Cowards

Coward is a 2026 war-drama film directed by Lukas Dhont, co-written with Angelo Tijssens. A co-production of Belgium, France, and the Netherlands, it stars Emmanuel Macchia (in his acting debut) and Valentin Campagne as Pierre and Francis, and follows a gay love story in the Belgian trench warfare front of World War I. The film had its world premiere in the main competition of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival on 21 May, where it won Prix du Cinéma Positif and Macchia and Campagne jointly won the Best Actor award. It will be theatrically released in Belgium by Lumiére on 21 October. It was also selected as the Belgian entry for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards.