Cannes Festival: the films in competition
Here is a list of the titles vying for the Palme d'Or, which will be awarded by this year's jury president Juliette Binoche and her seven fellow judges including Oscar-winner Halle Berry and "Succession" star Jeremy Strong.
PARIS, May 24, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A total of 22 films are competing for the top prize at at this year's Cannes film festival, which wraps up on Saturday.
Here is a list of the titles vying for the Palme d'Or, which will be awarded by this year's jury president Juliette Binoche and her seven fellow judges including Oscar-winner Halle Berry and "Succession" star Jeremy Strong.
- 'A Simple Accident' by Jafar Panahi (Iran) -
A highly political but wry tale of four ordinary Iranians confronted with a man they believed tortured them in jail.
"We let the viewer decide for themselves, asking what would they do in that situation?" Panahi told AFP about his film, which was shot in secret.
- 'Sentimental Value' by Joachim Trier (Norway) -
A moving tale about a quietly fractured family starring Elle Fanning that got an extraordinary 19-minute standing ovation after its premiere.
The director's last feature, "The Worst Person in the World", also premiered at Cannes in 2021 without winning, but many critics see this as the 2025 frontrunner.
- 'Two Prosecutors' by Sergei Loznitsa (Ukraine) -
The maker of the 2018 "Donbass" documentary about the war in eastern Ukraine returns with a feature film about an idealistic young prosecutor working in the 1930s USSR during Stalin's purges.
Loznitsa told AFP that contemporary Russia "is different from Soviet society in the 20th century, but the essence is the same".
- 'Eagles of the Republic' by Tarik Saleh (Sweden/Egypt) -
A thriller about an adored Egyptian actor forced to make a propaganda film that takes direct aim at the country's real-life sitting president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
"This film is not a satire - unfortunately," Saleh told journalists.
- 'Young Mothers' by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Belgium) -
The Belgian brothers, who have already won the Palme d'Or for best film twice, tell the story of five teenage mothers grappling to adapt to their new responsibilities in their native Belgium.
The Guardian newspaper gave the film a rare five-star review, calling it a "poignant, compassionate work of unforced social realism".
- 'Sound of Falling' by Mascha Schilinski (Germany) -
A haunting tale of trauma featuring four generations of women growing up on a farm house in east Germany.
Schilinski is little known, but her film became an early favourite, with the Hollywood Reporter saying it was a "movie that resembles nothing you've quite seen before".
- 'Nouvelle Vague' by Richard Linklater (US) -
A feel-good drama, stylishly filmed in black and white, that reimagines the filming of Jean-Luc Godard's all-time cinema classic "Breathless" in Paris in 1959.
The Hollywood Reporter has described it as a "charming and well-researched homage".
- 'Sirat' by Oliver Laxe (Spain) -
A genre-twisting road movie with echoes of cult classic "Mad Max", this inventive story with several dramatic twists is set amid the travelling rave community in Morocco.
Set to a thumping soundtrack, it had some viewers in raptures, but even director Oliver Laxe acknowledged that it wouldn't please everyone because of its experimental nature.
- 'The Mastermind' by Kelly Reichardt (United States) -
British star of "The Crown" Josh O'Connor plays a young father with a questionable plan for an art heist in a tale set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War and the women's liberation movement.
Variety praised it as "gorgeously rumpled", while The Guardian said it was "engrossingly downbeat".
- 'The History of Sound' by Oliver Hermanus (South Africa) -
O'Connor stars again, this time alongside Irish actor Paul Mescal, in a period drama that tells the story of two musicians who fall in love while recording American folk songs in the 1910s.
Variety has described the film as "'Brokeback Mountain' on sedatives", but Mescal called such comparisons to the 2005 film "lazy and frustrating".
- 'Die My Love' by Lynne Ramsay (Britain) -
A stifling portrait of mental health problems featuring Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence as young parents.
Lawrence delivers an unsettling performance as a mentally ill mother, throwing herself wholeheartedly into the role in pursuit of a Best Actress award.
- 'Romeria' by Carla Simon (Spain) -
The Spanish director returns to her traumatic childhood with a story featuring an 18-year-old unravelling her biological parents' drug-using past thanks to a diary and slip-ups from a band of newly discovered relatives.
- 'The Phoenician Scheme' by Wes Anderson (United States) -
A typical madcap comedy-drama by the American director about a maverick European tycoon, with an A-list cast including Benicio Del Toro, Scarlett Johansson and Mia Threapleton, Kate Winslet's daughter.
- 'Renoir' by Chie Hayakawa (Japan) -
A prepubescent girl flirts with amateur parapsychology and dial-up telephone dating during one tough 1980s summer as her father lies dying in hospital.
- 'The Secret Agent' by Kleber Mendonca Filho (Brazil) -
A man is hunted for mysterious reasons during the Brazilian dictatorship of the late 1970s in this thriller that has been tipped for glory by some critics.
- 'The Last One' by Hafsia Herzi (France) -
A third film from actor-turned-director Herzi, this is a coming-of-age tale centred on a teenage Muslim girl in Paris who faces a struggle with her identity and religion as she explores her homosexuality.
Winner of the Queer Palm on Friday which is awarded to the best film with a LGBTQ theme.
- 'Eddington' by Ari Aster (US) -
Joaquin Phoenix stars in this darkly satirical and violent take on America's culture wars set in a small New Mexico town.
- 'Alpha' by Julia Ducournau (France) -
Critics were left disappointed by the French director's latest film about a young girl confronted with an epidemic in the 1980s, four years after she won the Palme d'Or with "Titane".
- 'Woman and Child' by Saeed Roustaee (Iran) -
Roustaee's last film in Cannes three years ago landed him with a suspended jail term back home, while this feature about a widow in Tehran has approval from Iran's censors and struggles for depth and realism.
- 'Dossier 137' by Dominik Moll (France) -
A French investigator looks into a case of police violence during the country's "Yellow Vest" anti-government protests in 2018 in a low-budget detective thriller carried by lead actress Lea Drucker.
- 'Resurrection' by Bi Gan (China) -
The director of 2018's "Long Day's Journey Into Night", which was also presented in Cannes, returns with a sci-fi detective movie that is poetic and sensory, brimming with innovative aesthetics and long takes.
- 'Fuori' by Mario Martone (Italy) -
A biopic about Italian actor and writer Goliarda Sapienza and her friendship with former cellmates she met while incarcerated in a Roman prison from this veteran Italian filmmaker.