Cannes Film Festival 2025: What’s in the running?

With just three weeks until the line-up for the Cannes Film Festival 2025 is announced on April 10, Screen takes a look at the films from around the world looking increasingly likely to debut on the Croisette. 

North America 

English-language auteurs Wes Anderson, Lynne Ramsay, Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch and Kelly Reichardt could all unveil their anticipated next films at the Cannes – and if they do, it will drum up the kind of red-carpet glamour Thierry Fremaux loves.

Two years after The French Dispatch played in Competition, Anderson looks a safe bet to return with The Phoenician Scheme, a spy comedy thriller featuring an ensemble led by Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton and Michael Cera. Focus Features holds worldwide rights.

Ramsay’s rural America comedy horror Die, My Love stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson and is a strong contender. Every single one of the UK director’s films, dating back to Ratcatcher in 1999, has debuted at Cannes. This latest is produced by Andrea Calderwood and Lawrence’s company Excellent Cadavar.

Lee’s Akira Kurosawa crime thriller adaptation Highest 2 Lowest from Apple Original Films stars Denzel Washington and would see the filmmaker return four years after he presided over the Cannes jury and seven years after he premiered BlacKkKlansman. A24 distributes theatrically in the US.

Jarmusch has been polishing off the family comedy-drama Father Mother Sister Brother starring Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver and sold by The Match Factory. This is the indie stalwart’s first feature since zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die opened Cannes in 2019.

Another indie stalwart, Reichardt, last on the Croisette with Showing Up in 2022, could be back with Mubi’s Vietnam War-era heist movie The Mastermind led by John Magaro and Josh O’Connor.

Two feature directorial debuts from Hollywood stars may also find their way into selection: Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor The Great with June Squibb and Chiwetel Ejiofor; and Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology Of Water with Imogen Poots and Thora Birch.

Benny Safdie’s MMA biopic The Smashing Machine at A24 would bring Hollywood star power in the form of Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt, while Terrence Malick’s Jesus story The Way Of The Wind is an obvious pick – if it is ready in time.

Richard Linklater’s French-language Nouvelle Vague from ARP Sélection, about the making of Breathless, stars Zooey Deutch and would appear a natural fit. The US filmmaker attended Berlinale with Blue Moon, and was last on the Croisette as a filmmaker in 2006 with Fast Food Nation and A Scanner Darkly.

Could Cannes 2025 also be the place where audiences get to see Eddington, genre maestro Ari Aster’s dark comedy that reunites him with Joaquin Phoenix from Beau Is Afraid and also stars Emma Stone?

Paradise, the feature directorial debut of Canadian Jeremy Comte, is being tipped for selection and is a thriller involving a young Ghanaian man, a man from Quebec, and a missing father. Comte’s short Fauvre was nominated for an Oscar in 2019. Film Constellation handles international sales.

Fremaux’s penchant for programming Hollywood tentpoles could see Tom Cruise back on the Croisette with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, three years after he roared into France with Top Gun: Maverick. Worldwide release dates are scheduled for late May and this is an obvious contender for an out-of-competition slot.

Latin America

There could be at least three from Brazil. Kleber Mendonça Filho – last on the Croisette with 2019 selection Bacurau – has political thriller The Secret Agent at mk2 Films which, like the Oscar winner I’m Still Here, takes place during his country’s military dictatorship in the 1970s. Lillah Halla’s dark musical comedy Colhões De Ouro might also be ready in time, two years after her debut Levante played Cannes Critics’ Week.

Brazilian-Algerian firebrand Karim Aïnouz, whose Motel Destino played in Competition last year, has been preparing the English-language family-set thriller Rosebush Pruning with Elle Fanning, Riley Keogh, Pamela Anderson and Jamie Bell for Mubi and Fremantle’s The Apartment.

Chilean ace Sebastian Lelio may also be booking flights to the Cote d’Azur in support of his feminist political movement musical The Wave from Fabula, Fremantle and Participant.

From Argentina, there may be a slot for Marcela Luchetta’s feature directorial debut The Return, about which little else is known.

France

Fremaux has some tough decisions ahead with some of the most acclaimed French auteurs and rising talents ready with buzzy titles.

Rebecca Zlotowski’s Vie Privée starring Jodie Foster in a French-language role alongside Daniel Auteuil, Mathieu Amalric and Virginie Efira is looking like a sure bet as is Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, the filmmaker’s follow-up to Palme d’Or-winning Titane, which stars Tahar Rahim and Golshifteh Farahani. Neon has already snagged North American rights to the latter. 

Arnaud Desplechin should make his eighth appearance in competition with Une Affaire starring François Civil as a virtuoso pianist alongside Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Charlotte Rampling and Hippolyte Girardot.

Robin Campillo’s Enzo would make for a bittersweet homage to late Palme d’Or-winning Laurent Cantet who was meant to direct before he died last year.

Other expected returning auteurs include Sylvain Chomet with his long-anticipated animation The Magnificent Life Of Marcel Pagnol, Dominik Moll with police thriller Case 137 starring Léa Drucker and Alice Winocour’s Couture starring Angelina Jolie set in the world of high fashion in Paris with Louis Garrel and Ella Rumpf.

A year after opening the festival, prolific and always unpredictable director Quentin Dupieux has already shot his 14th feature L’Accident Du Piano, starring Adèle Exarchopoulos with Sandrine Kiberlain and Karim Leklou. It filmed earlier this year – Dupieux is known for quick turnarounds.

Lise Akoka and Romane Gueret’s summer camp-set Ma Frère, could also find a spot. The directing duo won the Un Certain Regard prize for The Worst Ones in 2022.

Also in the running from France are Hafsia Herzi’s coming-of-age story The Last One, Vincent Mael Cardona’s behind-closed-doors thriller No One Will Know, Belgian director Lucas Belvaux’s psychological thriller Haunted Minds starring Niels Schneider and Romane Bohringer’s Dites Lui Que Je L’Aime.

Also poised to land somewhere are Martin Bourboulon’s Kabul evacuation drama 13 Days, 13 Nights with Roschdy Zem, Lyna Khoudri and Sidse Babett Knudsen who could do double duty on the red- carpet steps with Stephane Demoustier’s drama The Great Arch which also stars Claes Bang and Xavier Dolan. 

Further star-powered prospects include Pierre Schoeller’s Rembrandt starring Camille Cottin and Romain Duris, Thierry Klifa’s The Richest Woman In The World starring Isabelle Huppert as a fictionalised version of billionaire Liliane Bettencourt, and Thomas Kruithof’s Ablaze, the director’s follow-up to Venice-premiering Promises, starring Croisette favourite Virginia Efira and The Goldman Case’s Arié Worthalter.

Debut features generating strong word of mouth include Amelie Bonnin’s Bye Bye, a bittersweet comedy starring popular French singer and actress Juliette Armanet and Bastien Bouillon, Camille Ponsin’s The Vanished Girl starring Celine Sallette, Lou Lampros and Bertrand Bellin, and Louise Hemon’s L’Engloutie starring Galatea Bellugi.

Other more potential crowd-pleasers include the first of Pathé’s epic two-part biopic De Gaulle, Cedric Klapisch’s Coulours Of Time and Yann Gozlan’s near future-set The Residence starring Cécile de France and French music icon Mylène Farmer.

UK-Ireland

With UK-produced films by Lynne Ramsay and Karim Aïnouz in the running, it could be a banner year for UK producers on the Croisette.

Hamnet, by Venice Golden Lion-winner and China-born Chloe Zhao, could be headed to the Croisette, if it’s ready. Produced by Liza Marshall’s Hera Pictures with Pippa Harris and Sam Mendes’ Neal Street Entertainment (along with Amblin Entertainment), the adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel of the same stars Paul Mescal, Jessie Buckley, Emma Watson and Joe Alwyn and shot in Wales.

Mescal also stars in Oliver Hermanus’ Film4-backed The History Of Sound with Josh O’Connor. It finished shooting at the end of last year and could just about make a Cannes bow.

Debut UK filmmakers have often found favour in Cannes sidebars. Dublin and London-based Cannes regulars Element Pictures have a couple of contenders: Harry Lighton’s queer romance Pillion and Akinola Davies Jr’s Lagos-set My Father’s Shadow.

There’s also buzz around visual artist Imran Perretta’s first feature, black and white-shot Ish, and Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut, Urchin  

Also understood to be in the mix from UK producers is Swedish filmmaker Jonatan Etzler’s English-language debut, the satirical comedy thriller Bad Apples, starring Saoirse Ronan and produced by Pulse Films; Paul Wright’s Glasgow-set Mission starring Rosy McEwen and George MacKay; Cornish director Mark Jenkin’s Rose Of Nevada, also starring MacKay, this time with Callum Turner.

Rest of Europe 

A slew of familiar European names are likely in the running for Cannes 2025. They include Norwegian director Joachim Trier with Sentimental Value, which reunites him with The Worst Person In The World star and Cannes best actress winner Renate Reinsve. It’s about a family whose filmmaker father wants his daughter to star in his comeback movie.

Similarly, Germany’s Fatih Akin reunites with Diane Kruger for Amrum, set in the aftermath of the Second World War. Kruger previously won the best actress prize at Cannes for Akin’s 2017 drama In The Fade.

Two-time Palme d’Or winners the Dardenne Brothers look firm favourites for a competition slot with The Young Mother’s Home, set within a shelter for young mothers.

Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes’s Orphan is expected to be ready for Cannes, where he won the Grand Prix for his debut feature, Son Of Saul. Orphan is a family drama set after the Hungarian uprising of 1956.

Also from Hungary is Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend, starring Léa Seydoux and Tony Leung Chiu-wai, set in a university town where a majestic tree observes humans over different eras. 

From Spain, Golden Bear winner Carla Simon could make the jump to Cannes with Romería, about a young teen who sets out on a journey to meet her biological father’s family. Another possibility from Spain is Oliver Laxe’s Sirat starring Sergi López and Bruno Núñez as a father and son searching for their missing daughter and sister at a Morocco rave. 

Italian auteur Pietro Marcello’s Duse is a biopic of a 19th-century Italian stage diva starring Valeria Bruni Tedeschi and Noémie Merlant. Another Italian possible is Mario Martone’s Fuori, starring Valeria Golino and Matilda De Angelis, about a writer and the inmates she befriends in prison.

Also ready is Yellow Letters by The Teachers’ Lounge director Ilker Çatak, about an artist couple in Turkey who lose their jobs overnight due to an arbitrary state action and go into exile.

From Germany, Berlinale regular Christian Petzold could make his first Cannes appearance with Miroirs No.3 starring Paula Beer, about a music student who must rebuild her life when her boyfriend dies in a car crash.

Austrian writer and director Markus Schleinzer’s Rose, a 17th-century drama set in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War, has Cannes favourite Sandra Hüller in the lead role.

Belgian filmmaker Laura Wandel’s sophomore feature In Adam’s Interest is also a possibility after her feature debut Playground premiered in Un Certain Regard. The social drama stars Léa Drucker and Anamaria Vartolomei.

Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov could have his fifth film in competition with The Disappearance Of Joseph Mengele, about the notorious Nazi doctor’s fugitive years.

Another Cannes regular is Ukrainian director Sergei Loznitsa whose next film Two Prosecutors is set during Stalin’s Great Terror in 1937.

Asia

Asia may be well-represented on the Croisette with a selection of strong prospects.

South Korea’s Na Hong-jin has released three features to date – The Chaser, The Yellow Sea and The Wailing – all of which have made the Official Selection. His latest, Hope, looks set to continue the streak. His English-language debut is a sci-fi thriller that stars Korea’s Hwang Jung-min and Zo In-sung alongside Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander. Plus M Entertainment holds sales rights.

Looking likely to represent South Korea in Competition is Park Chan-wook, winner of best director at the 2022 edition for Decision To Leave. After making HBO miniseries The Sympathizer, he returns to film with No Other Choice (working title), a comedy thriller starring Lee Byung-hun of Squid Game as a recently unemployed man who becomes determined to land a new job at all costs. Sales are handled by CJ ENM.

China’s best bet at securing selection appears to be Lang Lang (working title) directed by Jiang Wen, inspired by the true story of the eponymous world-renowned pianist. Jiang previously won the grand prix at Cannes with Devils On The Doorstep in 2000.

A further title from the Middle Kingdom may be Resurrection, a sci-fi detective film starring Jackson Yee and Shu Qi. It is directed by Bi Gan, whose Long Day’s Journey Into Night played Un Certain Regard in 2018.

Japan has a crop of contenders that could screen at the Palais. Auteur Koji Fukada, who won the Un Certain Regard jury prize in 2016 with Harmonium, returns with social drama Love On Trial about a J-pop idol who faces public backlash after dating a former classmate. France’s mk2 Films handles sales.

Chie Hayakawa, whose Plan 75 debuted in Un Certain Regard in 2022 and was selected as Japan’s Oscar submission, is back with her second feature – Renoir. The story centres on a young girl whose father is battling cancer.

An additional contender from Japan is A Pale View Of Hills directed by Kei Ishikawa, whose A Man premiered at Venice in 2022 and won best feature at the Japanese Academy Awards. A release in Japan is planned this summer, suggesting it will not wait for a Venice bow. Based on the Kazuo Ishiguro novel about a woman in post-war Nagasaki and 1980s England, it is produced by Bunbuku, the company founded by Competition regular Hirokazu Kore-eda, in association with the UK’s Number 9 Films.

• Juliette Binoche named 2025 Cannes jury president