For two weeks each May, the seaside town of Cannes transforms into a paradise for cinephiles. With the 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, running from May 13 to 24, the Croisette finds itself once again squarely in the cultural spotlight. Indian director Payal Kapadia, who last year became the first from the country to win the Grand Prix for All We Imagine As Light, returns this year as the jury, alongside Juliette Binoche, Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong and more. It’s a full-circle moment, and a symbolic one too, since Cannes has been riding a wave of artistic and awards-season credibility not seen in years. Hollywood titans, international auteurs, first-time filmmakers, and seasoned Cannes regulars will once again descend on the iconic red carpet to make a case for what the future of cinema might look like.
At the press conference unveiling the official selection, artistic director Thierry Frémaux seemed buoyed by a sense of restored swagger. Long positioned as the epicenter of world cinema, Cannes now finds itself more than ever in sync with the annual awards season. Four of the last five Palme d’Or winners — Anora, Anatomy of a Fall, Triangle of Sadness, Titane and Parasite — went on to nab Oscar nominations, with Parasite and Anora pulling off the once-rare Cannes-Oscars double for Best Picture. In 2024 alone, 31 Academy Award nominations went to films that premiered at Cannes.
This year’s main competition lineup is as diverse as ever. Several returning luminaries are vying for the Palme. Belgian legends the Dardenne brothers return with Young Mothers, and Iranian dissident auteur Jafar Panahi brings A Simple Accident, a follow-up to his critically acclaimed No Bears. Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, with a unsursprisingly stacked cast —Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson, Riz Ahmed, and Bill Murray among them — marks his fourth time in competition.
Newer voices are making noise too. German director Mascha Schilinski, largely unknown outside Europe, is stirring early buzz with Sound of Falling, a generational family saga. Spanish director Carla Simón returns with Romería, while American indie darling Kelly Reichardt premieres her period heist drama The Mastermind, starring Josh O’Connor — who also appears in The History of Sound, a queer wartime drama by South Africa’s Oliver Hermanus co-starring Paul Mescal.
One-third of the competition films this year are directed by women, which is a notable milestone in Cannes’ incremental march toward gender parity. Among them is Julia Ducournau, the 2021 Palme winner for Titane, returning with Alpha, a NEON-backed body horror reportedly set during the AIDS crisis. NEON, it should be said, has become a Cannes power player in recent years, having distributed all of the previous five Palme winners. With Alpha and Ari Aster’s Eddington — a dark fever dream starring Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal — the indie distributor seems poised to maintain its festival hot streak.
As ever, not all the buzz lives inside the Palais. Out-of-competition slots are flush with high-profile titles: Spike Lee’s Highest 2 Lowest, a Kurosawa riff starring Denzel Washington, and Ethan Coen’s Honey Don’t!, his follow-up to last year’s Drive Away Dolls, are both set to premiere, albeit without Palme ambitions. Tom Cruise also returns to the Croisette with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, hoping to recapture the blockbuster magic of Top Gun: Maverick.
Meanwhile, India’s presence, long intermittent at Cannes, gains substance this year. Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound will premiere in the Un Certain Regard section, precisely a decade after Masaan introduced him to the world. The Dharma Productions-backed film stars Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor, and boasts a marquee endorsement: Martin Scorsese, who recently joined as executive producer. In restored cinema, Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest) returns in 4K, with veteran actress Sharmila Tagore attending the screening.
India also features in La Cinef, with A Doll Made Up of Clay, a short from Ethiopian student Kokob Gebrehaweria Tesfay studying in Kolkata, offering a tale of migration and crushed athletic dreams. Bollywood glamour won’t be far behind, with Alia Bhatt making her Cannes debut as a L’Oréal ambassador and Cannes veteran Aishwarya Rai Bachchan also expected to make her annual appearance.
The Directors’ Fortnight will feature Nadav Lapid’s Yes!, a satire set in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks in Israel. In the ACID section, Iranian director Sepideh Farsi screens Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk, a documentary tribute to Fatima Hassouna, the Palestinian war reporter who was killed days after the film was announced.
Meanwhile, in the film market, behind-the-scenes chatter is likely to swirl around a proposed U.S. policy to impose tariffs on foreign-produced films. Whether Donald Trump’s threat is rhetorical or a coming reality, the news injects uncertainty into the industry already grappling with theatrical decline and streaming wars.
Still, Cannes thrives on surprise. It’s the kind of festival where a virtually unknown debut can become an Oscar juggernaut. Whether or not the next Parasite is already hiding in plain sight among the 3,000 films screened this year, 2025 looks to be a potentially vintage year for the world’s most influential film festival.
Published – May 12, 2025 01:24 pm IST