For the past few years, the Cannes Film Festival has been riding high. Yes, the sun-soaked grande dame of European showcases has always been influential, but ever since Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite scooped the Palme d’Or in 2019 and went on to take the Academy Award for best picture in 2020, it has become something of an Oscars incubator. A case in point: Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round in 2020; Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car in 2021; Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest in 2023; and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, and Sean Baker’s Oscar-dominating Anora just last year. So what of Cannes 2025?
This time around, 2024’s jury president, Greta Gerwig, is passing the baton to national treasure Juliette Binoche—the first time one woman has succeeded another in this role in 60 years—and the honorary Palme d’Or for lifetime achievement is due to be presented to industry stalwart Robert De Niro. Meanwhile, the official selection includes the directorial debuts of two festival favorites (Harris Dickinson’s London-set Urchin and Scarlett Johansson’s June Squibb and Chiwetel Ejiofor-led Eleanor the Great) alongside a whole host of frothy comedies, epic blockbusters, sweeping romances, and awards hopefuls.
Ahead of Cannes 2025, set to run from 13 to 24 May, these are the 10 releases you just can’t miss.
The Phoenician Scheme
Hot on the heels of his last two Cannes-premiering features, The French Dispatch and Asteroid City, Wes Anderson’s latest exquisitely crafted romp is—wait for it—a blood-soaked crime drama featuring plane crashes, fist fights, and giant explosions. With Benicio del Toro in the part of an embattled tycoon and Kate Winslet’s daughter and rapidly rising star Mia Threapleton as his heir apparent—alongside (deep breath) Michael Cera, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Riz Ahmed, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Benedict Cumberbatch, Charlotte Gainsbourg, and Willem Dafoe—it’s a wild adventure across deserts and jungles, oceans and cornfields, marking a welcome change of pace for the beloved auteur.
The History of Sound
Heartthrobs Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, both recently at the festival with Aftersun and La Chimera, respectively, return with this love story from Living helmer Oliver Hermanus, the tale of two men who set out to record the lives, voices, and folk music of their compatriots in rural New England during World War I. It’s been a long time coming, given it was first announced back in 2021, but everything we know so far—from the fact that Mubi is distributing it, to the news that Ben Shattuck, who penned the ravishing short story on which it’s based, is behind the adaptation—suggests it’ll be worth the wait.
Eddington
A pandemic-era, pitch-black comedy-meets-contemporary western from mind-melter Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar, Beau Is Afraid), this hotly anticipated entry casts Joaquin Phoenix as an ambitious sheriff in small-town New Mexico who flouts public health restrictions and goes head to head with the community’s incumbent mayor (Pedro Pascal) at a divisive election in the midst of the first 2020 lockdown. Still not ready to revisit this bleak period of recent history? I hear you, but with the likes of Emma Stone, Austin Butler, and Micheal Ward filling out this ensemble, and the director sure to infuse the film with the surreal humor and horror that’s become his trademark, I’m afraid it will be essential viewing.
Highest 2 Lowest
Despite being left off the initial line-up announcement, Spike Lee has, thankfully, confirmed that his next thriller, an English-language reimagining of the 1963 Akira Kurosawa police procedural High and Low, will indeed be premiering out of competition at Cannes. Taking center stage is Denzel Washington—who’ll be coming to the Croisette for the first time, no less—as a New York music mogul at the height of his fortune who faces a crucial decision. Joining him is a fittingly eclectic troupe spearheaded by Jeffrey Wright, Ice Spice, and A$AP Rocky.
Splitsville
In this fizzy comedy, Hit Man breakout Adria Arjona asks for a divorce from her good-natured husband (Kyle Marvin), prompting him to turn to his friends (Dakota Johnson and Michael Angelo Covino, also the film’s director) for support. The secret to their successful union, though? An open marriage—a revelation that shocks our leading man to his very core, and pushes him to make a very reckless move. Nicholas Braun and O-T Fagbenle provide support, too, in what is certain to be a juicy and fascinating examination of modern relationships, akin to the auteur’s last Cannes release, 2019’s The Climb.
Nouvelle Vague
If you, like me, grew up obsessed with the French New Wave films of the late ’50s and early ’60s, and Jean-Luc Godard’s groundbreaking debut Breathless, in particular—the poetic, Parisian mood piece centered on a chain-smoking Jean-Paul Belmondo and a gamine, pixie-cropped Jean Seberg, still an enduring fashion reference—then you’re in for a treat: Richard Linklater’s much-buzzed-about new project is a behind-the-scenes look at that film’s creation and the cinematic movement it birthed, featuring Guillaume Marbeck as Godard, Zoey Deutch as Seberg, and Aubry Dullin as Belmondo. Where else could it possibly launch but at Cannes?
Sentimental Value
Surely one of the best films of this decade so far, Joachim Trier’s dazzling coming-of-age saga The Worst Person in the World, which made a global star of its enchanting lead, Renate Reinsve, took Cannes by storm back in 2021. Now, the pair are back with their follow-up, alongside Stellan Skarsgård, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, and Elle Fanning: an achingly intimate account of two sisters who reconnect with their estranged father, a prolific filmmaker, after the death of their mother. Expect tears, a meditation on the reconciliatory power of art, and, all being well, another expertly pitched Oscar campaign.
Alpha
Fearless provocateur Julia Ducournau, who made Cannes audiences gag with the rip-roaring cannibal horror Raw and then became only the second woman to scoop the Palme d’Or in 70 years with the bizarre, no-holds-barred Titane, is tearing into the festival with a nerve-jangling third offering—and it’s sure to get the town talking. Billed as the auteur’s most personal and profound work to date, it features Tahar Rahim and Golshifteh Farahani, and tracks a schoolgirl who becomes a pariah following a rumour that she’s been infected with a new disease. Let the inevitable eye-popping, stomach-churning bloodbath commence.
The Mastermind
After 2022’s gentle, meditative, Michelle Williams and Hong Chau-led artist’s portrait Showing Up, indie darling Kelly Reichardt returns to Cannes with another knockout cast—Josh O’Connor, John Magaro, Alana Haim, Hope Davis, and Gaby Hoffmann—in another quirky art world yarn: the barnstorming story of a man who orchestrates an audacious art heist against the backdrop of both the Vietnam War and a burgeoning women’s liberation movement. Look forward to ’70s aesthetics, nods to the small-scale crime capers of that era, and a dissection of that period’s sociopolitical upheaval.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
Cannes can’t get enough of Tom Cruise—the Hollywood legend brought Top Gun: Maverick to the Croisette back in 2022 (complete with a fighter jet fly-by, naturally), so of course all roads led to the French Riviera when it came to celebrating the debut of the eighth (and presumably final) film in the heart-pounding Mission Impossible franchise. Helmed by Christopher McQuarrie and co-starring Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Angela Bassett, and Hannah Waddingham, this is a breathless ride featuring the now 62-year-old action man hanging off planes, jumping off buildings, and beating men to a pulp—undeniably impressive, and perfect for when you need a break from the festival’s usual high-minded fare.
This article was first published on British Vogue.
