, mad that she was killed early in the game. This is not a rare occurrence for Shana, going through life in constant conflict with struggling relationships and intense drama. Shana follows the titular character as she goes about her life following the death of her grandma, and inherits a ring that is supposed to protect her from bad luck.
Shana is a film that lives and dies on Huault's performance. Shana is a character who lives in a constant state of mess and turbulence. While she has an iconic quality to her as she runs around in her Oops!... I Did It Again album shirt, trying to keep her head above water, she never seems to find a way to maintain her short moments of peace and happiness. Huault's performance is incredible, bringing to life this complex and deeply relatable character with a real sense of authenticity. While Shana is eccentric, Huault's performance shows real craft, never getting lost in the larger-than-life personality and catching slivers of poignant emotion.
This journey is also highlighted by Pinell's screenplay. It is easy to look at Shana and draw comparisons to the work of the Safdie Brothers, with the loud yelling and building tension, but Pinell's screenplay pokes deeper than this. Shana is not an ultra-confident or perfect character, but rather one filled with her own insecurities and questions. She is lost trying to find herself and handle herself, dealing with the consequences of her personality and temper. Shana slowly washes away to reveal a meaningful reflection of what it is like being a young adult, defining your understanding and relationship with self-respect and self-love.
However, make no mistake that, like the films of the Safdie Brothers, Shana is also incredibly watchable and enjoyable. The drama and fights throughout the film are devilishly fun, with venomous insults and vicious back-and-forths. For anyone who grew up with reality television, the dialogue and pacing of Shana reflect the most entertaining of the genre.
While Shana is going to be a film of selective taste, for those who are on the same wavelength as the film, the results are fantastic. Both watchable and meaningful, Shana is a near-perfect reflection of the modern young adult experience, embracing the chaos and all the ups and downs that come with it.
