Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity · 2027

Agoris analysis · updated October 2026

Key takeaways

• The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity is the global gathering for advertising and marketing creativity: five days of award ceremonies, conferences and meetings between agencies, advertising brands, media and platforms. It is not a stand-based trade show but a paid, English-speaking professional festival, whose Lions form the international benchmark for the industry.
• Organiser: Informa Events (Europe) Limited, operating under the LIONS brand. The festival has belonged to the British group Informa plc since the acquisition of Ascential, completed on 9 October 2024, and now sits within the Informa Festivals division.
• Next edition: from Monday 21 to Friday 25 June 2027, at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, 1 boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes.
• Results of the last edition (2026, 73rd, 22-26 June): 20,050 entries submitted from 92 countries, more than 300 international jurors gathered in Cannes, around 400 brands present over the week.
• France was named "Creative Country of the Year" for 2026, with dedicated showcases and activations around the city during the festival.
• Access is via a paid, named pass, ranging from the Streaming Pass at €99 excl. VAT to the Gold Pass at €6,600 excl. VAT, with the Classic Pass for full access shown at €4,465 excl. VAT for the 2026 edition.

Who attends

Typical profile

The festival's population splits into three blocks. First, creative agencies, global networks and independents alike, who come to compete, judge and recruit: independents accounted for nearly a third of entries submitted in 2026, and the festival created a Challenger Pass for them, giving full access on a par with the Classic Pass. Second, advertising brands: in 2026, 10% of entries came directly from brands, up from 8% in 2025, and the organiser reported around 400 brands present in Cannes, across the Brand Village, executive forums and sector programmes. Finally, media, platforms, ad sales houses, producers and technology providers, highly visible in activations outside the Palais, on the beaches and in the hotels along the Croisette.

The festival has organised itself into sector communities, each with its own pass, venue and programme: LIONS Sport, launched in 2026 at the Carlton Hotel and capped at 350 delegates, LIONS Creators on the Palais Beach for the creator economy, and LIONS B2B, a one-day summit with LinkedIn.

Notable participants

The full list of speakers is published by the organiser on the speakers page of the official website. For the 2026 edition, the Lumière stage notably hosted Oprah Winfrey, named Cannes LionHeart 2026, Demis Hassabis, co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, Eddy Cue, SVP of Services and Health at Apple and Entertainment Person of the Year 2026, Stella McCartney, Maurice Lévy, honorary chairman of Publicis Groupe, Takeshi Sano, global president and CEO of dentsu, and Marcel Marcondes, Global CMO of AB InBev. These line-ups are specific to each edition and do not prejudge the 2027 programme, announced in spring.

Quality of the audience

The festival brings together a decision-making audience and organises it into closed-door formats: the CEO Forum, back in 2026 on opening day with 50 global executives, and the LIONS Global CMO Forum, launched the same year for global marketing directors. On top of this come the juries, more than 300 professionals in 2026, present throughout the week. The organiser does not publish a numerical attendance report: the only official figures cover entries submitted, countries represented and jurors.

Events & community

Conference programme

Content is a pillar on a par with the awards. The 2026 edition amounted to more than 150 hours of stage content, spread across six editorial streams including "Insights & Trends", co-curated with Contagious, "Innovation Unwrapped", "The Creativity Toolbox", "Talent & Culture" and the new "Cannes Lions Deconstructed", with formats broadened to include debates, panel discussions and workshops.

Delegates who do not travel to Cannes have access to a Streaming Pass, giving on-demand replay access for fourteen days to sessions from the Lumière, the Debussy and the Rotonde.

Awards and accolades

The Lions are organised into tracks, whose official titles are as follows:

• Brand: "Creative Brand", created in 2026, which no longer rewards a single campaign but the systems, culture and capabilities that make creative work possible within an organisation.
• Classic: "Audio & Radio", "Film", "Outdoor", "Print & Publishing".
• Craft: "Design", "Digital Craft", "Film Craft", "Industry Craft".
• Engagement: "Creative B2B", "Creative Data", "Direct", "Media", "PR", "Social & Creator".
• Entertainment: "Entertainment", "Entertainment Lions for Gaming", "Entertainment Lions for Music", "Entertainment Lions for Sport".
• Experience: "Brand Experience & Activation", "Creative Business Transformation", "Creative Commerce", "Innovation", "Luxury".
• Good: "Glass: The Lion for Change", "Sustainable Development Goals".
• Health: "Health & Wellness", "Pharma". Strategy: "Creative Effectiveness", "Creative Strategy".
• Titanium: "Dan Wieden Titanium Lions", which honour work that opens a new direction for the industry.

Each Lion can produce a Grand Prix, with the "Grand Prix for Good" awarded on top. In 2026, the Titanium track received 138 entries, Film Lions 1,469, Sustainable Development Goals Lions 289 and Glass: The Lion for Change 122.

The festival also presents honorary distinctions: "Cannes LionHeart", "Lion of St Mark" for a lifetime's work, "Creative Marketer of the Year" for a brand, "Entertainment Person of the Year", "Creative Country of the Year" and, since 2026, "Lions Laureate for Marketing", presented for the first time to Jim Stengel.

A special mention for entry integrity: the LIONS Integrity Standards, announced in July 2025 and strengthened in 2026, require accuracy declarations, the provision of sources at the time of entry, AI-assisted verification and a formal challenge procedure, backed by the LIONS Integrity Handbook.

Community & networks

The festival draws on a training and competition set-up: Young Lions Competitions for under-30s, the Creative Academy and Brand Marketing Academy accredited by LIONS, Effie Academy at Cannes Lions and the CMO Accelerator Programme.

The Palais des Festivals hosts other international markets from the same creative ecosystem throughout the year: MIPCOM for audiovisual content in October, MIPIM for real estate in spring and MIDEM for music in January, with the same Cannes logistics and the same hotel constraints.

On site: what you need to know

For access, parking and accommodation, see the venue page: Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, 1 boulevard de la Croisette, 06400 Cannes. Specific to the festival: a free Night Bus, reserved for pass holders, runs Monday to Friday every thirty minutes from 10pm to 2am from the Palais, on the Registration and Gare Maritime side, on three lines to Le Cannet, Mandelieu and Juan-les-Pins. During the day, the Palm Bus network serves Cannes and neighbouring towns, with a single ticket priced around €1.80. From Nice Côte d'Azur airport, the maximum prefectural taxi fare to the Palais is €88.

The organiser negotiates preferential rates with a selection of hotels and flats in and around Cannes, and recommends booking as soon as the pass is purchased: festival week saturates hotel supply on the Côte d'Azur. Flying drones over Cannes is strictly prohibited. The delegates team can be reached on +44 20 7046 1155 and at delegates@canneslions.com.

How much it costs to take part

Preparing your visit

For the brand or agency showcasing its creativity

• Decide early between coming to compete, to prospect or to activate: the three approaches call for a different pass, a different budget and a different on-site team.
• Check eligibility for reduced-rate passes: Challenger Pass for independently owned agencies, Start-Up Pass for young companies in the sector, Young Lion Pass for under-30s, Student Pass for full-time students.
• Plan ahead for the entry calendar, which opens in January: the Integrity Standards require sources and an accuracy declaration to be submitted, which adds to the workload of preparing cases.
• Book accommodation as soon as the pass is purchased, via the rates negotiated by the organiser, and go through the Groups service for parties of ten or more.

For the decision-making visitor

• Block out the whole week: the programme runs Monday to Friday, and sector formats such as LIONS Sport or LIONS B2B are held mid-week, away from the Palais.
• Choose your access level according to the venues you're targeting: some experiences are held at the Carlton Hotel or on the Palais Beach and require a specific pass.
• Prepare your agenda before arriving: the festival app and the delegate directory are the entry point for networking, and places at closed-door formats fill up in advance.
• Plan for night transport if your accommodation is outside Cannes: the free Night Bus only serves Le Cannet, Mandelieu and Juan-les-Pins.

Policy & CSR initiatives

LIONS has brought its commitments together under a single brand, LIONS Impact, built around access and representation. The Equity, Representation and Accessibility programme, introduced in 2024, allocates up to 2 million euros of free passes every year to under-represented talent, with priority given to the Global South, where the allocation has grown by 183%. The See It Be It programme, founded in 2014, aims for parity of representation in the creative industry and has supported more than 150 creative professionals over eleven years. These are joined by the LIONS Scholarship, for professionals aged 30 and under, and the Jodi Harris Scholarship, run with AB InBev. The organiser reports more than 3 million euros allocated and 656 participating creatives in 2025.

On the environmental side, LIONS relies on a 25-year partnership with ACT Responsible, an association promoting advertising responsibility. In 2026, the Sustainability Hub became the Impact Hub, housed in the Debussy foyer, with a programme dedicated to social and environmental awareness. The Sustainable Development Goals Lions and Glass: The Lion for Change also feed a donation mechanism for winners, with a reported cumulative total of more than 2.4 million euros. At group level, LIONS sits under FasterForward, Informa's sustainable development programme.

The venue provides an additional, verifiable guarantee: the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès, operated by SEMEC, is certified ISO 20121, the international standard for responsible management of event activity, and adopted "société à mission" (mission-led company) status in December 2022, a first for a congress centre.

How the festival has evolved

Trajectory analysis

The most visible movement is the contraction in entry volume: 26,753 in 2024, 26,900 in 2025, then 20,050 in 2026, coinciding with the entry into force of the Integrity Standards, which the organiser presents as having led to a more selective approach to entering. For an agency, this changes the economics of taking part: fewer mass entries, and heavier sourcing and justification work per entry.

The second movement is the recomposition of participants. The share of entries submitted by brands rose from 8% in 2025 to 10% in 2026, independents account for nearly a third of entries, and the festival has created the corresponding formats: the Creative Brand Lion, Challenger Pass, Brand Village, closed-door CEO and CMO forums. The centre of gravity is shifting away from the agency network towards an ecosystem where advertisers and independents count for more.

The third movement is sectorisation. LIONS Sport in 2026, LIONS Creators and LIONS B2B with LinkedIn are turning a single week into several parallel events, each with its own pass, venue and audience: attendees now need to choose their ground before buying a pass.

In the background is the change of ownership: the move under the control of Informa plc in October 2024, as part of the Ascential acquisition, placed LIONS within a division dedicated to festivals alongside Money20/20. The Cannes anchor is not moving: the Palais des Festivals remains the sole venue, and the 2027 dates are already published.

Unless otherwise stated, all factual data in this listing comes from the organiser's official website (canneslions.com).