Coward

  • Lukas Dhont
  • Belgium
  • France
  • The Netherlands
2026
125'

Young soldier Pierre (Emmanuel Macchia) is eager to prove himself on the battlefield, but his trajectory changes after he meets Francis (Valentin Campagne) behind the front lines, who resolves to lift his fellow soldiers’ morale by staging a theatre show. In the masterfully directed Coward by Belgian director Lukas Dhont (Close, ZFF 2022), soldiers find refuge from the horrors of the First World War in art. For their outstanding performances, Macchia and Campagne jointly won the Best Actor Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Language: FR, NL
Subtitles: HR, EN

Lukas Dhont
Lukas Dhont

Lukas Dhont (Ghent, 1991) graduated in Audiovisual Arts from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent (KASK). His debut feature Girl (2018) screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes, where it won the Caméra d'Or for best first film. His sophomore feature Close (ZFF 2022) won the Grand Prix at Cannes and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Coward (2026) is his third feature film.

Film information

Director: Lukas Dhont

Screenplay: Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens

Cast: Emmanuel Macchia, Valentin Campagne, Jeff Jacobs, Willem de Schryver, Liam Jacqmin, Mistral Guidetti, Jonas Wertz, Boris Bouchat, Orlando Vauthier, Tuur Verelst, Emil Krastev, Mathieu Carpentier

Director of photography: Frank Van Den Eeden

Editing: Alain Dessauvage

Producer: Michiel Dhont, Eric Abraham, Jack Sidey

Production: The Reunion, LUMEN France, Topkapi Films, Versus (Opus)

Festivals and awards: Cannes Film Festival 2026 – Best Actor Award (Emmanuel Macchia, Valentin Campagne); Toronto International Film Festival 2026; San Sebastián International Film Festival 2026; BFI London Film Festival 2026; Zagreb Film Festival 2026

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