Cannes 2025: which films will be competing?

by Violaine Schütz.

After weeks of speculation, Festival director Thierry Frémaux and Festival president Iris Knobloch have announced the official lineup for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, taking place from May 13 to 24. Here’s an overview of the feature films set to make waves this year.

Which films are in competition at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival?

Among the directors selected for this year’s competition, Wes Anderson returns with The Phoenician Scheme, starring Benicio del Toro and Scarlett Johansson. Ari Aster will unveil Eddington, featuring Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone.

Joachim Trier is competing with Sentimental Value, starring Renate Reinsve, while Richard Linklater presents Nouvelle Vague, a film about the making of Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard.

Other acclaimed filmmakers on the 2025 Cannes roster include Fatih Akin with Amrum and Oliver Hermanus with The History of Sound, a gay romance starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor.

Voir cette publication sur Instagram

Une publication partagée par Rebecca Zlotowski (@rebecca.zlotowski)

Julia Ducournau and Rebecca Zlotowski featured among the Cannes Selection

This year’s official competition includes a strong showing from women directors. Six female filmmakers are in the running, including Kelly Reichardt with The Mastermind and Hafsia Herzi with La Petite dernière. Julia Ducournau returns to the competition with Alpha.

Scarlett Johansson makes her directorial debut with Eleanor The Great, screened in the Un Certain Regard section. Meanwhile, Rebecca Zlotowski’s Vie privée, starring Jodie Foster and Virginie Efira, will be shown out of competition.

French films at Cannes 2025

On the French side, highlights include Dossier 137 by Dominik Moll starring Léa Drucker, Young Mothers by the Dardenne brothers, and the opening film Partir un jour by Amélie Bonnin featuring singer Juliette Armanet. Also featured are The Richest Woman in the World by Thierry Klifa with Isabelle Huppert, La Venue de l’avenir by Cédric Klapisch with Vincent Macaigne, and Connemara by Alex Lutz, starring Mélanie Thierry and Bastien Bouillon.

Predictions and rumors straight from the Croisette

Despite much anticipation, several rumored films were not confirmed in the April 10 press conference. These include Gregg Araki’s erotic thriller I Want Your Sex, Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, Terrence Malick’s The Way of the Wind, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another.

Also absent from the lineup: Jim Jarmusch’s Mother Brother Sister Mother, Yórgos Lánthimos’s Bugonia (again with Emma Stone), Romain Gavras’s Sacrifice, and Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Avenging Silence.

Paul Thomas Anderson, Cédric Jimenez (Chien 51), and Celine Song (Materialists) are also reportedly not in competition this year.

Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut selected for Cannes?

Finally, Apichatpong Weerasethakul (The Fountains of Paradise), Ildikó Enyedi (Silent Friend), Bi Gan, Pietro Marcello (Duse), and Kristen Stewart (The Chronology Of Water) have also not been confirmed. It’s also unclear whether Karim Aïnouz will present Rosebush Pruning, starring Elle Fanning, Riley Keough, Callum Turner, and Pamela Anderson, or if Luca Guadagnino will walk the red carpet for After the Hunt.

There’s no confirmation either for Alice Winocour (Couture), Arnaud Desplechin (Une affaire), Paul Schrader (Non Compos Mentis), or Lynne Ramsay (Die, my Love), all of whom could have been contenders in this year’s Cannes competition. Among the other rumored titles possibly screening at Cannes this year are a documentary about Brigitte Bardot and Jan Kounen’s feature The Incredible Shrinking Man, starring Jean Dujardin.

The Official selection for Cannes 2025

Opening film

• Partir un jour by Amélie Bonnin

  
  

In competition

• An Accidental Incident by Jafar Panah

• The Phoenician Scheme by Wes Anderson

• Sentimental Value by Joachim Trier

• Romería by Carla Simón
• Sound of Falling by Mascha Schilinski
• Republic’s Eagles by Tarik Saleh
• The Mastermind by Kelly Reichardt
• Dossier 137 by Dominik Moll
• The Secret Agent by Kleber Mendonça Filho
• La Petite dernière by Hafsia Herzi
• Fuori by Mario Martone
• Eddington by Ari Aster
• Two Prosecutors by Sergei Loznitsa
• Nouvelle Vague by Richard Linklater

• Sirat by Oliver Laxe

• The History of Sound by Oliver Hermanus
• Renoir by Chie Hayakawa
• Alpha by Julia Ducournau
• Young Mothers by the Dardenne brothers

Cannes Première

• Amrum by Fatih Akin

• Splitsville by Michael Angelo Covino
• Connemara by Alex Lutz
• The Disappearance of Josef Mengele by Kirill Serebrennikov

• Orwell: 2+2=5 by Raoul Peck

• La Ola by Sebastián Lelio

Out of competition films

• La Venue de l’avenir by Cédric Klapisch
• Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning by Christopher McQuarrie
• The Richest Woman in the World by Thierry Klifa
• Vie privée by Rebecca Zlotowski

Un Certain Regard

• The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo by Diego Céspedes
• Meteor by Hubert Charuel
• My Father Shadow by Akinola Davis Jr.
• The Stranger of the Great Arch by Stéphane Demoustier

• Urchin by Harris Dickinson

• Homebound by Neeraj Ghaywan

• A Pale View of Heals by Kei Ishikawa
• Caravan by Zuzana Kirchnerova-Spidlova
• Eleanor The Great by Scarlett Johansson
• Pillion by Harry Lighton
• Aisha Can’t Fly Away Anymore by Morad Mostafa

• Once Upon A Time in Gaza by Arab and Tarzan Nasser

• The Plague by Charlie Polinger
• Le Città di Pianura by Francesco Sossai
• Marie & Jolie by Erige Sehiri

• Testa o croce ? by Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis

  
  

Special screenings

• Stories of Surrender by Bono
• Tell Him I Love Him by Romane Bohringer
• Marcel and Mr. Pagnol by Sylvain Chomet
• The Exit 8 by Genki Kawamura

Midnight screenings

• Sons of the Neon Night by Juno Mak
• Dalloway by Yann Gozlan