After a long introduction from Cannes Film Festival President Iris Knobloch early this morning, the festival’s General Delegate, Thierry Frémaux, made the first announcement of selections for the festival’s 78th edition. In keeping with tradition, the full lineup was not announced – we still don’t know any films that will be playing in the vaunted Directors’ Fortnight or Critics’ Week sections – but the titles that were announced today are an intriguing mix of established auteurs and newcomers that are sure to make an impact when their films hit the Croisette next month. With more than half of the Competition and Un Certain Regard films announced and several major Out of Competition titles announced, we finally have our first glimpse at what could be the best Cannes edition yet.
Or, at least, that’s what you’d expect, given that a record-breaking 2,909 films were submitted to the festival this year. Surely, with a shortlist that deep, only the crême de la crême would make it to the lineup. And yet, many expected films from major auteurs and Cannes alumni were nowhere to be found in today’s announcement. Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love,“ Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest“ (although Spike Lee later revealed on his Instagram the film had been accepted by the festival “Out Of Competition“ and will be announced officially later), Laszlo Nemes’s “Orphan,“ and Christian Petzold’s “Miroirs No. 3“ were widely predicted as sure things to premiere on the Croisette, but are so far nowhere to be found. Similarly head-scratching was the absence of Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut, “The Chronology of Water,“especially since one of the morning’s biggest surprises was the announcement of Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut, “Urchin,“ as part of the Un Certain Regard section. That film, starring Frank Dillane and French rising star Megan Northam, will be joined by Scarlett Johansson’s “Eleanor The Great,“ starring June Squibb. It will be a delight to see the 95-year-old Squibb work the red carpet at Cannes, nearly a decade after “Nebraska“ (another Cannes premiere) shot her to the A-List.
As a first for the festival, this year’s Un Certain Regard section will feature a Nigerian film: “My Father’s Shadow“ from Akinola Davies Jr. The film stars Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù and is set against the backdrop of the 1993 Nigerian presidential election. The first-time filmmaker will find himself alongside the latest from Kei Ishikawa (“A Pale View of Hills”), Arab & Tarzan Nasser (“Once Upon a Time in Gaza”), and Neeraj Ghaywan, returning to Un Certain Regard for the second time with “Homebound.“ The standout of this section’s announcement for me, though, is easily Harry Lighton’s debut “Pillion,“starring Harry Melling (the “Harry Potter“ cast member with by far the most interesting resumé post-Hogwarts) as a timid man who gets swept off his feet by an “enigmatic, impossibly handsome biker“ played by Alexander Skarsgård, who takes him on as his submissive. Queer Palme Jury President Christophe Honoré may be the only person whose eyes are more glued to the screen than mine when this one screens.
One of the more interesting aspects of the Cannes lineup is always which films from established, Cannes-certified auteurs end up premiering outside of the In Competition section. Last year, Alain Guiraudie’s terrific “Miséricorde“ was part of the Cannes Premiere section, even though its quality could have easily stood up to the films in Competition. This year, I hope a similar fate befalls Sebastián Lelio’s follow-up to 2022’s underrated “The Wonder,” “The Wave,“ a musical inspired by the 2018 Chilean feminist protests and strikes. The film marks Lelio’s Cannes debut, but festival veterans Fatih Akin, Kirill Serebrennikov, and Raoul Peck’s latest films will also premiere in this section instead of Competition. The big surprise here is “Splitsville,“ Michael Angelo Covino’s follow-up to 2019’s memorable Un Certain Regard selection “The Climb.“ The NEON release stars Covino and his “The Climb“ partner in crime, Kyle Marvin, as well as Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona.
Apologies to anyone holding out hope that Johnson’s other big 2025 film, Celine Song’s “Materialists,“ would appear at Cannes, but there are other big-name releases premiering here. Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning“ was already announced as premiering outside of Competition, joined today by Rebecca Zlotowski’s “Private Life,“ starring Jodie Foster, Isabelle Huppert and Laurent Lafitte in Thierry Klifa’s “The Richest Woman in the World,“ and ‘L’auberge Español“ director Cedric Klapisch’s latest, “Colours of Time,“ which counts Cécile de France and Suzanne Lindon among its ensemble. The festival will also see the premiere of Andrew Dominik’s Bono documentary “Stories of Surrender“ for music lovers and Sylvain Chomet’s animated Marcel Pagnol film, now titled “A Magnificent Life,“ as Special Screenings.
But the thing that everyone really cares about is the Competition lineup, of which we learned the majority this morning. For all the hubbub sure to be raised about what was not included (yet; only nineteen films have been announced, and the final lineup is usually around two dozen), there’s much to get excited about here, starting with the latest from the impressively prolific Jafar Panahi. It’s always a cause for celebration whenever the Iranian filmmaker releases another film from under the thumb of the government that continues to attempt to silence him, and I’m sure “A Simple Accident“ will be no different. We already knew that Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme“ and Ari Aster’s “Eddington“ would be on this list, and they’ll be joined by a third American, Kelly Reichardt, with “The Mastermind,“ starring Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim, and John Magaro. Somehow, this is only Reichardt’s second film in Competition, following 2022’s “Showing Up“ (“Wendy & Lucy“ played Un Certain Regard). Could this finally be her ticket to a prize?
The announcement of Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha“ in Competition wasn’t a surprise, nor was the latest from Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, “The Young Mother’s Home”. Technically, Oliver Hermanus’s “The History of Sound” wasn’t a surprise either, as it’s been widely tipped for a Cannes Competition slot, but given that all the recent buzz I’ve heard about the film has been negative, I had my doubts that it would show up today. Every year, at least one film in Competition makes the audience ask how the hell it got in – could the Josh O’Connor/Paul Mescal-starrer be that one this year?
On the opposite end of things, I’ve been hearing very good buzz about Mascha Schilinski’s Competition entry “Sound of Falling,“ which follows four girls from different time periods across a century on a German farm. I was very excited to see former Caméra d’Or winner Chie Hayakawa (“Plan 75“) graduate from Un Certain Regard to the Competition with her latest, “Renoir,“ which is not about the French painter, but an 11-year-old girl navigating a challenging summer during Japan’s late 1980s bubble economy. It’s also heartening to see that “Summer 1993“ and “Alcarràs“ director Carla Simon will make her Cannes debut in Competition with her latest, “Romería,“ about a young woman seeking information on her biological father, who died from AIDS.
It’s never exactly a surprise when films about filmmaking, especially French filmmaking, show up in the Cannes lineup, and here’s Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,“ about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s classic “Breathless,“ a film that I cannot wait to watch with an audience of Cahiers du Cinéma readers. There are several César winners in Competition, as always (Dominik Moll just won his second Best Director César for “The Night of the 12th“ and is back at Cannes for the first time since 2005), but the most intriguing to me is Hafsia Herzi’s “La petite dernière.“ Herzi just became the first non-white actress to win the César for Best Actress, and her last film, “Good Mother,“ won an Ensemble prize in the Un Certain Regard section in 2021. The film, an adaptation of a novel about a young woman balancing her faith and family with her ambitions and sexuality, is one of six directed by women in the Competition, only one away from 2023’s record seven. I’m holding out hope that this year will break that record.
Amongst the other Competition films, it feels like two will be duking it out for the Palme d’Or, the most prestigious award in world cinema. The first is Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent,“ starring Wagner Moura as a 40-year-old teacher fleeing from his mysterious past during the final years of Brazil’s military dictatorship. Mendonça’s last two films, “Aquarius“ and “Bacurau,“ both premiered to great acclaim at Cannes, with the latter winning the Jury Prize in 2019. His steady climb up the ranks leaves the Palme as the logical next step, but he needs to watch out for Joachim Trier’s“Sentimental Value.“ The reunion with his “The Worst Person in the World“ Cannes Best Actress Renate Reinsve also stars Elle Fanning, Stellan Skarsgård, and Cory Michael Smith and is being distributed by NEON. The independent studio has distributed the Palme d’Or winner for an unprecedented five years in a row, and Trier could easily follow in Sean Baker’s footsteps. He has an even longer history with Cannes than Mendonça, with “Oslo, August 31,” “Louder Than Bombs,“ and “The Worst Person in the World“ all competing for the Palme. “The Worst Person in the World“ was his best (and most-awarded) film yet, and if he continues his upward trajectory, NEON will likely have another winner on their hands. Obviously, there are still more announcements to be made, but if one of these two films doesn’t win the Palme, this year’s Cannes will have been a most surprising festival indeed.
Which films are you looking forward to the most at this year’s Cannes Film Festival? Anything missing that surprised you? Are you planning to attend the festival this year? Please let us know in the comments section below or on our X account.
