CANNES 2025
Cannes welcomes 19 contenders for the Palme d’Or

by Fabien Lemercier, Cineuropa
April 10, 2025

The festival presents a blend of safe bets and new faces in the competition, with three former winners, nine filmmakers having previously taken part and seven new entries.

The febrile expectations of international cinephiles have certainly not been thwarted by the press conference held earlier today in Paris to unveil the Official Selection of the 78th Cannes Film Festival (13-24 May).

It has to be said that General Delegate Thierry Frémaux (flanked by president Iris Knobloch) has mastered the art of mixing the various cocktail ingredients that respect the fundaments of artistic excellence required by the Cannes-based event (ensuring the competition line-up includes the crème de la crème of the world’s arthouse filmmakers who have already proven themselves in the past and who are, if possible, in their finest fettle) all the while managing to surprise us by injecting some fresh blood into the proceedings.


Alpha by Julia Ducournau

It all started with a record number of 2,909 features that were under consideration, hailing from 156 countries.

With seven filmmakers selected for the very first time in the hunt for the Palme d’Or, four for the second time and four for the third time (based on the 19 films in the running in competition for now), the refrain stating that the Cannes Film Festival is reserved purely for its regulars is clearly now obsolete. The keys to the 2025 edition are obviously being offered to the up-and-coming generation, which probably explains the absence of a few high-level names forecasted by the film buffs, which is likely to spawn myriad comments before the discovery of these films yields any actual elements enabling analysis and judgement. This openness to the new generations is symbolised potently by the identity of the bold opening film (out of competition), which will be a feature debut (and is billed as extremely moving): Partir un jour by France’s Amélie Bonnin.


Sentimental Value by Norway’s Joachim Trier

And so, the very exciting and relatively intriguing Cannes line-up for 2025 includes 19 features in competition, although a few new additions are to be expected (incidentally, a clutch of films have apparently been left for a second ballot, pending evaluation of the latecomers). Standing out among the lucky few are three former winners: Belgium’s Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne (Palme d’Or in 1999 and 2005, Best Directing Award in 2019, Grand Prix in 2011 and Best Screenplay Award in 2008 – their tenth time in competition) with Jeunes mères and France’s Julia Ducournau (Palme d’Or in 2021 – her second time) with Alpha.

They are joined by four filmmakers who have previously won awards in the Cannes competition (either for their films or thanks to their actors): Brazil’s Kleber Mendonça Filho (his third time – Jury Prize in 2019) with The Secret Agent, Norway’s Joachim Trier (his third time – Best Actress Award in 2021) with Sentimental Value and Swedish director of Egyptian heritage Tarik Saleh (his second time – Best Screenplay Award in 2022) with Eagles of the Republic, and Iran’s Jafar Panahi (his second time – Best Screenplay Award in 2018) with A Simple Accident.


Fuori by Italy’s Mario Martone

Also locking horns are six contenders having previously taken part in these upper echelons of Cannes: Ukraine’s Sergei Loznitsa (his fourth time) with Two Prosecutors, Italy’s Mario Martone (his third time) with Fuori, French director of German heritage Dominik Moll (his third time and returning 20 years after his most recent appearance at this level) with Dossier 137, as well as the USA’s Wes Anderson (his fourth time) with The Phoenician Scheme, Kelly Reichardt (her second time) with The Mastermind and Richard Linklater (his second time, after his participation in 2006), with a 100% French movie, Nouvelle Vague.

Seven new entries round off the group of Palme d’Or hunters: South Africa’s Oliver Hermanus with The History of Sound, a US-UK production starring Ireland’s Paul Mescal and the UK’s Josh O’Connor; Spaniard Carla Simon (Golden Bear at Berlin in 2022) with Romería; her fellow countryman Óliver Laxe (Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in 2019) with Sirat; France’s Hafsia Herzi with La Petite Dernière; two female directors with their sophomore features (Germany’s Mascha Schilinski with Sound of Falling and Japan’s Chie Hayakawa with Renoir); and the USA’s Ari Aster with Eddington.


The Phoenician Scheme by Wes Anderson

As for geographical origins, Europe easily dominates the provisional 2025 competition line-up with 12 filmmakers vying for the Palme d’Or: two are Belgian (the Dardennes), three French (Ducournau, Moll and Herzi), one Italian (Martone), two Spanish (Simon and Laxe), one Norwegian (Trier), one Swedish (Saleh), one German (Schilinski) and one Ukrainian (Loznitsa). North America boasts a four-strong contingent (Reichardt, Aster, Anderson and Linklater), Asia two (Hayakawa and Panahi), and South America (Mendonça Filho) and Africa (Hermanus) one each.

Lastly, for the time being, six female directors are lined up for the competition, but a few additions are still to be revealed, as is the make-up of the official competition jury, to be chaired by Juliette Binoche (see the news).

For the fifth year since its inception, the Cannes Première programme is treating itself to some tasty cinematic morsels, with works by Russia’s Kirill Serebrennikov (The Disappearance of Josef Mengele), Germany’s Fatih Akin (Amrum), France’s Alex Lutz (Connemara), Chile’s Sebastián Lelio (La ola), the USA’s Michael Angelo Covino (Splitville) and a documentary by Haiti’s Raoul Peck (Orwell).

The out-of-competition line-up, which we already knew would include Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning by US helmer Christopher McQuarrie, also sees the addition of features by France’s Rebecca Zlotowski (Vie privée, billed as a screwball comedy), Cédric Klapisch (La venue de l'avenir) and Thierry Klifa (La femme la plus riche du monde).

Also taking part are the 16 films (for the time being) in Un Certain Regard (article coming soon), one of which is the directorial feature debut by the USA’s Scarlett Johansson, while the Special Screenings include films by Bono (The Story of Surrender) and France’s Sylvain Chomet (the animated flick Marcel et Monsieur Pagnol) and Romane Bohringer (Dites-lui que je l'aime), and the Midnight Screenings take in features hailing from Hong Kong, Japan and France (Dalloway by Yann Gozlan). And that’s not to mention a new immersive competition boasting eight selected works.

Last but not least, an honorary Palme d'Or will be handed to Robert De Niro during the opening ceremony.

Here is the list of selected films:

Competition

The Phoenician Scheme - Wes Anderson
Eddington - Ari Aster
Jeunes mères - Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
Alpha - Julia Ducournau
Renoir - Chie Hayakawa
The History of Sound - Oliver Hermanus
La Petite Dernière - Hafsia Herzi
Sirat - Óliver Laxe
Nouvelle Vague - Richard Linklater
Two Prosecutors - Sergei Loznitsa
Fuori - Mario Martone
The Secret Agent - Kleber Mendonça Filho
Dossier 137 - Dominik Moll
A Simple Accident - Jafar Panahi
The Mastermind - Kelly Reichardt
Eagles of the Republic - Tarik Saleh
Sound of Falling - Mascha Schilinski
Romería - Carla Simón
Sentimental Value - Joachim Trier

Un Certain Regard

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo - Diego Céspedes
Méteors - Hubert Charuel
My Father's Shadow - Akinola Davies Jr
L'inconnu de la Grande Arche - Stéphane Demoustier
Urchin - Harris Dickinson
Homebound - Neeraj Ghaywan
A Pale View of Hills - Kei Ishikawa
Eleanor the Great - Scarlett Johansson
Caravan - Zuzana Kirchnerová
Pillion - Harry Lighton
Aisha Can't Fly Away - Morad Mostafa
Once Upon a Time in Gaza - Arab & Tarzan Nasser
The Plague - Charlie Polinger
Promis le ciel - Erige Sehiri
Testa o croce? - Matteo Zoppis & Alessio Rigo de Righi
The Last One for the Road - Francesco Sossai

Cannes Première

Amrum - Fatih Akin
Splitville - Michael Angelo Covino
Connemara - Alex Lutz
La Disparition de Josef Mengele - Kirill Serebrennikov
Orwell - Raoul Peck
La ola - Sebastián Lelio

Out of Competition

Partir un jour - Amélie Bonnin (film d'ouverture)
La venue de l'avenir - Cédric Klapisch
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning - Christopher McQuarrie
La femme la plus riche du monde - Thierry Klifa
Vie privée - Rebecca Zlotowski

Midnight Screenings

Sons of the Neon Night - Juno Mak
The Exit 8 - Genki Kawamura
Dalloway - Yann Gozlan

Special Screenings

The Story of Surrender - Bono
Dites-lui que je l'aime - Romane Bohringer
Marcel et Monsieur Pagnol - Sylvain Chomet