The Cannes Lineup 2025
Good evening: This article contains the 2025 Cannes program lineup.
Normally, when you see lineups, it is a long list. What we have done is broken it up into categories:
Cover Story that breaks down the top films at the festival.
Cannes Industry News, which breaks out top distributors.
Cannes Actor Spotlight, highlighting the top talent at the festival.
Cannes Tech Section, with a film about AI that caught our attention.
Cannes Indie Filmmaker Spotlight, showcasing first and second-time filmmakers.
Cannes International News, showing the top international filmmakers at Cannes.
Enjoy!
Everyone is looking to Cannes this year.
Will this year’s Palme d’Or winner snag Oscar glory like Anora? Mathematically unlikely as that’s only happened 3x times since 1946 (Parasite, The Lost Weekend, Marty).
Perhaps the films will take a larger bite out of the worldwide box office? Last year’s official selection grossed $250M ($57.4M domestic)—not bad for “art house films.” Although nowhere near the top-grossing Palme d’Or film of all time, Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) grossed $221.1M worldwide.
Here are the highest profile projects rolling into Cannes this year, perhaps destined for awards/high box office returns:
The Phonecian Scheme
Dir: Wes Anderson
Cast: Benicio del Toro, Benedict Cumberbatch, Scarlett Johanson etc.
4th Official selection at Cannes (previous: Asteroid City, The French Dispatch, Moonrise Kingdom)
Distributor: Focus Features
Dir: Ari Aster (Hereditary)
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler
Distributor: A24
Synopsis:
In May of 2020, a standoff between a small-town sheriff and mayor sparks a powder keg as neighbor is pitted against neighbor in Eddington, New Mexico.
Dir: Julia Ducournau (Palme d’Or winner Titane)
Distributor: Neon
First look photo
Synopsis:
Alpha, 13, is a troubled teenager who lives alone with her mother. Their world comes crashing down the day she comes home from school with a tattoo on her arm.
Dir: Richard Linklater
Cast: Zoey Deutch (Juror #2)
2nd Official selection at Cannes (previous: Fast Food Nation)
Sales Rep: Goodfellas
Synopsis:
Follows the production of Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless".
This is Linklater’s first film in French.
Dir: Kelly Reichardt (Dir: First Cow)
Cast: Gaby Hoffmann, Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim
2nd Official selection at Cannes (previous: Showing Up)
Distributor: Mubi
Synopsis:
A daring art theft set against backdrop of the Vietnam War.
Dir: Joachim Trier
Cast: Elle Fanning, Stellan Skarsgård, Renate Reinsve
3rd Official selection at Cannes (previous: Louder Than Bombs, Worst Person in the World)
Distributor: Neon
There were some notable omissions, including: Jim Jarmusch's Father Mother Sister Brother starring Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver. The film was rejected and will be aiming to premiere at Venice.
Lynne Ramsay’s highly anticipated Die My Love (Industry Cover story) was also not included but may be a later addition to the festival. This happened with her previous official selection, You Were Never Really Here (2017).
Congrats to all the filmmakers.
THE CANNES INDUSTRY NEWS
Both indie and studio distributors came out in force at Cannes.
Here’s a breakdown:
Neon - 4 films
2x official selection (Alpha, Sentimental Value)
2x Cannes Premiere (out of competition) - First is Splitsville, starring Dakota Johnson. The second is Orwell: 2+2=5 a documentary on George Orwell by Raoul Peck (dir: I Am Not Your Negro)
Neon has won 5 Palme d’Or awards in a row.
A24 - 3 films
1x official selection (Eddington)
1x Un Certain Regard, Pillion starring Alexander Skarsgård
Synopsis:
A directionless man is swept off his feet when an enigmatic, impossibly handsome biker takes him on as his submissive.
This is Pillion director Harry Lighton’s feature debut.
1x Out of Competition - Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest
Highest 2 Lowest is an adaption of Akira Kurosawa's High and Low (1963). It stars Denzel Washington and Jeffrey Wright. First look photo.
Mubi - 3 films
2x official selection (The Mastermind, The History of Sound)
1x Un Certain Regard - My Father’s Shadow with BBC Film serving as the production company.
Synopsis of My Father’s Shadow:
Two young brothers explore Lagos with their estranged father during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis, witnessing both the city's magnitude and their father's daily struggles as political unrest threatens their journey home.
Sony Pictures Classics - 2 films
1x Un Certain Regard (Eleanor the Great). Dir: Scarlett Johansson. Cast: June Squibb, Chiwetel Ejiofor.
Synopsis:
After seventy years with best friend, Eleanor moves to New York City for a fresh start. Making new friends at ninety proves difficult. Longing for connection, she befriends a 19-year-old student
Glorious first look photo of Squibb.
1x Special Screening - A Magnificent Life from director Sylvain Chomet (Triplets of Belleville, trailer).
Apple TV+ - 1 film
1x Special Screening - Bono: Stories of Surrender from director Andrew Dominik (Blonde, Killing Them Softly)
The biggest film screening out of competition at Cannes, besides A24’s Spike Lee joint Highest 2 Lowest, is Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
Cannes artistic director, Thierry Frémaux, stated:
“It is something we want the studios to understand. For them, there is still a risk in coming to Cannes, whether it’s showing a film three months before its release or it getting a bad reception. This is happening less now, and if I may say so, it’s because the selections are much better.”
That’s what happened when Joker 2 screened at Venice last year: the bad reviews tanked the box office before the film had even been released.
We hope the hype machine works for MI:8. As we covered this week, the film will need it.
CANNES ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Wagner Moura (Civil War) stars in Cannes' Official Selection of The Secret Agent.
Synopsis:
Under the threatening specter of 1977 Brazil, we meet Macerlo (Moura), a man in his 40s who recently moved to Recife, on the northeastern coast of Brazil, to escape a violent past.
Remember Wagner Moura in Civil War (trailer)? He’s slightly on edge the entire movie, vibrating at a higher frequency due to the infusion of anxiety in his body. This is taken even more extremes in Apple TV+’s Dope Thief (trailer).
This role of a secret agent will allow Moura to flex his ability to have a heightened yet calibrated edge. This time, we get to see how cool a secret agent really is.
Double Josh O’Connor. The Challangers actor is starring in two official selections. The art heist film The Mastermind and the gay romance The History of Sound.
In The History of Sound, O’Connor plays a young man during World War I who sets out to record the lives, voices, and music of his American countrymen. He co-stars with Paul Mescal.
We don’t know his role in Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, but O’Connor in a gay romance has slight resonances of Challengers (that scene). O’Connor has a high-caliber ability to move through scenes and a resonant power to let scenes move through him (on full display in Rebuilding, La Chimera, and God’s Own Country).
We can’t wait to see these two films.
John C. Reilly plays Buffalo Bill in Un Certain Regard’s Heads or Tails?
Synopsis:
Inspired by real events, this story chronicles Buffalo Bill's ambitious endeavor to bring his wild west extravaganza to the Italian public.
The first look image gives this a real indie feel. Reilly is right at home in these environments. Just watch his emotional and lonely police officer Jim Kurring in Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic drama Magnolia (1999, scene).
Tidbits:
Two out of competition films star the greatest female actresses of our time:
Isabelle Huppert plays the Richest woman in the world in The Richest Woman in the World.
Synopsis:
A nonagenarian's gift of millions to a young artist sparks a scandal, leading her daughter to uncover alleged political corruption involving a former president.
In this first image, Huppert looks totally in control and trapped. Her ability to move between this duality is a remarkable dimension of her performance ability. Just watch Elle (2016) and, recently, Sundance’s Luz.
Check out our podcast interview with Isabelle Huppert.
Jodie Foster stars in Vie Privée. Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski (Grand Central).
Synopsis:
The renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner mounts a private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered.
First look at her as Steiner. We hope she’s well-studied in Hannibal Lecter.
Mini Tidbit:
Diane Kruger stars in Cannes Premiere (out of competition) Amrum. Warner Bros. Discovery has theatrical in Germany.
Filmmaker Xavier Dolan stars in Un Certain Regard The Great Arch.
TECH SECTION
Midnight screening film Dalloway caught my attention. The film follows Clarissa, who has a residence at the Ludovico Institute, which sounds very much like the torturous anti-violence conditioning technique administered in Clockwork Orange. At the institute, Clarissa works on a novel with an AI assistant, Dalloway, who “becomes worryingly overzealous.”
The idea of a ChatGPT being too helpful is somewhat hilarious. Humans need breaks. We operate our life in cycles of sleep, sex, eating, etc. An AI does not need any break, and this alien ability could become quite terrifying to a writer trapped in a place called the Ludovico Institute.
CANNES INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
First-time directors at Cannes are usually fresh-faced and bushy-tailed. This year, Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson have swung around to behind the camera to direct their first feature. Each was accepted into Un Certain Regard.
Johansson’s Eleanor the Great is detailed in The Cannes Industry News. Dickinson’s first film is Urchin.
Here’s the synopsis:
Mike, a homeless person in London who is struggling to break free from a cycle of self-destruction while trying to turn his life around.
It sounds rather gritty in a way we enjoy. And we’re rather pleased to see Dickinson is not starring in the film. He actually serves as the writer as well. After his mega-breakout in A24’s Babygirl, it would have been easy to keep rocking on the acting train (and he does star in the upcoming 4-film event The Beatles), but we love the creativity surging through him. BBC and BFI serve as the production companies.
Another first feature is Charlie Polinger’s horror film The Plague, starring Joel Edgerton, which will play in Un Certain Regard.
Synopsis:
A socially awkward tween endures the ruthless hierarchy at a water polo camp, his anxiety spiraling into psychological turmoil over the summer.
We don’t know who Edgerton will play, but a maniacal camp counselor could be great.
I got absorbed into Polinger’s SXSW short film Fuck Me, Richard which is a magnetizing long-distance romance which tranforms into a very specific type of horror film (full short). There’s no blood or guts, but I was devastated by the twist.
Tidbit:
We’re excited for the official selection Sirat, which counts Pedro Almodovar as a producer.
The synopsis is simple with the power to be profound:
A father, accompanied by his son, goes looking for his missing daughter in North Africa.
Óliver Laxe directs.
Never judge a Cannes film by the title, but these two take the cake:
Un Certain Regard’s The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.
Synopsis:
1982. As an unknown disease begins to spread in a small mining town in the Chilean desert, gay men are accused of transmitting it through their eyes. Twelve-year-old Lidia, the only girl in the community, sets out in search of the truth.
Midnight Screening’s Sons of the Neon Night.
Synopsis:
A land free of drugs depicts utopia, or so they say - Yet only those who have been there would know the eternal flames that burn in that place called Hell.
And we love the eerie B&W poster.
CANNES INTERNATIONAL NEWS
The Dardenne brothers are the most prolific filmmakers stepping onto the Croistte this year. This year’s The Young Mother's Home is their 10th official selection.
Synopsis:
Five young mothers living in a shelter strive for a better future for themselves and kids amidst challenging upbringings.
They’ve won the Palme d'Or twice, once for Rosetta (1999, trailer) and a second time for L'Enfant (2005, trailer).
They also won Best Screenplay at Cannes for Lorna's Silence (2008) and Grand Prix (2nd place) for The Kid with a Bike (2011).
Their most well-known film is Two Days, One Night (2014, trailer), for which Marion Cotillard garnered an Academy Award nomination.
There’s a raw, humanistic quality to all their movies, which is wonderfully moving.
MK2 Films (Anatomy of a Fall), the legendary French Sales rep, has boarded two films:
Official Selection, Sound of Falling.
Synopsis:
A remote German farm harbors generations of secrets. Four women, separated by decades but united by trauma, uncover the truth behind its weathered walls.
MK2 said:
“We were simply blown away when we saw Sound of Falling. Mascha Schilinski’s vision is so bold and visceral, this signals the arrival of an exceptional new voice in cinema.”
Official Selection, A Simple Accident.
Logline:
What begins as a minor accident sets in motion a series of escalating consequences.
The director, Jafar Panahi, previously directed No Bears (2022, trailer). His films are made in secret from the Iranian government, as he was banned from filmmaking in 2010.
Tidbit:
Official selection Renoir is an impressive feat for director Chie Hayakawa, as this is her second feature.
Synopsis:
Weaves an emotional and poignant coming-of-age story about resilience, the healing power of the imagination, and a traumatized family struggling for connection.
Hayakawa’s first feature, Plan 75, played in Un Certain Regard in 2022, where it won the Caméra d'Or Special Distinction.
Sales Rep: Goofellas.
Check out a first-look photo here. There’s a wonderful kineticness with a hint of claustrophobia.
See the full list of 2025 Cannes films here, including the opening night film.
Written and edited by Gabriel Miller.
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