Cannes 2025 Films Sold So Far: Oliver Laxe’s ‘Sirât’ Acquired by Neon

The epic from the Galician filmmaker is produced by Pedro Almodóvar.

The Cannes Film Festival is underway, and while the Marché Du Film is as booming as ever with exciting packages of future films, there are plenty of titles playing in competition or in the Cannes sidebars that could make a big splash at the box office or the awards season race for the right buyer. Last year’s “The Substance” was acquired by MUBI before it landed a Best Picture Oscar nomination and made $77.3 million worldwide.

Here are the 13 films we predicted ahead of the festival could find homes quickly. We’ll update the below list with all the acquisitions as they come in.

“Sirât”

Section: Competition
Distributor: Neon
Director: Oliver Laxe
Buzz: Neon’s buying spree continues in the distributor’s quest to again win the Palme d’Or. This one though has some serious “Mad Max” vibes, a film set amid explosive electronic music at a rave as a father ventures into the Moroccan desert to search for his missing daughter. The film stars Sergi López, Bruno Núñez, Stefania Gadda, and Jade Oukid and was even produced by Pedro Almodóvar. Neon picked up North American rights and is again hoping to release the film later this year. Just no spoilers please!

“It Was Just an Accident”

Section: Competition
Distributor: Neon
Director: Jafar Panahi
Buzz: The Iranian auteur Panahi returned to Cannes for the first time since 2003 for this deeply personal film that was inspired and ideated during his second stint in an Iranian prison. Starring Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, and Vahid Mobasser, the film follows a group of dissidents debating whether to kill their former torturer. The film will be released in North America later this year. IndieWire’s review called it a “blistering moral thriller,” and with some of the best reviews of the festival so far, it now looks like a frontrunner for the Palme d’Or. This is also Neon’s second time partnering with Panahi after previously releasing his film “The Year of the Everlasting Storm,” which premiered in Cannes Special Screenings in 2021.

“Sound of Falling”

Section: Competition
Distributor: MUBI
Director: Mascha Schilinski
Buzz: Deemed literally the “buzziest sales title” of Cannes by IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio and Anne Thompson, “Sound of Falling” landed at Mubi after a competitive bidding war. Mascha Schilinski’s century-spanning coming of age film centers on four generations of women within the same family, all living in a small German farming town across decades. Though separated by time, their lives begin to mirror each other, leading to the question: Can memories be inherited, repeated, and ultimately, relived? IndieWire critic David Ehrlich likened Schilinski to being the next Sofia Coppola. It’s clear that Mubi has a gem on its hands.

“The Secret Agent”

Section: Competition
Distributor: Neon
Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho
Buzz: If you’re handicapping the Palme D’Or race, keep an eye on “The Secret Agent,” because Neon and Tom Quinn clearly like it’s odds if they’re jumping to acquire it and keep their streak alive. The distributor picked up North American rights and is planning a theatrical release later in 2025. Star Wagner Moura has earned some early buzz for Best Actor at Cannes, and the film earned strong reviews for the Brazilian auteur behind “Bacarau.” The film also stars Maria Fernanda Cândido, Gabriel Leon, Carlos Francisco, Alice Carvalho, and Hermila Guedes and follows a technology expert on the run who arrives in Recife, Brazil in 1977 during Carnival week, hoping to reunite with his son, only to realizes that the city is far from being the non-violent refuge he seeks.

“Die, My Love”

Section: Competition
Distributor: MUBI
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Buzz: The first major sale of Cannes is one of the starriest, with Lynne Ramsay’s intense drama about postpartum depression and motherhood starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson going to MUBI in a deal for $24 million, IndieWire can confirm. The film is also expected to get a healthy theatrical window and wide release, and MUBI acquired the North American rights in addition to Latin America, UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain, BeNeLux, Turkey, India, Australia, and New Zealand. Our review wrote that Lawrence gives the type of performance that is made for the Cannes Best Actress prize in her “feral” depiction of a woman in rural America engulfed by love and madness.

Films Arriving at Cannes with U.S. Distribution

“Alpha”

Section: Competition
Distributor: Neon
Director: Julia Ducournau
Buzz: It was a hot market title at last year’s Cannes, and a year later the latest from the Palme D’Or winner of “Titane” is back in the main competition. The film follows a 13-year-old girl whose world comes crashing down when she arrives home with a tattoo on her arm.

“Bono: Stories of Surrender”

Section: Special Screenings
Distributor: Apple TV+
Director: Andrew Dominik
Buzz: For his first film since the Marilyn Monroe biopic “Blonde,” Dominik profiles the U2 frontman as he films the stage production of Bono’s one-man show.

“Dangerous Animals”

Section: Director’s Fortnight
Distributor: IFC Films
Director: Sean Byrne
Buzz: A serial killer movie and a shark movie from the director of “The Devil’s Candy?” What’s not to like?

“Eddington”

Section: Competition
Distributor: A24
Director: Ari Aster
Buzz: Destined to be as polarizing as any of his features, Aster’s pandemic-set fourth feature is a contemporary Western with a stellar cast that includes Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler.

“Eleanor the Great”

Section: Un Certain Regard
Distributor: TriStar Pictures and Sony Pictures Classics
Director: Scarlett Johansson
Buzz: June Squibb stars in this indie drama that is also Johansson’s directorial debut about a nonagenarian who after 70 years returns to New York city and befriends a student.

“Highest 2 Lowest”

Section: Out of Competition
Distributor: Apple TV+ and A24
Director: Spike Lee
Buzz: Spike Lee’s reunion with Denzel Washington for a modern day reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s “High and Low” looks like one of Lee’s most commercial films in years, so it’s fitting it will get a theatrical release before landing on streaming.

“The History of Sound”

Section: Competition
Distributor: MUBI
Director: Oliver Hermanus
Buzz: Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor star in this romance set in 1917 amid the world of early 20th Century folk music.

“Honey Don’t!”

Section: Midnight
Distributor: Focus Features
Director: Ethan Coen
Buzz: Ethan Coen’s second solo effort again pairs him with his partner and writer Tricia Cooke, as well as star Margaret Qualley, who plays a small-town private eye investigating a church led by a dubious preacher played by Chris Evans.

“Marcel et Monsieur Pagnol”

Section: Special Screenings
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
Director: Sylvian Chomet
Buzz: “The Triplets of Belleville” director brings his eclectic animated style to this biopic of the life of one of France’s great artists, Marcel Pagnol.

“The Mastermind”

Section: Competition
Distributor: MUBI
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Buzz: Josh O’Connor, Alana Haim, John Magaro, Gaby Hoffmann, Eli Gelb, Hope Davis, and Bill Camp star in this heist film from the “First Cow” director set in 1970 Massachusetts.

“Mirrors No. 3”

Section: Director’s Fortnight
Distributor: Metrograph
Director: Christian Petzold
Buzz: Petzold’s follow-up to the Berlinale prize winner “Afire” is his fourth collaboration with actress Paula Beer about a woman taken in by a family after she survives a seemingly devastating car crash.

“Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning”

Section: Out of Competition
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Director: Christopher McQuarrie
Buzz: The eighth (and maybe final?) Mission: Impossible film sees Tom Cruise dangling from a biplane and going underwater to defeat an all-powerful AI.

“My Father’s Shadow”

Section: Un Certain Regard
Distributor: MUBI
Director: Akinola Davies Jr.
Buzz: Davies Jr. is making his feature directorial debut after breaking out with the Sundance-winning short “Lizard.” The film is a semi-autobiographical tale set over the course of a single day in the Nigerian metropolis Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis.

“My Mom Jayne”

Section: Cannes Classics
Distributor: HBO Documentary Films
Director: Mariska Hargitay
Buzz: The “Law & Order: SVU” star made her directorial debut with this documentary about the life of her mother Jayne Mansfield, the Playboy Playmate and ’60s sex symbol who was killed in a car accident in 1967 when Hargitay was only 3 years old. The film will be released via HBO on June 20.

“Orwell: 2+2=5”

Section: Cannes Premiere
Distributor: Neon
Director: Raoul Peck
Buzz: Peck returns to Cannes one year after “Ernest Cole: Lost and Found” premiered there with his documentary about the life of “1984” author George Orwell.

“The Phoenician Scheme”

Section: Competition
Distributor: Focus Features
Director: Wes Anderson
Buzz: Benicio Del Toro and Michael Cera star alongside newcomer Mia Threapleton (Kate Winslet’s daughter), who holds her own as a nun in this zany period comedy about one of the richest men in Europe.

“Pillion”

Section: Un Certain Regard
Distributor: A24
Director: Harry Lighton
Buzz: Based on the book “Box Hill” by Adam Mars-Jones, the film starring Alexander Skarsgard and Harry Melling follows an unassuming man swept off his feet when an enigmatic, impossibly handsome biker takes him on as his submissive.

“Sentimental Value”

Section: Competition
Distributor: Neon
Director: Joachim Trier
Buzz: The Norwegian director’s sixth film pairs him with “The Worst Person in the World” star Renata Reinsve in this family drama about the reconciliatory power of art.

“Splitsville”

Section: Cannes Premiere
Distributor: Neon
Director: Michael Angelo Covino
Buzz: The team behind “The Climb” return to Cannes with another comedy about a man who turns to his friends for advice amid a divorce, only to discover their secret is an open marriage. Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona star alongside Michael Angelo Covino and Kyle Marvin.

Additional reporting by Samantha Bergeson.