James Franco and actor-writer-director Izabel Pakzad have been dating since 2017
Credit: Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- James Franco and his longtime girlfriend Izabel Pakzad stepped out at the Cannes Film Festival’s opening night ceremony in France on Tuesday, May 12
- Pakzad and Franco have been dating since 2017
- Franco has largely remained out of the spotlight after settling a lawsuit with two women who accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior
James Franco and his longtime girlfriend Izabel Pakzad are on hand in France for the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Franco, 48, and Pakzad, 30, were among the stars who assembled in Cannes for the festival's opening night screening of The Electric Kiss on Tuesday, May 12. The actor was seen taking selfies with fans and mingling with Diego Luna before the screening began, as Variety reported.
Franco previously appeared in films that screened at Cannes in 2013 with As I Lay Dying, which he wrote, directed and starred in, as well as 2015's animated movie The Little Prince. He also stepped out on the Cannes red carpet in 2025 and 2024.
Pakzad and Franco have been dating since 2017. Pakzad is an actress and filmmaker who has appeared in a number of movies and television series since 2019, including an episode in the third season of Franco's HBO series The Deuce. She most recently wrote, directed and starred in a movie titled Find Your Friends, which will debut on the streaming platform Shudder on June 12.
Credit: Daniele Venturelli/WireImage
Franco has been mired in controversy in recent years. In 2018, he was accused of sexually inappropriate behavior by five women, four of whom were his acting students. Franco settled a lawsuit with two of the women in 2021 and largely remained out of the spotlight between 2019 and 2024.
When Franco re-emerged in 2021 for one of his first interviews after those allegations went public on The Jess Cagle Show, he admitted that he struggled to remain faithful in his romantic relationships before meeting Pakzad. Franco told Variety during a 2024 interview that he has "moved past" the controversy that rocked his career. “Being told you're bad is painful,” he said at the time. “But ultimately, that's kind of what I needed to just stop going the way I was going.”
"I mean, I really didn't have a personal life. I had friends, but it was always sort of enmeshed with my work. And so, yeah, I put a lot of time into my personal life," he said elsewhere in that interview. "I've had a relationship for seven-and-a-half years. I was never able to do that before. I was just too scared, really … to have any sort of real intimacy with anyone."
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In 2024, Franco starred in the movies The Price of Money: A Largo Winch Adventure and Hey Joe, and last year, he appeared in two movies: Squali and Bunny-Man. Franco will star alongside Tiffany Haddish, Christopher Meloni, Katt Williams, Craig Robinson and James Paxton in an upcoming comedy titled Toad.
The Cannes Film Festival runs through May 23.
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