Cannes Film Festival 2025: Review of participating films and predictions for winners
Kyiv • UNN
The 78th Cannes Film Festival will be held from May 13 to 24. The jury will be headed by Juliette Binoche, and the program will feature new films from famous directors and actors.
The 78th Cannes Film Festival will be held from May 13 to 24 in the charming city of Cannes, located on the sunny coast of the French Riviera. During these days, filmmakers, actors, and industry representatives from around the world will compete for the highest award in the world of cinema – the Palme d'Or. What films will be presented in the competition, which famous actors debuted as directors, and whether there is a Ukrainian "trace" at this year's Cannes Film Festival - UNN will tell.
The jury of the competition this year will be headed by the outstanding French actress Juliette Binoche - an Oscar winner and the only actress who has received awards for the best female role at the three main film forums in Europe: in Cannes, Venice and Berlin.
The jury of the "Immersive Art" competition will be headed by French director Luc Jacquet. The panel will also include American artist Laurie Anderson, French writer Tanya de Montaigne, British director Martha Fiennes and Japanese video game developer Tetsuya Mizuguchi.
This authoritative jury will select the winner in the "Best Immersive Work" category, which will be announced during the closing ceremony of the Immersive Competition on May 22.
Official competition program: key films and directors
The main competition program of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival includes 20 films. Among them is Wes Anderson's new film "The Phoenician Scheme", which tells about a meeting between a magnate and his daughter, who became a nun, after many years of separation. The cast includes Benicio del Toro, Mia Trippleton, Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Willem Dafoe, Bill Murray, Riz Ahmed, Benedict Cumberbatch, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Brian Cranston and Rupert Friend.
Among the most anticipated premieres of the festival is "Eddington" by Ari Aster. This is a western with elements of horror about a sheriff of a small town in New Mexico who dreams of a better future. Starring: Pedro Pascal, Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Luke Grimes and Clifton Collins Jr.
Also in the program is the film "Alpha" by Julia Ducournau, who won the "Golden Palm Branch" in 2021 for the film "Titan". The main roles in the new work were played by Golshifte Farahani ("Paterson") and Tahar Rahim ("The Mauritanian").
Among other participants are "The History of Sound" by Oliver Hermanus with Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor, as well as "Young Mothers" by the Dardenne brothers. The festival will open with the film Leave One Day by French director Amélie Bonnen.
Full list of films of the main competition program of the Cannes Film Festival 2025:
- Alpha by Julia Ducournau;
- Die, My Love - Lynn Ramsay;
- File 137 by Dominique Moll;
- «Eagles of the Republic» by Tarik Saleh;
- Eddington by Ari Aster;
- Exit by Mario Martone;
- Young Mothers by Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne;
- Resurrection by B.I. Gan;
- «Little Last» by Hafsia Herzi;
- «New Wave» by Richard Linklater;
- Secret Agent by Kleber Mendonsa Filho;
- Romeria by Carla Simon;
- Sirat by Oliver Lax;
- The sound of falling by Masha Shilinska;
- The History of Sound by Oliver Hermanus;
- «Mastermind» by Kelly Reichardt;
- The Phoenician Scheme by Wes Anderson;
- «Two Prosecutors» by Serhiy Loznytsia;
- Simple accident - Jafar Panahi;
- «Sentimental Value» by Joachim Trier.
The films that will be presented out of competition will be:
- Mission Impossible - Final Reckoning, by Christopher McQuarrie;
- The venue of the future by Cédric Klapisch;
- The richest woman in the world, by Thierry Klifa;
- «Private Streets» by Rebecca Zlotowski.
Special screenings:
- Bono: Stories of Surrender, by Andrew Dominik;
- «Tell her I love her» by Claude Miller;
- Sons of the Neon Night, by Juno Mac;
- Exit 8 by Genki Kawamura;
- Dollovei by Yann Gozlan.
Debuts of famous actors as directors
The film that Scarlett Johansson fans are waiting for is "Eleanor the Great", in which the Hollywood actress will debut as a director. The film, which will be shown in the "Special View" category, tells about Eleanor, played by 95-year-old June Squibb, who rethinks her life in New York after losing her best friend. Actor Harris Dickinson also tried himself as a director. He will present his first film Urchin.
Films that attract the attention of critics and viewers
The only representative of Italy in the main competition of this year's Cannes Film Festival will be the highly anticipated film "Fuori" by director Mario Martone. The film immerses the viewer in the difficult fate of the writer Goliarda Sapienza, whose role is played by Valeria Golino. The famous actress and recent director of the television adaptation of Sapienza's novel "The Art of Joy" got a difficult dramatic role: her heroine ends up behind bars after a rash act and finds deep connections with young prisoners in prison - relationships that continue even after her release. The film also stars Matilda De Angelis and singer and actress Elodie. Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone will appear in Ari Aster's new western "Eddington", starring Joaquin Phoenix.
Cannes favorite Wes Anderson returns with a new spy film "The Phoenician Scheme". The central character, the elusive Ja-Ja Korda, is played by Benicio del Toro. The film also involves stars who have already become the director's calling card: Mia Trippleton, Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Brian Cranston, Jeffrey Wright and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Another star premiere is "The Last Mission Impossible" with Tom Cruise. This is the actor's third appearance at the Cannes Film Festival after the films "Far and Away" (1992) and "Top Gun: Maverick" (2022), for which he received an honorary "Golden Palm Branch". He will be accompanied on the red carpet by director Christopher McQuarrie and actresses Vanessa Kirby and Mariela Harriga.
Ukrainian trace at the festival
On May 13, the opening day of the film festival, a special event called "Ukraine Day" will take place, during which viewers will be presented with three documentaries about the war. The French side emphasized that the purpose of the event is to remind about the duty of artists to cover the full-scale invasion of Russia into Ukraine. The co-organizers of "Ukraine Day" were the Embassy of Ukraine in France, the Mayor's Office of Cannes, France Télévisions and the media platform Brut.
"French filmmakers have been showing support for Ukraine all these years. But this time we wanted to create a separate program that would become a symbol of deep artistic solidarity on the central platform of the festival," the embassy said.
As part of the event, the Palace of Festivals will show three documentaries:
- «Zelensky» by directors Yves Ziolan, Lisa Vapne and Arian Chemin;
- «2000 meters to Andriivka» by Mstyslav Chernov, who received the award for best director at the Sundance festival;
- «Our War», created by Bernard-Henri Lévy and Marc Roussel.
The organizers of the Cannes Film Festival also confirmed that during the war they will not welcome official representatives of Russia, as well as state structures or journalists who broadcast the official position of the Kremlin.
Also in Harris Dickinson's directorial debut "Urchin", one of the main roles was played by Ukrainian actress Karina Khymchuk, known for her role in the drama "Do You Love Me?" by director Tonia Noiabrova.
In particular, the film by Ukrainian director Serhiy Loznytsia, who lives in Austria, was included in the main competition program. However, the director openly opposes the abolition of Russian culture. Therefore, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, the Ukrainian Film Academy excluded Loznytsia from its membership.
The only Ukrainian film that will be shown within the framework of the Cannes Film Festival was included in the parallel competition program "Directors' Fortnight". This is the documentary film "Militantropus", created by the Tabor film association, which explores man in the conditions of war.
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Expectations and predictions regarding the winners
And although it is difficult to single out clear favorites this year, with a high probability the Palme d'Or may be awarded to the film "Die, My Love" by Lynn Ramsay. A dark comedy adapted from Ariana Harwicz's book "Krev, My Love", starring Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence, who is experiencing psychotic postpartum depression in the French countryside.
Another contender for the win could be "The Phoenician Scheme" by festival favorite Wes Anderson. The thriller about a father and daughter who get caught up in a spy spiral already has a release date (May 28, 2025) and a star-studded cast: Benicio del Toro, Mia Trippleton, Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Brian Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Rupert Friend and Benedict Cumberbatch.
Jim Jarmusch's "Father, Mother, Sister, Brother" could also become a "dark horse". Although the synopsis is not reported, the cast is known: Cate Blanchett, Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling and Vicky Krieps.
