The official lineup for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival will be announced tomorrow. Festival Director Thierry Fremaux told Variety only a few days ago that only half the competition lineup had been selected and that they had to cram in 50 or so films to finalize their selections. Well, the time is now. Fremaux stated he wanted Christopher McQuarrie’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” and he got it as the eighth and possibly final(?) entry in the nearly 30-year-old franchise was announced as playing Out of Competition yesterday. But what will the rest of the lineup bring us?
As stated before, the international film festival has become a massive launching pad for awards season contenders ever since the Academy’s membership expanded to become more international. In the last five years alone, the festival has given us the following Best Picture nominees: “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood,” “Parasite” (Palme d’Or and Best Picture winner), “Drive My Car,” “Elvis,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Triangle Of Sadness” (Palme d’Or winner), “Anatomy Of A Fall” (Palme d’Or winner), “Killers Of The Flower Moon,” “The Zone Of Interest,” “Anora” (Palme d’Or and Best Picture winner), “Emilia Pérez,” and “The Substance.” International Feature Nominees: “Parasite” (won the Oscar), “Les Misérables,” “Pain And Glory,” “Drive My Car” (won the Oscar), “The Worst Person in the World,” “Close,” “EO,” “The Zone Of Interest” (won the Oscar), “Perfect Days,” “Emilia Pérez,” “Flow,” “The Girl with the Needle,” “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.” And three Best Animated Feature nominees with “I Lost My Body,” “Robot Dreams,” and last year’s winner “Flow” (none of which played in competition at Cannes).
I took my first stab at predictions for this year’s festival a few days ago. Now, I’ve refined my predictions and am presenting them below for the Competition lineup, along with several other titles I feel might play in Un Certain Regard or Out of Competition/Special Screenings/Premieres. Based on their history with the festival, here’s where I am with the following filmmakers and their films for the 78th annual Cannes Film Festival…
In Competition:
Alpha – Julia Ducournau
Calle Malaga – Maryam Touzani
Chocobar – Lucrecia Martel
Die My Love – Lynne Ramsay
The Disappearance Of Josef Mengele – Kirill Serebrennikov
Eagles Of The Republic – Tarik Saleh
Eddington – Ari Aster
Enzo – Robin Campillo
Father Mother Sister Brother – Jim Jarmusch
Fuori – Mario Martone
The Love That Remains – Hlynur Pálmason
The Mastermind – Kelly Reichardt
Miroirs No. 3 – Christian Petzold
Nouvelle Vague – Richard Linklater
Orphan – Laszlo Nemes
The Phoenician Scheme – Wes Anderson
Rosebush Pruning – Karim Aïnouz
The Secret Agent – Kleber Mendoca Filho
Sentimental Value – Joachim Trier
Sound Of Falling – Mascha Schilinski
Yellow Letters – Ilker Çatak
Yes! – Nadav Lapid
Young Mother – The Dardenne Brothers
The Wave – Sebastian Lelio
The Woman And The Child – Saeed Roustayi
Un Certain Regard:
Adam’s Interest – Laura Wandel
Aisha Can’t Fly Away – Morad Mostafa
Behind The Palm Trees – Meryem Benm’Barek-Aloïsi
The Chronology Of Water – Kristen Stewart
Chronicles From The Siege – Abdallah Al-Khatib
Des preuves d’amour – Alice Douard
Don’t Let Me Die – Andrei Epure
The Dreamed Adventure – Valeska Grisebach
Eleanor The Great – Scarlett Johansson
The History Of Sound – Oliver Hermanus
The Last Day – Rachel Rose
La vie d’une femme – Charline Bourgeois-Tacquet
Left-Handed Girl – Shih Ching-Tsou
Love Conquers All – Danielle Arbid
Ma frère – Lise Akoka & Romane Gueret
Paradise – Jeremy Comte
Pillion – Harry Lighton
A Prayer For The Dying – Dara Van Dusen
The Return – Marcela Luchetta
Romería – Carla Simón
Sauver Les Morts – Tamara Stepanyan
Skateboarding Is Not For Girls – Dina Duma
The Stories – Abu Bakr Shawky
Urchin – Harris Dickinson
Out Of Competition/Premieres/Special Screenings/Other Sections:
13 Days, 13 Nights – Martin Bourboulon
Amrum – Fatih Akin
An Affair – Arnaud Desplechin
Beatrice, The Wife – Lav Diaz
A Big Bold Beautiful Journey – Kogonada
Bono: Stories Of Surrender – Andrew Dominik
Bring Her Back – Danny & Michael Phillipou
Couture – Alice Winocour
De Gaulle Partie 1: La France Libre – Antonin Baudry
Duse – Pietro Marcello
Highest 2 Lowest – Spike Lee
Hope – Na Hong-jin
Hurry Up Tomorrow – Trey Edward Shults
I Want Your Sex – Gregg Araki
Lang Lang – Jiang Wen
Love On Trial – Koji Fukada
The Magnificent Life Of Marcel Pagnol – Sylvain Chomet
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning – Christopher McQuarrie (CONFIRMED)
A Pale View Of Hills – Kei Ishikawa
Private Life – Rebecca Zlotowski
Renoir – Chie Hayakawa
Romería – Carla Simon
Silent Friend – Ildikó Enyedi
Splitsville – Michael Angelo Covino
Sons Of The Neon Night – Juno Mak
Tu ne fera point d’image – Kaouther Ben Hania
Two Prosecutors – Sergei Loznitsa
Unidentified – Haifaa al-Mansour
The 78th Cannes Film Festival is set to take place from May 13th to 24th. Juliette Binoche has already been announced as the president of the competition section of this year’s jury. Dan Bayer and I will be attending in-person for this year’s film festival.
Are you excited for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival? Who else do you think will be announced for the Official Competition Jury selection? Are you planning to attend the festival this year? Which films are you most looking forward to seeing? Please let us know in the comments section below or on our X account.
