Cannes Film Festival 2025: Best and Worst Films

Additional content by Jason Dietz.

Last year's Cannes Film Festival saw the debut of a film that would go on to win Best Picture at the Oscars early this year. Did the just-wrapped 78th annual fest produce a similar cinematic treasure?

You can't judge a Cannes entry by the length of its standing ovation, but—maybe—you can by the reception it is gifted by film critics. Below, find out what reviewers have been saying about all of the major films debuting at this year's festival, including new features from Spike Lee, Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, Ethan Coen, Ari Aster, Joachim Trier, the Dardennes, Jafar Panahi, Kelly Reichardt, and first-time directors Kristen Stewart and Scarlett Johansson. We begin with this year's award winners ...

The winners

Awards in the main competition were chosen by a jury led by Juliette Binoche that also included Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong, Hong Sang-soo, Payal Kapadia, and more.

Palme d'Or (1st Place)
tbd It Was Just an Accident (Un Simple Accident)

Drama/Thriller | Iran/France/Luxembourg | dir. Jafar Panahi
Neon acquired the film during the festival (release plans tbd)

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi returned to Cannes for the first time since he won Best Screenplay for 2018's 3 Faces with a new film informed by his time in prison. According to TheWrap's Steve Pond, Panahi marries his "wit and humanism with real anger" in this tale of a mechanic who thinks the man who has just entered his shop is the same man who tortured him in prison. The fact that he doesn't know for sure (and the man denies it) leads him on a 24 hour quest to confirm his suspicions. Accident is a "blackly brilliant film," writes Phil de Semlyen for Time Out, adding "Panahi holds this tonal range expertly as laughs give away to a probing, philosophical third act that upends expectations in quietly thrilling style." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian believes it's "another very impressive serio-comic film from one of the most distinctive and courageous figures in world cinema," and Screen Daily's Wendy Ide declares it a "brave picture that confronts injustice head-on and which gives voices to a group of characters (fictional, but drawn from the experiences of real people) who found themselves victims of the regime."

Neon's pickup of Accident during the festival was a propitious one: The distributor now has six consecutive Palme d'Or wins. Two of those six films—Anora and Parasite—went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture.

Grand Prix (2nd place)
tbd Sentimental Value (Affeksjonsverdi)

Comedy/Drama | Norway/France/Denmark/Germany | dir. Joachim Trier
Neon will release the film in theaters (date tbd)

Joachim Trier's follow-up to The Worst Person in the World reunites him with that film's acclaimed star, Renate Reinsve, and his co-writer on all six of his features, Eskil Vogt. They are joined by Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning, and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas for this story of a Norwegian stage actress (Reinsve) and her sister (Lilleaas) who reluctantly reconnect with their estranged father (Skarsgård), a famous film director, after their mother dies. In his review for TheWrap, Chase Hutchinson declares the film a "subtle yet sweeping tapestry of art, family and connection that takes the breath away," and Vanity Fair's Richard Lawson believes "Trier has once again crafted a film that is graceful and limber, thoughtful and surprising." At The Playlist, Gregory Ellwood praises Reinsve's "generational" talent, and Trier's mastery of "delicate, humanist moments," while Graeme Guttmann of Screen Rant believes this "devastating and hilarious movie about family, filmmaking, and the futility of holding onto hurt in the face of great loss" is "the best film of Cannes so far." And THR critic David Rooney writes of this "exquisite" film, "The director's observation of the mutable contracts between sisters, and even more so, fathers and daughters, is intensely affecting in a movie freighted with melancholy but also leavened by surprising notes of humor. As always with Trier's films, its depth of feeling sneaks up on you without announcing itself."

Jury Prize (3rd place)(tie)
tbd Sirât

Drama | Spain/France | dir. Óliver Laxe
Neon acquired rights to the film during the festival (release plans tbd)

The fourth feature from writer-director Oliver Laxe (You All Are Captains, Mimosas, Fire Will Come) and first to play in the main competition at Cannes follows a father (Sergi López) and son as they arrive at a rave deep in the mountains of southern Morocco looking for their lost daughter/sister. Failing at their first stop, they follow a group of ravers to another party in the desert, pushing them to their limits. Variety's Jessica Kiang finds Sirât "extraordinarily strange and nerve-wracking," and praises the film's ability to "trigger your flight instinct while rooting you to your seat." In his review for IndieWire, David Katz describes it as "sui generis and evading any classification, emanating from a wholly personal vision of cinema while not resisting galvanizing, and sometimes crowd-pleasing, pleasures." Writing for Time Out, John Bleasdale similarly declares it "startlingly original, jarringly hilarious and deeply disturbing." And for Rory O'Connor of The Film Stage, the Jury Prize winner is Laxe's "grandest, most adventurous work yet."

Jury Prize (3rd place)(tie)
tbd Sound of Falling

Drama | Germany | dir. Mascha Schilinski
MUBI acquired rights to the film during the festival (release plans tbd)

German writer-director Mascha Schilinski's sophomore feature chronicles the young lives of four girls growing up in the same farmhouse in northern Germany. For Vulture critic Alison Willmore, it's "an astonishing work, twining together the lives of four generations of families with an intricacy and intimacy that feels like an act of psychic transmission." In his 4 (out of 4) star review for the Observer, Siddhant Adlakha writes, "Sound of Falling marvelously tells a century's worth of women's stories by weaving together the psychological, the physical, and even the spiritual, resulting in a dramatic tour de force of mind, body, and soul." And Screen Daily's Wendy Ide sees "a work of striking beauty" and "thrilling ambition realised by an assured directorial vision." The New Yorker's Justin Chang adds, "Schilinski has made a sterling example of one of my own favorite subcategories of movie: the kind that teaches you how to watch it as it's unfolding."

More awards

Other major award winners at this year's festival include:

• Best director: Kleber Mendonça Filho, The Secret Agent
• Caméra d'Or * (for best first feature): Hassan Hadi, The President's Cake
• Best screenplay: Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Young Mothers
• Best actor: Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
• Best actress: Nadia Melliti, The Little Sister
• Special prize: Bi Gan, Resurrection
• L'Oeil d'or (best documentary): Imago (dir. Déni Oumar Pitsaev)

* awarded by a different jury led by Alice Rohrwacher; films screening in any of the various sections are eligible

Un Certain Regard

A jury led by Molly Manning-Walker selected Diego Céspedes' Chilean' AIDS drama The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo as the winner of this year's Un Certain Regard selection, which included 20 feature films.

Directors' Fortnight

This parallel competition (aka Quinzaine 2025) was dominated this year by Belgian feature Wild Foxes, which won awards for the best European entry and the best French-language film. The audience-selected People's Choice award was given to Iraqi film The President's Cake, which also collected this year's Caméra d'Or prize.

Critics' Week ... and others

The Grand Prize in this other major parallel competition went to Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke's oddball romance A Useful Ghost (Pee Chai Dai Ka), in which a man's dead wife is reincarnated ... inside a vacuum cleaner. That film edged out perhaps the competition's highest-profile submission, Left-Handed Girl, which was co-written and produced by Anora's Sean Baker.

And this year's Palm Dog trophy for best canine performance in any festival film went to Panda, an Icelandic sheepdog who portrayed the dog of the same name in the Icelandic dramedy The Love That Remains.

Best of the festival

Below are additional titles generating the most positive buzz at this year's Cannes. That's followed by a list of the remaining notable festival debuts, and then by a recap of this year's duds. Note that any films which previously debuted at other festivals are excluded, as is one film that has already opened in theaters (and have thus been reviewed outside of the festival setting).

tbd Amrum

Drama | Germany | dir. Fatih Akin

After the disappointments of The Golden Glove and Rhinegold, writer-director Fatih Akin returned to impress critics with the most delicate film he has ever made. But that doesn't mean this coming-of-age story, about a boy raised by Nazis who comes to realize who his parents really are, isn't challenging. Akin worked so closely with his mentor, Hark Bohm, who wrote the screenplay based on memories of his youth at the end of WWII, that the film's credits read "A Hark Bohm film by Fatih Akin." THR critic Lovia Gyarkye appreciates how "Akin uses a child's perspective to wrestle with a nation's conception of itself in the waning days of brutality." And TheWrap's Steve Pond believes Amrum is the "rare film that relies on the power of simplicity to tell a story that is anything but simple." In her review for Variety, Tomris Laffly declares it Akin's "most understated yet vastly cinematic work to date, occasionally approaching the great staples of the coming-of-age genre."

tbd The Chronology of Water

Drama | France/Latvia/USA | dir. Kristen Stewart

Kristen Stewart's feature directing debut is an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch's trauma-filled memoir starring Imogen Poots as Lidia, who finds freedom in words after a failed swimming career and battles with alcohol and abuse. Emma Kiely of Collider believes Poots' "transcendent performance" holds together a film that provides "glimpses of what Stewart is capable of" as a director. For The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, this "poetry-slam of pain and autobiographical outrage" is an "earnest and heartfelt piece of work, and Stewart has guided strong, intelligent performances." Writing for Time Out, Christina Newland praises Poots, who "carries the story, giving heart and soul to a performance of a woman who cannot help but careen her way through life like a bull in a china shop." And Screen Rant's Patrice Witherspoon declares this "boisterous spectacle of the female experience directed with pure love and sincerity" to be "art at its finest." IndieWire critic David Ehrlich adds, "There isn't a single millisecond of this movie that doesn't bristle with the raw energy of an artist who's found the permission she needed to put her whole being into every frame, messy and shattered as that might be."

tbd Die, My Love

Comedy/Horror/Thriller | Canada | dir. Lynne Ramsay
Acquired by MUBI during the festival for a reported $24 million

Director Lynne Ramsay returns to Cannes with her first feature film since the 2017 premiere of You Were Never Really Here, which shared the Best Screenplay award that year with The Killing of a Sacred Deer. Adapted with Alice Birch and Enda Walsh from Argentine writer Ariana Harwicz's 2012 novel, Die, My Love stars Jennifer Lawrence as a woman struggling with postpartum depression in the remote countryside with little help from her husband, played by Robert Pattinson. Writing for The Daily Beast, Esther Zuckerman admires Lawrence's "stunningly feral performance," while Time's Stephanie Zacharek lavishes similar praise on the actress, declaring, "It's the kind of performance you go to the movies for, one that connects so sympathetically with the bare idea of human suffering that it scares you a little." At the A.V. Club, Tomris Laffly similarly describes the film as "feral, kaleidoscopic, and gorgeously unhinged [...] a scream of a film about feminine cravings gone unmet, that then explode." And according to Collider's Emma Kiely, "Anchored by a hilarious and devastating tour-de-force performance from Jennifer Lawrence, Die, My Love is immediately a defining film on the beauty and misery of motherhood."

tbd Eagles of the Republic

Drama/Thriller | Sweden/France | dir. Tarik Saleh

Writer-director Tarik Saleh completes his informal Cairo trilogy, following 2017's The Nile Hilton Incident and 2022's Cairo Conspiracy, with this film about George (Fares Fares), an aging star nicknamed Pharaoh of the Screen, who gets "asked" to play Egyptian president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi in a hagiographic biopic. Screen Daily critic Tim Grierson believes it mocks "film industry egos while delivering a chilling commentary about a tyrannical government which imposes its will both through media propaganda and deadly force." Writing for The Film Stage, Caleb Hammond also finds Eagles to be a "compelling, cleverly constructed comedy-thriller with plenty on its mind," and for THR's Jordan Mintzer, "Saleh once again proves himself capable of delivering a solid genre flick with a dark message beneath all the action."

tbd Highest 2 Lowest

Drama/Thriller | USA | dir. Spike Lee
A24 will release the film in theaters on August 22
Apple TV+ will stream the film starting September 5

Spike Lee's latest joint reimagines Akira Kurosawa's High and Low and marks the director's fifth collaboration with Denzel Washington. The latter plays David King, a music mogul who believes his son has been kidnapped, only to discover that the only child of his driver and friend Paul (Jeffrey Wright) has been mistakenly taken in an extortion attempt. King must then decide if he will do the same for Paul's son as he would for his own. According to Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com, "Similar to Lee's public persona, Highest 2 Lowest is a chaos agent of a movie, the kind of lavish, unpredictable crime thriller that zips when you expect it to zoom." THR critic David Rooney thinks Lee delivers a "big, highly polished chunk of movie that's pure enjoyment," and Time's Stephanie Zacharek agrees, declaring, "It's smart, hugely entertaining, and profound in a way that's anything but sentimental." Peter Debruge of Variety adds, "Lee has taken High and Low to new highs, delivering a soul-searching genre movie that entertains while also sounding the alarm about where the culture could be headed."

tbd Left-Handed Girl

Drama | Taiwan/France/USA/UK | dir. Shih-Ching Tsou

More than 20 years after co-directing Take Out with last year's Palme d'Or winner Sean Baker (and producing several of the latter's films), Shih-Ching Tsou has produced and co-written (with Baker, who also edited) her solo directing debut. Uncovering three generations of family secrets in contemporary Taipei, this "accomplished" film "brims with tenderly observed moments," according to THR critic Lovia Gyarkye, creating a "constellation of absorbing stories that deftly highlight the social and economic realities faced by" a single mother and her two daughters. IndieWire's Ryan Lattanzio finds it to be a "visually dazzling experience," and in his review for The Playlist, Carlos Aguilar praises the film's "spontaneity." For Variety, Jessica Kiang writes, "Left-Handed Girl is an assured and lovely portrait of difficult motherhood and painful daughterhood, but it's perhaps most entrancing for its turning-kaleidoscope-view of the director's native city, where the characters are the bouncing beads, but Taipei is the glitter and the dazzle."

tbd My Father's Shadow

Drama | UK/Nigeria | dir. Akinola Davies Jr.
MUBI will release the film in theaters and/or via streaming (date tbd)

Akinola Davies Jr.'s semi-autobiographical tale (written with his brother Wale Davies) follows a father (Sope Dirisu) and his two young sons from their village to the chaotic city of Lagos on June 24, 1993 when Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida annulled the results of the country's first democratic election. Earning a Camera d'Or Special Mention, this "terrific" debut feature is "a thrillingly vital account of the moment when everything changes," according to Wendy Ide of Screen Daily. For The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, Shadow is a "rich, heartfelt and rewarding movie," and Steve Pond of The Wrap believes it's a "It's a rhapsody of sorts, but a rough one; it examines the nuts and bolts of a family dynamic, but leaves room for mystery and is beautifully elusive." In his review for The Playlist, Carlos Aguilar praises this "alluring and mournful miracle of a picture" and how a "sense of constant discovery permeates the film's visual attributes."

tbd The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo

Drama | Chile/France/Germany/Spain/Belgium | dir. Diego Céspedes

Chilean writer-director Diego Céspedes' debut feature took home the top prize in the Un Certain Regard section of this year's festival. Set in 1982 in a mining town in northern Chile, this look at the AIDS epidemic follows 11-year-old Lidia as she tries to discover the truth behind the rumor that a deadly disease can be transmitted between two men in love by them simply looking into each other's eyes. The Playlist's Gregory Ellwood praises Céspedes' "bold artistic aspirations," and the film's "knockout final shot." Zhuo-Ning Su of The FIlm Stage admits it "may lack a narrative beat or two to fully take flight," but believes Flamingo is still a "finely crafted, deeply affecting tribute to love and community––a piece of proudly, vitally queer art." For Variety's Siddhant Adlakha, this "gentle, funny, passionate, and occasionally absurdist debut drama packs an enormous emotional punch." And Allan Hunter of Screen Daily writes, "Ultimately, Cespedes has created a touching reflection of past times but one that also resonates in a present where prejudice and ignorance are never far away."

tbd Pillion

Drama | UK | dir. Harry Lighton
A24 will release the film in theaters (date tbd)

Director Harry Lighton won Best Screenplay in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival for his adaptation of Adam Mars Jones' novel Box Hill. Lighton's debut feature stars Harry Melling as Colin, a man whose life is changed when he becomes a submissive to a handsome biker played by Alexander Skarsgård. For Vanity Fair critic Richard Lawson, the "beauty" of this "disarmingly poignant drama of discovery" is that "those of us watching on the sidelines are not voyeurs, but rather witnesses to something powerfully complex and human." Zhuo-Ning Su of The Film Stage believes "Lighton should be congratulated for this sharp, daring first feature, one that skirts judgement while exposing (literally and figuratively) so much." And THR's David Rooney appreciates that "Pillion is less about the shock factor of some very graphic gay kink than the nuances of love, desire and mutual needs within a sub/dom relationship." In her review for The Daily Beast, Esther Zuckerman declares Pillion "quite possibly the sexiest movie at Cannes this year, that's also delightfully tender" and "often very funny without ever kinkshaming, thanks to the wry script, Skarsgård's deadpan, and Melling's guilelessness."

tbd The President's Cake

Drama | Iraq/USA/Qatar | dir. Mamlaket Al-Qasab

Winner of two awards—the Camera d'Or (for best debut feature) and the Director's Fortnight People's Choice prize—Hasan Hadi's drama follows nine-year-old Lamia in 1990s Iraq as she struggles to procure the ingredients for a cake to celebrate President Saddam Hussein's birthday at her school. It's an "exceptional screen debut," according to THR's Sheri Linden, who also calls the film a "stirring drama laced with humor." Amber Wilkinson of Screen Daily thinks "Hadi has an eye for detail, echoes and lyrical touches," while IndieWire critic Ritesh Mehta appreciates Hadi's "relatively modest filmmaking that becomes rich because archetype and characterization coordinate the story world." In her review for Variety, Tomris Laffly praises the "superbly balanced humor and drama" in a film that is "still unsparing about the ills of patriarchal society."

tbd Resurrection (Kuang ye shi dai)

Drama/Sci-Fi | China | dir. Bi Gan

Seven years after Long Day's Journey Into Night stunned art-house audiences around the world, Chinese filmmaker Bi Gan is back with his third feature, "a time-tripping, genre-jumping paean to the big screen in which he revives the films he loves and then buries them a second time over—hoping, perhaps, to resurrect cinema in the process," writes Jordan Mintzer in his review for THR. Set in a future world where only Fantasmers dream because humanity has discovered it shortens their lives, Resurrection is "bold and ambitious, visually amazing, trippy and woozy in its embrace of hallucination and the heightened meaning of the unreal and the dreamlike," according to The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, who sees a "work of real artistry." Also starring Shu Qi as a hunter of Fantasmers and featuring a score by M83, it's "a film with the power to fundamentally rewire your brain as it puts itself in conversation with the ghosts of cinema's past," declares Chase Hutchinson for The Playlist. And Zhuo-Ning Su of The Film Stage believes the film deserves the Palme d'Or thanks too its "formal inventiveness, reach of ideas, and sheer audacity to push the boundary of a new cinematic language."

tbd Romería

Drama | Spain/Germany | dir. Carla Simón

Carla Simón's third feature, following 2022's Golden Bear winner Alcarràs, continues in the semi-autobiographical vein of her debut feature, Summer 1993. Over five days in 2004 on Spain's Atlantic coast, 18-year-old orphan Marina (Llúcia Garcia) seeks out her father's family, learning about his death, how they view her mother, and what wealth can and cannot hide. Romería, titled after the Spanish word for pilgrimage, is a "distinctive, intelligent, sympathetic drama," according to Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian. And for Screen Daily critic Wendy Ide, the film "demonstrates once again that Simón has a rare gift for capturing the unpredictable, mercurial beast that is the family." Writing for The Film Stage, Rory O'Connor adds, "Romería has scope, a clear sense of place and personal history, and the unmistakable glimmers of inner life, yet it's aesthetically and formally modest against Cannes' typical fare—the kind of thing that could easily slip through the cracks."

tbd The Secret Agent (O Agente Secreto)

Drama/Thriller | Brazil/France/Netherlands/Germany | dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
Neon acquired rights to the film during the festival and will release it in theaters later this year (date tbd)

In 2019 Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho (Neighboring Sounds, Aquarius, Pictures of Ghosts) won the Jury Prize for Bacurau. This year he won the Best Director prize for his unique version of a political thriller set in 1977 Brazil. The Secret Agent stars Wagner Moura (the fest's Best Actor winner) as a technology expert who flees São Paulo for Recife to reunite with his son and find refuge. For NY Times critic Manohla Dargis, it's a "pleasurably non-formulaic mixture of tones, moods and genres (romantic, dramatic, the pulpiest of fictions)," that "blends the personal with the political as it zigs and zags, takes cinephile detours, tracks back to the past and looks toward the future." IndieWire's David Ehrlich believes "Filho's movie operates at the pace and tenor of a drama in exile, albeit one that's fringed with B-movie fun and stalked by a pair of unscrupulous hitmen." And writing for The Playlist, Carlos Aguilar praises "Moura's radiant performance" in which "the celebrated actor conceives a chameleonic turn that lays out the impressive magnitude of his dramatic talent." THR critic Davis Rooney adds that Mendonça Filho makes Moura "a movie star" in this "thrilling original" that is the director's "strongest yet" and a "major achievement [...] sure to be one of the best films of the year."

tbd Two Prosecutors

Drama | France/Germany/Netherlands/Latvia/Romania/Lithuania | dir. Sergey Loznitsa

Maidan director Sergei Loznitza's last narrative feature, 2018's Donbass, earned him the Directing Prize in the Un Certain Regard section of the festival. Since then he has focused on his documentary work, including State Funeral and Babi Yar. Context. Now he is back in the main competition for the first time since 2017's A Gentle Creature with a story set in 1937 in the Soviet Union where a local prosecutor takes a case of unlawful imprisonment all the way to the office of the Attorney General in Moscow. For Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, Two Prosecutors is a "very disturbing parable of the insidious micro-processes of tyranny" that radiates an "icy chill of fear and justified paranoia." THR critic Jordan Mintzer finds it "impeccably directed and impressively acted," and TheWrap's Steve Pond sees a "quietly horrifying descent into a Kafkaesque nightmare where trying to do the right thing might just be the riskiest choice of all." In his review for IndieWire, David Katz adds, "The effectiveness and subtle suspense of Loznita's visuals are matched by the chamber-piece intensity of the characters' verbal face-offs, dense with specialist jargon and gallows humor, and not giving a damn if you can't keep up."

tbd Urchin

Drama | UK | dir. Harris Dickinson

Actor Harris Dickinson's directorial debut earned lead Frank Dillane the Best Actor prize in Canne's Un Certain Regard section. Dillane plays Mike, who is homeless in London and struggling to break free from a cycle of self-destruction. "While you ponder the tragedy of what you just witnessed, you are left stunned by how talented Dickinson and Dillane are," writes Esther Zuckerman for The Daily Beast, who labels the drama a "remarkably assured directorial debut." Chase Hutchinson of TheWrap praises "Dillane's delicate and devastating performance," and the film as a "breathtaking work of overwhelming humanity and a debut for the ages." Screen Daily's Wendy Ide appreciates how this "gritty social realist character study is spiked with striking and unexpected detours," and IndieWire critic David Ehrlich believes the film "is all the more rewarding for its messy approach to Mike's disarray, which rejects a clear diagnosis in favor of honoring a character who feels like he can't even afford to understand himself."

tbd Yes

Drama | France/Israel/Cyprus/Germany | dir. Nadav Lapid

The latest incendiary film from Nadav Lapid (Synonyms, Ahed's Knee) is a brutally satirical look at the relationship of a musician (Ariel Bronz) and his dancer wife (Efrat Dor) to the Israeli elite in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks. For Screen Daily's Jonathan Romney, this "not for the faint-hearted, and certainly not for fans of Israel's political status quo" film "takes a full-on kamikaze attitude to contemporary political satire," resulting in a film that is "bound to offend on a wide scale, but also exhilarate with its sheer rage and ebullient aggression." Variety's Guy Lodge believes Yes is "exhilaratingly of the moment and in the moment, a filmmaker's immediate, unfiltered response to atrocities too urgent to be addressed with tact or good taste." And Vulture critic Alison Willmore admits that the film "may be rife with despair, but its own power is proof that art isn't entirely futile." IndieWire's David Ehrlich adds, "As sincere in its satire as it is satirical in its sincerity, the deliriously provocative Yes is a veritable orgy of self-loathing surrender that reaffirms Lapid as the world's most visceral director on a shot-by-shot basis."

tbd Young Mothers (Jeunes Mères)

Drama | Belgium/France | dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne

Two-time Palme d'Or winners (for Rosetta and L'Enfant) Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne returned to Cannes—and took Best Screenplay honors—with a film about teenagers living in a house for young mothers, hoping for a better life for themselves and their children. The Times' Ed Potton thinks it's a "worthy but unsurprising social-realist drama." Screen Daily's Wendy Ide believes the film "has a cumulative power and a heartening message of resilience and optimism," but cautions that some of the stories being told "feel thin and underdeveloped." Variety critic Peter Debruge declares this "deeply moving but never manipulative" film to be "the brothers' best film in more than a decade," and for Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, "[G]entleness, compassion and love are the keynotes of this quietly outstanding new movie from the Dardenne brothers."

Other notable debuts (good but unexceptional)

tbd Case 137 (Dossier 137)

Drama | France | dir. Dominik Moll

In 2022, Dominik Moll's police procedural The Night of the 12th (a Metacritic Must-See) premiered out of competition in Cannes. The film went on to win six César Awards, including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. His follow-up plays in competition this year, but it remains focused on the police, switching perspective to that of an Internal Affairs officer played by Léa Drucker. The result is a "piercing slow-burn examination of police brutality [...] [m]ade with the same laser-cut precision as his previous work," according to THR's Jordan Mintzer. Patrice Witherspoon of Screen Rant finds it "fascinating" to watch a "singular character battle all the complexities of morality when it comes to justice, truth, and conflict of interest." And in his review for Variety, Guy Lodge declares it a "clear-eyed, fuss-free and entirely gripping procedural drama," and well as "intelligent, drily seething and duly enraging." Time Out's Lou Thomas adds, "Much like the case itself, a crime drama performed and crafted with this level of care and social resonance is well worth investigating."

tbd Dangerous Animals

Horror/Thriller | Australia | dir. Sean Byrne
IFC will release the film in theaters on June 6

Jai Courtney stars as Tucker, a shark-obsessed serial killer, in the latest from Australian director Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones, The Devil's Candy). After a bloody opening, Nick Lepard's script introduces Zephyr (Hassie Harrison), a tough surfer whom Tucker kidnaps—only to discover that she's more than he bargained for. Writing for TheWrap, Chase Hutchinson admits it "doesn't reinvent the wheel in terms of its broad genre beat and gets less interesting as it goes along," but thinks it still "has plenty of good bones in the bloody chum that it throws out into the water." THR critic David Rooney warns, "Anyone with an aversion to physical and mental torture will likely find Dangerous Animals a repulsive turnoff, but others with a taste for grisly violence should find something juicy to chomp on." And Variety's Peter Debruge sees an "efficient and highly effective thriller" that is "startlingly sleek and quite artful in its appearance." For Brian Tallerico of RogerEbert.com, this "clever genre mash-up [...] works because of how well Byrne blocks its action, employs an old-fashioned score, and directs his actors to visceral performances."

tbd Eddington

Comedy/Drama/Western | USA | dir. Ari Aster
A24 will release the film in theaters on July 18

Set in May 2022, the fourth film from writer-director Ari Aster (Midsommar) stars Joaquin Phoenix as the sheriff of Eddington, New Mexico, a small town quickly going crazy at the height of the COVID pandemic. When he decides to run for mayor against the incumbent (Pedro Pascal), his life and those of his wife (Emma Stone) and other townspeople will be forever changed. Will yours? Well, Kevin Maher of The Times warns that Eddington is "quite the mess," and THR critic David Rooney finds it "annoying and empty" as well as "bloated, self-indulgent, rambling, crazily ambitious and commendably odd." Time's Stephanie Zacharek is a bit kinder, writing, "Eddington is an intelligent, questioning movie. But Aster just tries to pack in too much." And at RogerEbert.com, Brian Tallerico believes it's a "deliberately hollow provocation."

More positive on the film is BBC's Nicolas Barber, who admits it "would probably have been better if it had been more focused (and shorter), but Aster's deranged vision makes most directors seem timid in comparison." In her review for The Playlist, Elena Lazic declares it "the work of a maturing filmmaker eager to make it clear that his dark and scathing sense of humor is anything but an empty provocation." And in his review for Paste, Jason Gorber writes, "Excoriating and exhilarating in equal measure, it is the first truly great movie to deal explicitly with the unique madness and malice that the global pandemic revealed."

tbd Enzo

Drama | France/Italy/Belgium | dir. Robin Campillo

When his longtime collaborator Laurent Cantet (The Class, Time Out) died last year, Robin Campillo (BPM (Beats Per Minute), Red Island), who had already written the screenplay for Enzo with his friend, stepped in to direct the film as well. Set in the South of France, the drama follows Enzo, a 16-year-old starting a masonry apprenticeship, defying the expectations of his educated family. While on the job, Enzo forms a friendship with his mentor, Vlad, a Ukrainian refugee. The credits read "A film by Laurent Cantet, directed by Robin Campillo," and Variety's Peter Debruge finds this fitting, claiming the "result beautifully melds the two filmmakers' sensibilities." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian similarly believes Enzo to be "another powerful, absorbing picture from Campillo and a fitting swan song for Laurent Cantet." And in his review for Screen Daily, Jonathan Romney agrees, "Enzo makes a low-key but resonant coda to Cantet's work, while thematically also being highly consistent with Campillo's directorial output." For The Film Stage, Zhuo-Ning Su writes, "With a touch both sensitive and unsentimental, Campillo finishes this story without dramatized sorrow or unrealistic joy, but something more akin to relief––the knowledge that this boy will be okay."

tbd The History of Sound

Drama | USA | dir. Oliver Hermanus
MUBI will release the film in theaters and/or via streaming (date tbd)

Director Oliver Hermanus's follow-up to Living chronicles the relationship between Lionel (Paul Mescal), a singer from Kentucky, and the more cosmopolitan David (Josh O'Connor), who meet while attending the Boston Music Conservatory in 1917. Ben Shattuck's screenplay, an adaptation of his own short story, ends in the 1980s when an old Lionel is played by Chris Cooper. Hopes were high for this gay romance, but critics ended up divided. Writing for The Independent, Sophie Monks Kauffman claims it's a "slight, sentimental film," while The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw also finds History an "anaemic, laborious, achingly tasteful film." It's not all bad: Ed Potton of The Times praises the "transcendent emotion of the first hour," and The Playlist's Gregory Ellwood agrees it's a "masterful first half of filmmaking." And embracing the whole film are THR critic David Rooney, who believes it "finds quiet power in understatement, its passion and yearning revealed in the eyes of its superb lead actors," and NME's Lou Thomas, who declares it a "beautiful period drama that's as gorgeous as it is heartbreaking."

tbd The Little Sister (La petite dernière)

Drama | France/Germany | dir. Hafsia Herzi

The fourth film from actress-filmmaker Hafsia Herzi is an adaptation of La Petite Dernière (The Last One) by Fatima Daas. Newcomer Nadia Melliti won the festival's Best Actress award for her portrayal of Fatima, the youngest of three sisters in an Algerian family, who leaves the suburbs to live in Paris where she struggles to balance the importance of religion in her life with her newfound freedom. The Playlilst's Gregory Ellwood finds Melliti's "on-screen presence" to be "at times, truly captivating," and Dave Calhoun of Time Out agrees that Melliti is "excellent as Fatima, at once vulnerable and aggressive, and especially powerful in moments of silence and reflection." Variety critic Guy Lodge thinks this "quiet character study" is "affecting but modest work," but in his review for THR, Jon Frosch is more enthusiastic about this "wise, altogether wonderful film" for how it is "vibrantly felt yet impressively controlled—and blessed with a stone-cold stunner of a central performance."

tbd The Mastermind

Drama | USA | dir. Kelly Reichardt
MUBI will release the film in theaters (date tbd)

Set in a small town in 1970 Massachusetts, the latest from writer-director Kelly Reichardt (Showing Up, First Cow) stars Josh O'Connor as JB Mooney, an unemployed father of two boys and husband to Terri (Alana Haim). When he devises a heist to steal four paintings from a local art museum, his life quickly unravels. It's an "engrossingly downbeat heist movie," according to The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, who also finds the film "quietly gripping." THR critic David Rooney characterizes Mastermind as a "'70s movie that looks and feels like a lost '70s movie," and praises Reichardt's ability to "peel away all the usual tropes" to create another of her "singular character studies of struggling Americans." In her review for Variety, Jessica Kiang believes this "quietly fantastic" and "enjoyable film" is an "unmistakably Reichardtian investigation into the fabric of ordinariness and what happens when it frays." And Vulture's Alison Willmore characterizes Mastermind as "modest when you're watching it and downright brilliant once it's had some time to settle in your mind."

tbd Mirrors No. 3

Drama | Germany | dir. Christian Petzold
Metrograph will release the film in theaters (date tbd)

The latest collaboration between writer-director Christian Petzold and actress Paula Beer (following Transit, Undine and Afire) premiered in the Director's Fortnight. Beer stars as Laura, a woman who miraculously survives a car crash and then decides to recover in the home of the woman (Barbara Auer) who witnessed it. In her review for The Playlist, Elena Lazic expresses some disappointment, stating, "After the film elegantly sets its mechanisms in motion, we are left to watch the cogs turn without a hitch, but also without much surprise." More positive is IndieWire critic Ryan Lattanzio, who praises Beer's performance as "another shimmering wonder" and Petzold's latest "as compact as a novella, as ephemeral in its emotion, as delicate in register as one of the Chopin or Ravel pieces that float through it." Screen Daily's Wendy Ide describes Mirrors as "an exercise in economy, pared back to the barest of bones. Although it's a wisp of a thing, it delivers rich rewards," and in his review for The Film Stage, Luke Hicks writes, "It's textbook Petzold, which I mean as a major compliment."

tbd Nouvelle Vague

Comedy | France | dir. Richard Linklater

Shot in black-and-white, Richard Linklater's second new film of the year (following Blue Moon, which premiered in Berlin) is a celebration of filmmaking: specifically, the French New Wave, and even more specifically, the making of Jean-Luc Godard's 1960 classic Breathless. Starring Guillaume Marbeck as Godard, Aubry Dullin as Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg (other actors appear as François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Jacques Demy, Claude Chabrol, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer, Jean-Pierre Melville, Roberto Rossellini, and Robert Bresson), it's "a behind-the-scenes process movie by way of a hangout comedy, and it has been conceived for maximum glide," writes The New Yorker's Justin Chang, adding, "This is an exactingly observed nuts-and-bolts narrative, carried along with an irresistible comic velocity; at no point did I want it to be over with."

Stephanie Zacharek of Time is also enamored of this "sensational" film, calling it an "agile, witty, elegant picture" that "stands strong on the side of art, of history, of working to solve the puzzle of things that maybe at first you don't fully understand. It's both a shout of joy and a call to arms. It's all about the bold, muscular act of caring." For Variety's Owen Gleiberman, Nouvelle Vague is "ingenious and enchanting," another "Linklater gem" that "reminds you that the real salvation of cinema will always come from those who understand that making a movie should be a magic trick good enough to fool the magician himself into believing it." And NY Times critic Manohla Dargis declares it "a testament of film love at its deepest, an ode to cinema and its immortals."

tbd Orwell: 2+2=5

Documentary | USA | dir. Raoul Peck
Neon will release the film in theaters (date tbd)

In his new documentary, Raoul Peck, the director of the James Baldwin documentary I Am Not Your Negro, takes on the legacy of another writer, George Orwell. Inspired by the prescience of Orwell's 1949 novel 1984, Peck's "vital film" is a "sobering reminder of what's at stake in this technology-defined age of doublethink and thoughtcrime, the world that Orwell foresaw and we occupy," writes THR critic Sheri Linden. For Screen Daily's Jonathan Romney, the "clarity and incisiveness of Orwell's language and insights cut through what is otherwise a cluttered sketch towards a much more cohesive film." And in his review for IndieWire, Wilson Chapman finds the documentary "less personal and more generic" compared to Peck's previous films. However, Steve Pond of TheWrap believes the film is an "artful balancing act, one that dips in and out of Orwell 's life and work, but also uses a broad array of reference points as it swings from history to art to the most current of events."

tbd The Phoenician Scheme

Comedy/Drama/Thriller | Germany | dir. Wes Anderson
Focus Features will release the film in a few theaters on May 30 and nationwide on June 6

The new film from director Wes Anderson stars Benicio del Toro as Zsa-zsa Korda, one of the richest men in Europe, and Mia Threapleton (daughter of Kate Winslet) as Liesl, his daughter. She is a nun and the sole heir to his fortune (despite Zsa-zsa having nine sons). Michael Cera (an Anderson newbie who makes himself right at home) accompanies the pair as they try to keep Zsa-zsa's plan afloat while dodging various assassins. Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Mathieu Amalric, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Scarlett Johansson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, and Hope Davis also appear in what is Anderson's first live-action feature without his longtime cinematographer Robert Yeoman (Bruno Delbonnel takes his place). For Time critic Stephanie Zacharek, "Anderson seems to be expressing an indistinct dissatisfaction with the current world order in the best way he can: in a parade of color that's somehow less colorful than usual." Vulture critic Alison Willmore cautions that Scheme is "a movie that makes you long to be able to freeze frames in order to appreciate the loveliness and wit of its details, while at the same time giving you little reason to want to revisit the thing as a whole."

More positive is Kaleen Aftab of Time Out: "Watching this Anderson extravaganza is like assembling a meticulously detailed puzzle: at times frustrating, but deeply rewarding when the full picture comes together."And falling for the film are LWL critic David Jenkins, who calls it an "absolute gas; one of his funniest, most madcap adventures yet," and The Telegraph's Robbie Collin, who praises this "tender, witty, wondrous" movie as "the most Andersonian Anderson film to date – but then again, they all are, and that's the fun of them."

tbd Renoir

Drama | Japan/France/Singapore/Philippines/Indonesia/Qatar | dir. Chie Hayakawa

Three years after earning a special mention from the Camera d'Or jury for Plan 75, writer-director Chie Hayakawa returned to Cannes in the main competition with this coming-of-age story set in 1987 Tokyo. There, 11-year-old Fuki's father, Keiji, is battling a terminal illness, and her mother, Utako, is constantly stressed out from working and caring for Keiji, leaving Fuki (Yui Suzuki) alone to fall deeper into her own fantasy world. Time Out critic Dave Calhoun finds this "tender, loose and slightly whimsical tale" to be "as interesting for what it doesn't show as for what it does," and for Jessica Kiang of Variety, Renoir is a "little more special than the average coming-of-ager" thanks to Suzuki's "unselfconscious gaze" and "original" presence. Screen Daily's Wendy Ide believes it's "poetic without feeling diaphanous and insubstantial, a sharp-edged, cutting examination of the emotional discord of grief and guilt." And in his review for The Film Stage, Rory O'Connor describes it as a "rich and gradually rewarding bildungsroman, a film that can be cold to the touch but leaves much to unpack."

tbd Splitsville

Comedy | USA | dir. Michael Angelo Covino
Neon will release the film in theaters on August 22

Six years after their debut film The Climb won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize, director Michael Angelo Covino and co-writer Kyle Marvin return to Cannes with this comedic look at modern romantic relationships and male friendship. When his wife Ashley (Adria Arjona) asks for a divorce, Carey (Marvin) turns to his best friends, Julie (Dakota Johnson) and Paul (Covino), learning that the success of their marriage hinges on it being open. This revelation triggers a chain of events that complicates the lives of all involved. Writing for Variety, Guy Lodge calls the film a "frenetic romantic comedy that amuses and grates in equal measure," and is inferior to their first film, "Where The Climb was sensitively attuned to frictions and overlaps between different schools of masculinity, Splitsville smashes together alpha and beta archetypes to purely farcical effect." Screen Daily's Tim Grierson appreciates that it's a "rare visually striking indie comedy," but, unfortunately, the "clever dialogue and potentially provocative scenarios eventually fizzle." More positive is Chase Hutchinson in The Playlist, who praises this "dark, delightful, and devious joy of an experience" and "one of the most universally great casts you'll likely see in a film like this in a modern cinematic landscape that is crying out for them." THR critic Jordan Mintzer adds, "The movie never gets too outlandish or silly, revealing how well Covino and Marvin can reap cinematic chaos while remaining firmly in control of their art."

tbd Woman and Child (Zan o bacheh)

Drama | Iran/France | dir. Saeed Roustaee

Iranian director Saeed Roustaee's follow-up to his 2022 competition entry Leila's Brothers stars Parinaz Izadyar as Mahnaz, a widowed 40-year-old nurse with an eight-year-old daughter and a troubled teenage son. When a series of betrayals ruins her hopes of marrying her new boyfriend, she seeks some kind of justice in a system weighted against her. For Variety's Peter Debruge, the psychology of the characters "just doesn't add up," but Ed Potten of The Times sees a "vivid melodrama stuffed with nuanced characters." Writing for IndieWire, Sophie Monks Kaufman believes Izadyar's sustained emotional conviction carries the vision onwards," and Time Out critic Phil de Semlyen declares it a "carefully crafted and endlessly gripping drama."

The disappointments

tbd Alpha

Drama | France/Belgium | dir. Julia Ducournau
Neon will release the film in theaters later in 2025 (date tbd)

In 2021, Julia Ducournau won the Palme d'Or for Titane. Her follow-up is much more divisive. Alpha is an AIDS parable starring Mélissa Boros as a 13-year-old who gets a tattoo on her arm, alarming her mother (Golshifteh Farahani), a doctor already struggling to deal with a virus outbreak, and her drug addict brother (Tahar Rahim). Vulture's Alison Willmore believes the film "fails to fit its various ideas into something greater, not because what it's trying to depict is too complicated but because Ducournau is again juggling too much." Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian dismisses the film as "strident, oppressive, incoherent and weirdly pointless from first to last," and IndieWire critic David Ehrlich similarly believes the director "blurs all of her ideas into a flavorless sludge." On the positive side, Screen Rant's Graeme Guttmann believes "Alpha transcends its flaws to be another stunning, destined-to-be-divisive film from Ducournau," and Therese Lacson of Collider sees a "story that braids themes of love, heartbreak, and grief with delicate dedication." Writing for TheWrap, Chase Hutchinson adds, "[Ducournau] pushes us and herself as a filmmaker into something deeper, creating her most exciting, emotional, existential and eviscerating work yet. It tears through the soul, along with some flesh."

tbd Bono: Stories of Surrender

Documentary/Music | USA/Italy/Ireland | dir. Andrew Dominik
Apple TV+ will stream the film beginning May 30

Andrew Dominik, who has already directed two music documentaries about Nick Cave (One More Time with Feeling, This Much I Know to Be True), now turns his camera on Bono to capture his one-man stage show Stories of Surrender: An Evening of Words, Music and Some Mischief…. Shot at the Beacon Theater and featuring stories from Bono's book and stripped-down versions of U2 songs, It's "strictly-for-fans-only," according to Empire's John Nugent, who also admits that it's "hard to truly dislike this enterprise, because it's all so utterly earnest." For Variety critic Owen Gleiberman, "it all goes down almost a bit too smoothly, without quite hitting you with the force of revelation," but Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com believes "there's enough humility here to make the viewer surrender to the film's melodic charms." Writing for Screen Daily, Nikki Baughan adds, "The result is an intense baring of the soul that is part performance, part confessional and all entertainment."

tbd Eleanor the Great

Drama | USA | dir. Scarlett Johansson
Sony Pictures Classics and TriStar will release the film in theaters (date tbd)

Scarlett Johannsson's feature directorial debut stars June Squibb as Eleanor Morgenstein, a 94-year-old woman who passes off her recently deceased best friend's Holocaust survival story as her own. Tory Kamen's script also introduces Nina (Erin Kellyman), a journalism student who wants to write about Eleanor's experience, and her dad (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a TV news anchor. The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw finds this "odd" film to be "misjudged and naive about the implications of its Holocaust theme." THR critic Lovia Gyarkye thinks the film "lurches between comic set pieces and more dramatic beats, and while Johansson proves a competent helmer, it's not enough to overcome some dizzying tonal imbalances." IndieWire's Kate Erbland is more positive, declaring it a "fascinating, if often baffling first effort from Johannson and Kamen, one not afraid of big emotional wallops, but not always able to carry them into truly revelatory spaces." And Ed Potton of The Times believes "Johansson and her excellent cast nail the big moments and revel in the small ones" in this "tear-inducing and laugh-out-loud funny" effort.

tbd Fuori

Drama | Italy/France | dir. Mario Martone

In 2022 writer-director Mario Martone's Nostalgia played in the Cannes competition, he returns this year with a film about Italian writer Goliarda Sapienza played, fittingly, by Valeria Golino, who directed an adaptation of Sapienza's posthumous work L'arte della gioia (The Art of Joy). Fuori focuses on Sapienza's time in jail for stealing jewelry and the bonds she forms with her fellow inmates which continued on the outside, especially with Roberta (Matilda de Angelis), a political activist who inspired her to return to writing. For THR's Jordan Mintzer, it's "a thought-provoking subject that probably plays better on paper than on screen, urging us to seek out the writer's books once the movie is over." Writing for TheWrap, Chase Hutchinson believes "everyone gets underserved by a shallow script," leaving viewers "closed off from its central figure." And Lee Marshall of Screen Daily finds the film "sometimes engaging, sometimes self-indulgent." However, David Katz writes in his review for IndieWire, "Fuori stands apart as one of the filmmaker's most vibrant and accessible works so far, able to emphasize the story of a powerful and beautiful older woman—with flecks of a classic melodrama or the 'woman's picture'—beyond the heritage concerns of Sapienza's role in Italian letters."

tbd Honey Don't!

Comedy/Thriller | USA/UK | dir. Ethan Coen
Focus Features will release the film in theaters on August 22

Following 2024's Drive-Away Dolls, the second film in a planned lesbian B-movie trilogy from writer-director Ethan Coen and co-writer Tricia Cooke is another queer caper starring Margaret Qualley. This time she plays Honey O'Donahue, a small-town private investigator who investigates a shady pastor played by Chris Evans. Aubrey Plaza shines in a supporting role as Honey's love interest, but for IndieWire's Esther Zuckerman, the film is a "slight work that is too enamored with its own quirkiness to amount to much of anything at all." THR critic Lovia Gyarkye agrees, claiming Honey Don't! is better than its predecessor but ultimately feels like it's "having so much fun with itself that it forgets to let audiences in on the joke." Bill Bria of Slashfilm believes "what the movie lacks in laughs it more than makes up for with a hip savviness that pervades every frame." And Variety critic Owen Gleiberman is also positive, writing, "Honey Don't! is a deliberate throwaway—a knowingly light and funny mock escapist thriller, one that's just trying to show you a flaky good time."

tbd Leave One Day (Partir un jour)

Comedy/Drama | France | dir. Amélie Bonnin

Amélie Bonnin's opening-night film is a musical starring Juliette Armanet as Cécile, a successful chef whose dream of opening her own restaurant in Paris is about to come true. But when her father has a heart attack, she returns to her home village where she reconnects with her high school sweetheart, Raphaël (Bastien Bouillon). It doesn't work for The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw, who finds Leave One Day "listless and supercilious" and "burdened by a trite and naive sentimentality that it doesn't know how to make realistically plausible or transform into romanticism or idealism." Steve Pond of TheWrap sees a "slight character study that strains to be charming but only occasionally gets there." And for Variety critic Owen Gleiberman, it's a "trifle, and not even fully successful on its own small-bauble terms." Slightly more positive is THR's Jordan Mintzer, who finds a "few keen observations and a fair amount of charm" in the film's "boilperlate coming-home scenario."

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All photos above courtesy of Festival de Cannes and Quinzaine 2025.