The 2025 Cannes Film Festival lineup was revealed bright and early, starting at 5 a.m. ET on Thursday, April 10 for those following in the States. For those in France, festival director Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch unveiled this year’s crop of films from the main competition to Un Certain Regard and beyond at the more reasonable hour of 11 a.m. local time. IndieWire previously named 33 films we hope to see among the 78th edition’s sections; we got some right, but with a number of expected films left out.
As previously announced, this year’s main competition jury president will be Juliette Binoche, who will oversee the choosing of the Palme d’Or and other festival awards alongside a jury yet to be announced. Typically, it’s made up of international filmmakers and onscreen talent. The Cannes Film Festival expects robust attendance — especially compared to the strike and pandemic editions — as the Côte d’Azur’s main of event of cinema is once again the starting point of awards season. “Anora,” “The Substance,” “Emilia Pérez,” “Flow,” and more Academy Award winners and nominees premiered in Cannes last year. Will Neon nab a sixth consecutive Palme d’Or? The pressure is on Tom Quinn and his team to follow up the successes of “Anora,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Titane,” and “Parasite.”
We knew “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” would premiere out of competition and bring Tom Cruise back to the Croisette in spectacular stunt-driven style. As expected, Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme” will drop at Cannes ahead of its Focus Features May 30 theatrical launch date, as will Ari Aster’s quasi-Western “Eddington” in competition, bringing A24 back to the competition.
Pundits complained last year’s Cannes was a light affair, but that had to do with the bottleneck created by the strikes, for one. Many auteurs return to the Croisette this year to make for a highly anticipated festival.
The main competition sees six female directors, including new films from Kelly Reichardt (“The Mastermind”), Julia Ducournau (“Alpha”), Mascha Schilinski (the buzzy “Sound of Falling,” previously titled “The Doctor Says I’ll Be Alright, But I’m Feelin’ Blue”), Hafsia Herzi (“La Petite Dernière”), Chie Hayakawa (“Renoir”), and Carla Simón (“Romeria”).
Also in competition comes Richard Linklater with his making-of-“Breathless” drama “Nouvelle Vague,” very apt for Cannes; Jafar Panahi with the made-in-secret “A Simple Accident”; Joachim Trier with “Sentimental Value” led by “Worst Person in the World” star Renate Reinsve; the gay romance “The History of Sound” from Oliver Hermanus, and starring Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal; and more.
The French feature “Leave One Day,” directed by Amélie Bonnin, will open the festival on May 13.
See the full lineup so far. Fremaux said more titles will be announced closer to the festival, adding that the festival team looked at a record 2,909 feature submissions this year.
Opening Night
“Leave One Day” (dir. Amélie Bonnin)
Out of Competition
“Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” (dir. Christopher McQuarrie)
“Colours of Sky” (dir. Cedric Klapisch)
“Vie Privée” (dir. Rebecca Zlotowski)
“The Richest Woman in the World” (dir. Thierry Klifa)
In Competition
“Sentimental Value” (dir. Joachim Trier)
“Sound of Falling” (dir. Mascha Schilinski)
“Romeria” (dir. Carla Simón)
“The Mastermind” (dir. Kelly Reichardt)
“The Eagles of the Republic” (dir. Tarik Saleh)
“Dossier 137” (dir. Dominik Moll)
“The Secret Agent” (dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)
“Fuori” (dir. Mario Martone)
“Nouvelle Vague” (dir. Richard Linklater)
“Two Prosecutors” (dir. Sergei Loznitsa)
“La Petite Dernière” (dir. Hafsia Herzi)
“A Simple Accident” (dir. Jafar Panahi)
“The History of Sound” (dir. Oliver Hermanus)
“Renoir” (dir. Chie Hayakawa)
“Alpha” (dir. Julia Ducournau)
“Sirat” (dir. Oliver Laxe)
“Young Mothers” (dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne)
“Eddington” (dir. Ari Aster)
“The Phoenician Scheme” (dir. Wes Anderson)
Un Certain Regard
“The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo” (dir. Diego Céspedes)
“My Father’s Shadow” (dir. Akinola Davies Jr)
“Urchin” (dir. Harris Dickinson)
“Meteors” (dir. Hubert Charuel)
“A Pale View of Hills” (dir. Kei Ishikawa)
“Eleanor the Great” (dir. Scarlett Johansson)
“Pillion” (dir. Harry Lighton)
“L’inconnue de la Grande Arche” (dir. Stephane Demoustier)
“Aisha Can’t Fly Away” (dir. Morad Mostafa)
“Once Upon a Time in Gaza” (dir. Arab Nasser, Tarzan Nasser)
“The Plague” (dir. Charlie Polinger)
“Heads or Tails?” (dir. Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis)
“Homebound” (dir. Neeraj Ghaywan)
“The Last One for the Road” (dir. Francesco Sossai)
“Karavan” (dir. Zuzana Kirchnerová)
“Promised Sky” (dir. Erige Sehiri)
Special Screenings
“Stories of Surrender” (dir. Bono)
“Tell Her That I Love Her” (dir. Romane Bohringer)
“A Magnificent Life” (dir. Sylvain Chomet)
Cannes Premiere
“Amrum” (dir. Fatih Akin)
“Splitsville” (dir. Michael Angelo Covino)
“Connemara” (dir. Alex Lutz)
“The Disappearance of Josef Mengele” (dir. Kirill Serebrennikov)
“Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5” (dir. Raoul Peck)
“The Wave” (dir. Sebastián Lelio)
Midnight
“Songs of the Neon Night” (dir. Juno Mak)
“Exit 8” (dir. Genki Kawamura)
“Dalloway” (dir. Yann Gozlan)
