Cannes Lions Festival

Cannes Lions is an international Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) where influential thought-leaders take to the stage, industry-leading work is awarded, and festival-goers find out what the future of marketing may hold.

The event offers delegates more than 150 hours of content, featuring around 500 speakers from across the spectrum of creativity.

Cannes Lions prides itself on helping businesses grow through creative marketing that matters. “We know that creativity can and should be applied across the full marketing mix. Creativity is an impactful business driver – and when it’s integrated with a culture of effectiveness, it’s a competitive advantage,” say the organisers.

Cannes Lions is held at the Palais in Cannes, and will this year run from 22-26 June 2026.

Cannes Lions 2026 highlights so far include:

• Oprah Winfrey will give a talk in Cannes before being honoured with the prestigious Cannes LionHeart award.
• Global brands like Google, Patagonia and P&G will be sharing how they use creativity to grow their business and connect with customers.
• Fashion designer Stella McCartney, who is a sustainability champion, will be talking about circular commerce.
• Meta and Estée Lauder will analyse the impact of AI on a heritage brand.

A truly international festival that’s all about creativity, Cannes Lions is the place to hang with like-minded people, celebrate ideas and drive growth for your own business.

The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2026 Programme – a brief overview

This year’s Festival programme includes six streams:

Insights & Trends:

Co-curated with Contagious, this stream explores the cultural and strategic shifts redefining the industry. Speakers include:

• Alex Weller, Patagonia, will examine the tension between values and scale.
• CEO for eBay Jamie Iannone and Stella McCartney will explore how circular commerce is reshaping creative industries.
• Amy Daroukakis of Culture Connectors and RADAR’s Sarah Owen will lead a fast-paced session along with a collective of global creatives on the emerging cultural signals driving change.

Innovation Unwrapped:

Focusing on the technologies and transformations shaping the future, this stream brings together pioneers from across tech and creativity spheres. Speakers include:

• Aude Gandon, The Estée Lauder Companies, and Nicola Mendelsohn, Meta, will explore using AI to decode why certain ideas endure.
• Demis Hassabis from Google DeepMind will join a fireside chat on the future of creativity.
• R/GA leaders Tiffany Rolfe and Nick Pringle will share a playbook for creating in the intelligence age.
• There will also be Future Gazers daily sessions, focusing on what’s coming next for the industry, featuring Dentsu Creative’s Pats McDonald, Sphere’s Ned McNeilage and Nell Daly from Revenge Capital.

The Creativity Toolbox:

This stream focuses on the tools, techniques and processes behind world-class creativity. Sessions include:

• A hands-on workshop from NOSSA™’s Victor Britto challenging traditional brainstorming.
• A live debate hosted by Campaign featuring Orchard Creative’s David Kolbusz, Lynsey Atkin from Baby Teeth, Richard Brim from Ace of Hearts and TBWA\Worldwide’s Chaka Sobhani on whether creative taste can be objective.
• Marc Pritchard, P&G, will explore the evolving role of creativity in brand building in an AI-driven world.

Talent & Culture:

Centred on people and creative leadership, this stream examines how organisations cultivate talent and culture. Speakers include:

• Takeshi Sano from dentsu reflects on 125 years of innovation and impact.
• A series of global roundtables featuring industry voices such as Adams Fan of F5 Shanghai, Quiet Storm’s Trevor Robinson and Joana Mendes from Jungle Kid will bring together perspectives on the current creative landscapes for independent networks across Asia and LATAM.

Creative Impact:

Co-curated with WARC, this stream focuses on effectiveness and measurable impact. Speakers include:

• Mark Ritson, Founder of MiniMBA, and​ Byron Sharp, Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, will present five fundamental marketing truths.
• The CMOs in the Spotlight series will bring together leaders including Zena Arnold, Sephora US, and Jill Kramer from Mastercard to discuss how creativity drives business growth.

Cannes Lions Deconstructed (a new stream)

As part of this new stream, a live wrap-up of the Festival will be taking place on Friday 26 June. An early-access, onstage version of the yearly Cannes Lions Wrap-Up Report, it will deliver a review of the biggest trends and hottest talking points that emerged from the Festival – from the Palais stages to the results from the Jury rooms – as well as analysis of the biggest winners and actionable learnings from Jury Presidents.

Beyond the main streams…

LIONS Sport

The inaugural LIONS Sport programme, in partnership with SPORT BEACH, will explore what’s driving growth in the rapidly evolving sports marketing ecosystem. Speakers include:

• Tennis Australia’s Britt Wickes and Roddy Campbell will analyse how the Australian Open is using entertainment and culture to pull younger audiences.
• Brandon Snow, from RedBird Capital Partners, will reveal who’s scoring the biggest sports marketing deals – and how.

LIONS Creators

LIONS Creators, in partnership with Adobe, is in its third year, blending networking with content. Speakers include:

• Mel Robbins on turning ideas into movements.
• Dhar Mann alongside Shopify’s Jessica Williams and Gap’s Fabiola Tores on building billion-view content ecosystems.

LIONS B2B

LIONS B2B, in partnership with LinkedIn, explores the evolving landscape of business marketing. Speakers include:

• LinkedIn’s CMO, Jessica Jensen, JLL’s CMO, Siddharth Taparia and ServiceNow CMO Colin Fleming will discuss how they connect creativity and business growth in the boardroom.
• Tom Stein, Stein and Monique Elliott, Schneider Electric and Jennifer Chase, SAS, will dissect enterprising creativity.

Speaking about this year’s line-up, Natasha Woodwal, Director of Content, LIONS, said: “The 2026 programme has been designed to reflect how our industry really works today. We’ve expanded the breadth of formats to encourage deeper participation, from debates and roundtables to interactive workshops and networking opportunities. With the launch of LIONS Sport and the continued growth of LIONS Creators, we’re creating space for new voices, new communities and new conversations that are shaping the future of creativity.”

To view the full programme and see the range of Festival passes available, visit www.canneslions.com.