Cannes 2025: Ducournau returns and Spike Lee plays Out of Competition
Thursday, April 10, 2025 at 7:00PM 
HIGHEST 2 LOWEST will bring Denzel Washington to Cannes for the first time since 1993.
Thierry Frémaux and company have announced the 78th Cannes Film Festival lineup, with many familiar faces returning to the Main Competition. Former Palme d'Or victors Julia Ducournau and the Dardenne brothers are back in the race, while Golden Bear champion Carla Simón will present her first feature since Alcarràs took Berlin by storm. Speaking of the German fest, Richard Linklater just directed Andrew Scott to an award there and will now bow his Nouvelle Vague at the Croisette. Juliette Binoche will preside over the jury to decide these filmmakers' fates, but we're still awaiting updates regarding the other jurors.
Our own Elisa Giudici will be on the ground covering the fest for The Film Experience as she's been doing for the past few years. I'll try to offer another edition of Cannes at Home for those battling cinephile FOMO. In any case, here's the full Main Competition slate Elisa will be considering in a month's time…
ALPHA, Julia Ducournau
After taking the Palme d'Or for Titane, Ducournau is back with her first English-language film. Alpha is a period piece, set in a fictional city during the 80s, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, following a family where one of the parents falls ill. As in the director's previous projects, the protagonist is a young woman entangled in her family's plight, confronting mortality and the body's fragility. Some have called this Ducournau's most personal work yet. Golshifteh Farahani, Tahar Rahim, Emma Mackey, and Finnegan Oldfield make up part of the cast.
DOSSIER 137, Dominik Moll
This French drama concerns an internal investigation into the French police, starring Léa Drucker – who should have won the Cannes Best Actress prize for Last Summer – as a woman troubled by what the titular case reveals, unravels, mayhap incurs. Dominik Moll is a mainstay of the European festival circuit, and comes to this 78th Cannes still enjoying the afterglow of his Night of the 12th triumph – the film swept the 2023 Césares, earning the director three different awards. For those who loved her in Saint Omer and The Beast, it should be noted that Guslagie Malanda is also part of Dossier 137's main cast.
EAGLES OF THE REPUBLIC, Tarik Saleh
Like the Swedish director's previous Cairo Conspiracy and The Nile Hilton Incident, Tarik Saleh's Eagles of the Republic eschews a Scandinavian setting to explore an Egyptian milieu. Fares Fares returns to Saleh's cinema as a celebrated actor who finds himself prosecuted overnight, from an Arabic superstar to a man on the verge of losing everything. This is only the second time the Swedish filmmaker vies for the Palme. Last time, he lost the top prize but took the Best Screenplay award.
EDDINGTON, Ari Aster
Despite being one of the most controversial but well-regarded filmmakers of his generation, Ari Aster has still to present any of his works in competition at a major festival. That will change with Eddington, his fourth feature. It's said to be a dark comedy cum western, set in New Mexico during the height of the 2020 lockdown. The cast is an all-star affair, including Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, and Joaquin Phoenix in main roles. We'll see if this is more Hereditary or Beau is Afraid as far as critical and popular reception is concerned. A24 is probably rooting for the former, but you never know.
FUORI, Mario Martone
Remember those Old Hollywood melodramas set in women's prisons? Mario Martone is giving them a contemporary Italian spin with Fuori, the story of a writer who finds herself behind bars, bonding with her young fellow inmates. Valeria Golino stars, playing the lead role in what is sure to be a showcase for the Volpi Cup-winning thespian. At least, that's the expectation. Nostalgia, Martone's last film to compete at Cannes, was one hell of a love letter to the talents of its own superstar lead, Pierfrancesco Favino.
THE HISTORY OF SOUND, Oliver Hermanus
Don't you love when Josh O'Connor plays queer? He seems to have a knack for it and will be paired with Paul Mescal for this literary adaptation. Set during World War I, the romance will follow two men trying to record a sonic record of their compatriots. After Moffie, Living, and the campy period provocations of Mary & George, South African cineaste Hermanus seems to be on a hot streak. Let's hope this highly anticipated title doesn't disappoint.
THE MASTERMIND, Kelly Reichardt
Josh O'Connor also stars in Reichardt's Showing Up follow-up, another war movie of sorts. But, this time, the background for human drama shall be the Vietnam War, and the plot concerns an art theft. Gaby Hoffmann, John Magaro, Bill Camp, Alana Haim, and Hope Davis complete the main cast. Over the years, Reichardt has been a regular American presence at European film festivals, but this is only her second time in the main competition at Cannes. Showing Up left the French Riviera empty-handed, but Mastermind might get more love. It certainly sounds more ambitious.
NOUVELLE VAGUE, Richard Linklater
Earlier this year, Linklater took Blue Moon to Berlin, and now he's at Cannes. Who does he think he is? Hong Sang-soo? In any case, this is the latest in a series of films contemplating the French vanguard that shook world cinema in the 1960s. Specifically, Nouvelle Vague shall follow the production of Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard's debut feature. Guillaume Marbeck will play the Cahiers du Cinema critic turned director, while Zoey Deutch will be Linklater's Jean Seberg.
LA PETITE DERNIÈRE, Hafsia Herzi
You may not have seen Herzi's work as a director, but you have likely seen her act. The Tunisian-French artist has starred in many an Abdellatif Kechiche film, Bertrand Bonelo's House of Tolerance and the much ballyhooed The Source from Radu Mihăileanu. She's acted alongside the likes of Isabelle Huppert and Catherine Deneuve, and even earned herself a Best Actress César for Stéphane Demoustier's Borgo. Now, she will adapt Fatima Daas' autobiographical novel, The Last One, for the big screen.
THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME, Wes Anderson
It might seem like Wes Anderson is always at Cannes, but this is only his fourth film in competition. The Phoenician Scheme continues to explore the same hyper-artifice laced with melancholy that's characterized much of his recent oeuvre, telling the story of a family and their business. The cast, as always, is stacked with big names and the same could be said about the crew. In front of the cameras, you have Benicio del Toro, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Bryan Cranston, Rupert Friend, Michael Cera, Richard Aoyade, Jeffrey Wright, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Riz Ahmed, Hope Davis, and Matthieu Amalric. Behind the cameras, there's Roman Coppola, Bruno Delbonnel, Alexandre Desplat, Adam Stockhausen, and Mark Coulier.
RENOIR, Chie Hayakawa
For her last feature, Plan 75, Chie Hayakawa had the honor of representing Japan in the Oscar race. Her follow-up, Renoir, sounds even more ambitious than that peculiar, pseudo-futuristic exploration of state-promoted euthanasia. This time, the director will consider a coming-of-age story that's also the portrait of a family struggling for connection. The cast counts with Lily Franky, so beloved from his collaborations with Hirokazu Kore-eda, in one of the principal roles, mayhap the patriarch.
ROMERÍA, Carla Simón
After Summer 1993 and Alcarràs, I'll follow Spanish director Carla Simón anywhere. Moving her gaze from Cataluña to her country's Atlantic coast, the director, who won the Berlinale a few years ago, considers the life of Marina, a young woman navigating her way through an existence defined by being orphaned at a young age. Behind the camera, Simón is collaborating for the first time with master French DP Hélène Louvart. Which means that, whatever the film's general quality, Romería will be one of the most beautiful things screened at Cannes in 2025.
THE SECRET AGENT, Kleber Mendonça Filho
Brazilian cinema is having a moment right now as far as international relevance and acknowledgment are concerned. Mendonça's return to fiction filmmaking after the documentary pleasures of Pictures of Ghosts is the sole representative of Latin-American cinema, making it even more critical as the marker of a tradition Frémaux and his programmers so often ignore. A 1970s period film, The Secret Agent considers a time of dictatorship, when a man with a troubled past comes to the city of Recife in hopes of building a new life. Wagner Moura stars in the lead role, while Udo Kier is back under Mendonça's direction having already played delicious neo-colonial villainy in his Bacurau.
SENTIMENTAL VALUE, Joachim Trier
Norwegian auteur Joachim Trier returns to English-speaking cinema with Sentimental Value, his second project with Worst Person in the World star Renate Reinsve. Elle Fanning, Stellan Skarsgard, and Corey Michael Smith also appear in the picture, a dramedy about family, memories, and the power of art. One must presume such descriptions are partially tongue-in-cheek, considering how the title itself seems to call attention to the naked sentimentality on display. Trier hasn't yet missed – Louder Than Bombs is underrated – so he's got my complete confidence with this one.
A SIMPLE ACCIDENT, Jafar Panahi
If you've been reading The Film Experience for some years now, you may realize how much the cinema of Jafar Panahi means to me. One of my favorite contemporary directors, the Iranian filmmaker, continues to push boundaries. Broadly described as a mystery, A Simple Accident is a European coproduction that might have been partially made during Panahi's temporary freedom, between travel bans, when he was in France before returning to Tehran. It'll be curious to see if the director will be at the Croisette to present his work or if he'll be again, watching from afar, under arrest.
SIRAT, Óliver Laxe
It's been many years since multiple Spanish films competed for the Palme d'Or. However, considering how Spain has been producing some of the best cinema in the world right now, this honor shouldn't be surprising. Indeed, Laxe already proved he has what it takes to be a master of the medium with Fire Will Come, an impressionistic neorealist exercise that paints the screen aflame in its meditations on wildfires. Sirat seems more conventional, following a father looking for his missing daughter in North Africa. Sergi López stars in the lead role.
SOUND OF FALLING, Mascha Schillinski
Up-and-coming German auteur Mascha Schillinski considers a remote farm whose weathered walls keep dark secrets that bind four decades of women in shared trauma. The premise sounds intriguing, as do the few images that have already been released, hinting at an austere exercise with some haunting possibilities.
TWO PROSECUTORS, Sergei Loznitsa
Look no further than Sergei Loznitsa's filmography to corroborate notions of Cannes' provincialism. Though the director weaves his career freely between fiction and nonfiction, only his narrative work gets programmed in the Croisette's Main Competition. What a shame, since some of his most interesting films lie in the realm of documentary. That said, I'm very excited for Two Prosecutors, a 1937-set historical drama about corruption in Stalin's USSR. Alexander Kuznetsov, so strikingly tragic in Why Don't You Just Die!, plays the lead.
THE YOUNG MOTHER'S HOME, Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne
Up until Two Days, One Night, every Dardenne film premiered in the Main Competition won something at Cannes. That hot streak resulted in two Palme d'Ors, among many other honors, but it stopped in 2014. The last few works of this Belgian duo have been mostly ignored, even when met with positive reviews and a couple of jury awards that critics tend to overlook. Maybe The Young Mother's Home will prove a return to form or, at least, public acclaim. One thing's for sure: their filmography's influence on European social realist cinema is impossible to overstate.
So, it's business as usual for Frémaux, whose selections continue to skew heavily European and North American. Only three films differ, and, though we have six women directors recognized, that's still far too little in 2025. Especially when one sees what pictures have been thrown in parallel, slightly secondary festival sections. Speaking of which, why is Sebastian Lelio's latest, a musical experiment if descriptions are to be believed, not in the Main Competition? It's not like Chilean cinema is over-represented on that front despite its excellence in the 21st century. And what about Rebecca Zlotowsky, who already competed for the Golden Lion in Venice, whose Vie Privée will screen without its leading lady, Jodie Foster, being eligible for any of the festival's high honors?
Other strange selections include Spike Lee's Kurosawa remake Highest 2 Lowest in the Out of Competition section. Zlotowski and the Oscar winner aren't the only past Palme contenders who've found themselves snubbed. That damned Cannes Premiere section – Remember the Victor Erice kerfuffle two years ago? – will see the bowing of such films as Fatih Akin's Amrum, Kirill Serebrennikov's The Disappearance of Josef Mengele, and Raoul Peck's Orwell: 2+2=5. Andrew Dominik's Bono will be in the Special Screenings program alongside Sylvain Chomet's much-anticipated The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol. Come on, Thierry! Select some animation and documentaries along with all those prestige-seeking dramas.
Sadly, Cannes has grown more conservative in selection taste as of late, probably as a result of its growing tie with the awards season. With Parasite, something seemed to change in the status quo, suddenly consolidating this erstwhile celebration of world cinema as a stop on the road to Oscar gold. While this may make the Academy look bolder, it only hurts Cannes, as it defangs its supposed risk-taking impetus, its vanguard spirit. Consider the sheer amount of starry English-language films in the main competition. Anora was the last nail in the coffin. I don't know about you, but I hate this, especially as Venice seems to be going the same way, with its director openly bragging about the amount of eventual Oscar nominees that had their world premieres at the festival.
Oh well... we'll probably see more titles added to the Main Competition in the next few weeks. There's much speculation about new films by Karim Aïnouz, Bi Gan, Robin Campillo, Lav Diaz, Koji Fukada, Jim Jarmusch, Lucrecia Martel, Na Hong-Jin, Lynne Ramsay, Carlos Reygadas, and Alice Winocour, which might or might not be ready for a May world premiere.
Which of these titles sparks the greatest curiosity and excitement for you? Any early bets for the Palme d'Or?
Reader Comments (11)
I haven't found that Cannes is getting more conservative, but this lineup looks surprisingly un-provocative.
Hopefully some of the lesser-known filmmakers are bringing the shock.
This sounds like a great Cannes. Lee, Linklater, Wes, Ducournau, Panahi, Trier, Filho, Reichardt, Fatih Akin, Raoul Peck. Scarlett Johannson's directorial debut, starring June Squibb! A new Mission Impossible movie! Fingers crossed that I can see them all on the big screen at my local cinema, where they belong.
I'm very upset that ViePrivee isn't in competition so thank you for giving tthat a shoutout. I think that project sounds so exciting given the directors and cast (JOodie + VIRGINIE FUCKING EFIRA i mean... what a duet that might be)
I hate it when Spike Lee does remakes since his originals are where it's at. (sigh)
Since Cannes always adds a few main competition titles to the list I'm really hopeful about the onds in bold from those you listed...
Oh and i am beyond thrilled about SENTIMENTAL VALUE. The cast is just delicious though I do wonder about the language and family dynamic... like why are half of them nordic and then Elle and Corey?
Mike in Canada -- I should clarify that I don't mean conservative in terms of politics or values. More in terms of risk-taking and cinematic form. For the past few years (not sure about 2025, though), Berlin has put Cannes to shame regarding the bold visions they've highlighted. For example, I can't imagine something like Godard's GOODBYE TO LANGUAGE or THE IMAGE BOOK getting into the Main Competition now and that's sad to me.
NATHANIEL R -- Efira was also fantastic in Valérie Donzelli's 2023 film JUST THE TWO OF US. Another example of a film starring Efira by a woman director previously in competition that was, for some unfathomable reason, shunted to the less prestigious parallel sections.
I imagine Trier is trying his hand at English-language cinema again, even if for only part of the movie. I like LOUDER THAN BOMBS - tremendous Huppert performance - so I'm confident he'll pull it off. Which is not always the case with international auteurs, as we well know.
Claudio: That was how I took it, and I see conservative's opposite as contentional/safe. I don't think those Godard titles would have gotten in in the past if they weren't made by Godard, so I can't get too upset at the lack of formally daring titles.
But I want scandal, and boos, and squirming. I want Neon Demons and Knife + Hearts and Kinatays, even if I don't love the end film. I want salacious, depraved titles at Cannes. This list doesn't promise anything like The Substance or Titane, even though those are the kinds of titles that break through nowadays.
(I also want slow, meditative cinema and politically engaged cinema and every-corner-of-the-world cinema, but at Cannes I think someone needs to bring the crazy.)
That said, I'm reacting only to these sort of nutshell plot descriptions in the post. So I'm just hoping that a couple of these are hiding a descent into hallucinogenic madness behind their plot synopsis.
Mike in Canada -- Love you mentioning NEON DEMON and KNIFE + HEART. Like you, I hope these films can deliver and I'm sure some of them will. I guess my complaining about conservative selections is that I want to be surprised and it feels like I often get that more out of Un Certain Regard, Cannes Premieres and Directors' Fortnight than the main competition as of late.
"I also want slow, meditative cinema and politically engaged cinema and every-corner-of-the-world cinema, but at Cannes I think someone needs to bring the crazy." - I feel the Main Competition should encompass it all and I believe it can with the right selecting criteria and mindset.
I must say ALPHA will probably deliver on the crazy. It's Ducournau, after all, even if the project's description seems to suggest something less insane than her last two features.
I hope it is a good festival though I have no interest in the new Mission Impossible as I hope someone goes to the red carpet wearing a t-shirt with the words "I Fucking Hate Tom Cruise" written in blood.
@Claudio - Thank you for this great write-up. Really thrilled for ALPHA and I hope other titles will join in delivering the crazy ^^
You said Rebecca Zlotowski was a past Main Competition competitor, but I'm not sure about that. I.think she only screened previously in Un Certain Regard and Director's Fortnight.
And about the Dardenne brothers, it's true that "Two Days, One Night" and "The Unknown Girl" went home empty-handed. But they did win awards for their two subsequent features : "The Young Ahmed" (Best Director) and "Tori & Lokita" (special Jury prize). With this, they have literally won every existing Cannes award (Palme, Grand Prix, jury prize, Director, screenplay, actress, actor).
Arnaud Trouvé -- I've rephrased the Dardenne portion. And I've corrected the Zlotowski one, since I mixed up Venice and Cannes with her. She's already competed for the Golden Lion with OTHER PEOPLE'S CHILDREN, but not the Palme d'Or. Thank you for mentioning these errors on my part so I could rectify them.
Can't wait for Ari Aster and Deirdre O'Connell's big movie break. Love the Dardennes. High hopes for Carla Simon.
Binoche is going to push for new names.