Ten Must-See Films from Cannes Film Festival 2025

The 78th edition of the iconic festival will showcase new films from Ari Aster, Wes Anderson, Kelly Reichardt and more

Citing the success of Anora, The Substance and Emilia Pérez as markers of its continued pre-eminence, Thierry Frémaux unveiled the lineup for the Cannes Film Festival’s 78th edition yesterday, with new films from Scarlett Johansson, Ari Aster, Wes Anderson and Joachim Trier all screening.

Elsewhere on the Croisette, Tom Cruise will be parachuting in for his eighth and allegedly final Mission: Impossible instalment, while Robert De Niro is this year’s recipient of the honorary Palme d’Or. Heading up the main competition jury will be Juliette Binoche, a best actress winner at the festival in 2010 for Certified Copy.

Yesterday’s announcement was as notable for its no-shows as it was for its big-name picks, with the likes of Lynne Ramsay (Die, My Love), Jim Jarmusch (Father, Mother, Sister, Brother), Spike Lee (Highest 2 Lowest) and Park Chan-wook (No Other Choice) conspicuous by their absence. Some of these titles may still be in post-production and yet be announced by the festival, which takes place 13-24 May, so stay tuned for more developments to come. In the meantime, here are ten of our picks from the lineup so far.

Eleanor the Great (Scarlett Johansson)

Hollywood royalty Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut tells the story of a 90-year-old woman who befriends a teenage college student after moving to New York City. It’s the biggest showcase to date for June Squibb, the Illinois actress who won best supporting actress for her turn in Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, and is written by another first-timer, Tory Kamen, who penned the script after recording hundreds of hours of conversation with her own grandma who passed away during the pandemic. If that all sounds rather winsome, don’t worry – Kamen said she does some “terrible” things in the film.

The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)

Kelly Reichardt gets her second crack at the Palme with a thriller about a man plotting an audacious art heist amid the social and political turmoil of turn-of-the-70s America. With an intriguing genre slant and buzzy cast including Josh O’Connor, Past Lives’ John Magaro and Alana Haim in her first role since Licorice Pizza, this one has the potential to nudge the famously minimalist director further into the mainstream.

Read our interview with Kelly Reichardt on her five favourite films here. 

Alpha (Julia Ducournau)

Before The Substance, there was Titane and Raw, the first features from Julia Ducournau that kicked off a renaissance in body-horror filmmaking and, in the case of the former, took home the Palme d’Or in 2022. Now the French auteur is back with what has been described as her most personal work to date, the story of an 11-year-old girl forced to confront her mortality when one of her parents falls ill during the Aids epidemic. Performed in English by Paterson’s Golshifteh Farahani and Tahar Rahim (A Prophet), it sounds like a major change of gear from Ducournau, though we wouldn’t be surprised if that topline conceals all manner of madness in the finished film.

The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson)

Screening in competition for the third time in five years, friend of the festival Wes Anderson returns with The Phoenician Scheme, a story of strained family bonds set within the world of espionage. Working with Amélie DP Bruno Delbonnel after parting ways with regular cinematographer Robert Yeoman, this latest dose of love-it-or-leave-it whimsy stars Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson and Kate Winslet’s daughter Mia Threapleton among its mandatory cast of thousands.

Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)

Joachim Trier reteams with his Worst Person in the World star Renate Reinsve in this drama about a woman grieving the loss of her mum, and the sudden reappearance of her absent father (Stellan Skarsgård), a celebrated filmmaker who tries to cast her in his new movie. Reinsve won best actress at the festival for her performance in their last film together; they’ll be hoping to bottle some of the same magic here.

Vie Privée (Rebecca Zlotowski)

Rebecca Zlotowski is a strong feminist voice in a French film industry still grappling with the fallout from #MeToo, and Vie privée, screening outside of competition, has the potential to be something of a breakout – it stars Jodie Foster in a French-speaking role as a renowned psychiatrist who investigates the death of a patient she believes has been murdered. French A-listers Virginie Efira and Daniel Auteuil co-star.

Eddington (Ari Aster)

Ari Aster follows up his confounding Beau Is Afraid with another ambitious-sounding project in Eddington, a modern-day western about a feud between a small-town sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and a mayor (Pedro Pascal) that escalates into a full-blown civil war within the community. Set in New Mexico during the pandemic, the film marks Aster’s debut at Cannes and promises a freewheeling satire of the contemporary American hellscape, with eye-catching support from Emma Stone and Austin Butler.

The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus)

Internet boyfriends collide in Oliver Hermanus’s queer romance, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor as two men who travel through rural New England to record folk songs in the wake of the first world war. It’s the first time in competition for the South African director, who debuted at the festival with Beauty (2011), another tale of taboo desire, and is perhaps best known for his Bill Nighy-starring Kurosawa remake Living, released in 2022.

Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)

Richard Linklater’s latest is a French new-wave origin story about the making of Breathless, Jean-Luc Godard’s masterpiece of postmodernist genre filmmaking. Hardly a story that needs retelling, but Linklater is a director who continues to surprise, his crime-caper comedy Hit Man proving a sleeper hit at Venice Film Festival in 2023.

Sound of Falling (Mascha Schilinski)

Competing for the Palme d’Or in her feature debut, Mascha Schilinski has won strong early buzz for her feature Sound of Falling – formerly titled The Doctor Says I’ll Be Alright But I’m Feelin’ Blue – a drama about four generations of women living on a German farm “whose lives become intertwined until time seems to dissolve”. The title has been snapped up for international rights by Anatomy of a Fall distributors Mk2, who said the film “signals the arrival of an exceptional new voice in cinema”. 

Cannes Film Festival will run from 13–24 May 2025.