Cannes Film Festival 2025: The 10 Most Anticipated Films

MSince its 1946 launch, the Cannes Film Festival has marked an annual high point for the international film community, bringing together the most artistic minds in cinema for some friendly competition. In recent years, though, the glamorous festival’s reputation has gotten even headier, as many of its selections have gone on to become critical darlings, fan-favorites, and Oscar winners. From Bong Joon Ho’s Palme d’Or-winning Parasite (which won Best Picture at the 2020 Academy Awards), to last year’s The Substance, Emilia Pérez, and Anora, which all went on to dominate awards season, the Cannes lineup has proven to be a tastemaking harbinger of what’s to come.

At this year’s festival, legendary French actress Juliette Binoche takes over as jury president from 2024’s Greta Gerwig, marking the first time two women have held this role consecutively in six decades. The schedule is filled with exciting films from directors both seasoned and brand new (Harris Dickinson and Scarlett Johansson are both making their directorial debuts with Urchin and Eleanor the Great, respectively). There will be blockbusters—like Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, Tom Cruise’s return following the festival’s 2022 Top Gun: Maverick premiere, and new films from great auteurs, including Spike Lee, Joachim Trier, Ari Aster, and Wes Anderson.

Ahead of this year’s 78th edition, which runs from May 13 to 24 and where Robert De Niro will be presented with an honorary Palme d’Or for lifetime achievement, here are the 10 most anticipated releases to look out for:

Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)

Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World made a splash at Cannes when it premiered in 2021, with its lead, the charismatic and enigmatic Renate Reinsve, taking home the Best Actress prize for her portrayal of a young woman’s coming-of-age story. The Norwegian director has teamed up with his muse once again for Sentimental Value, a story about what happens to an Oslo family when an actress (Reinsve) and her younger sister (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) reconnect with their estranged father (Stellan Skarsgård) to make a film. Elle Fanning also has a role in the highly anticipated, intimate family drama.

Alpha (Julia Ducournau)

French director Julia Ducournau’s gut-churning Titane earned her the Palme d’Or in 2021—making her the second woman to win the prize in 70 years—and now she’s back with another disturbing offering. Alpha stars Golshifteh Farahani and Tahar Rahim in a story about an 11-year-old girl in a fictional version of 1980s New York City. One of the girl’s parents falls ill during the AIDS crisis, and as a result, she must face her own mortality. After the massive success of Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance, which won Best Screenplay last year at Cannes, female-led body horror has become a respected genre of its own. Like Titane—underneath its raunchy, violent premise was really a family drama—Alpha seems to have deeper themes, and even a social message: to prepare for filming, Ducournau met with one of the founding members of ACT UP.

Highest to Lowest (Spike Lee)

Denzel Washington, 70, has been warning audiences that he’s planning to retire soon. But luckily, he reunited with Spike Lee one last time before that happens—for Lee’s latest feature, Highest to Lowest. The film is a reinterpretation (not a remake!) of Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 crime film High and Low and boasts a fever-dream cast that includes Jeffrey Wright, Dean Winters, Ice Spice, and A$AP Rocky. This year marks the 36th anniversary of the Cannes premiere of Lee’s classic film Do the Right Thing, and will also be Washington’s first time at the Croisette—a special occasion indeed.

Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)

Richard Linklater brings a history lesson to Cannes with Nouvelle Vague, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 debut film, Breathless, which helped kick off the French New Wave. French actor Guillaume Marbeck plays Godard and Zoey Deutch will portray Jean Seberg, whose turn in Breathless made her an icon of the New Wave movement. Expect: pixie cuts, dark sunglasses, and endless cigarette chain-smoking.

The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson)

Wes Anderson is a proven Cannes favorite; his last two films, The French Dispatch and Asteroid City, premiered at the festival. This year, the director returns with another tale, The Phoenician Scheme, featuring a stacked ensemble cast that includes Benicio del Toro, Michael Cera, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Riz Ahmed, Richard Ayoade, Jeffrey Wright, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Willem Dafoe. Even among all that star power, rising talent Mia Threapleton (who happens to be Kate Winslet’s daughter) stands out as one to watch. Her character is both a nun and the daughter of the richest man in the world (Del Toro), and the story sounds a bit more frenetic than usual Anderson fare—the two get caught up in a dangerous scheme that leads to a series of adventures around the world.

The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus)

Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal playing lovers who romp around rural New England recording folk music after World War I may sound like fan fiction, but it’s very real: South African director Oliver Hermanus’s queer romance The History of Sound has been a hotly anticipated title since it was first announced in the fall of 2021. Back then, its leads weren’t quite the mainstream stars they are today, so the buzz around the film has only gotten—and will keep growing—louder.

Eddington (Ari Aster)

Terrifying films like Midsommar and Hereditary made Ari Aster one of the most exciting horror directors of his generation, but lately, the filmmaker has been branching out into other genres—like 2023’s surrealist drama Beau Is Afraid and this year’s Western, Eddington. The latter is set in May 2020 in the titular small town of Eddington, New Mexico, where the sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) are dueling over how to handle the social crises set off by the pandemic. Luke Grimes, Deirdre O’Connell, Micheal Ward, Austin Butler, and Emma Stone round out the cast. Although the film is billed as a black comedy, its trailer suggests elements of modern horror: there’s plenty of doom-scrolling.

Urchin (Harris Dickinson)

After a breakout year playing Nicole Kidman’s younger lover in Babygirl (and a new role in the Beatles biopics as John Lennon on the horizon), Harris Dickinson has found time to get behind the camera for his feature-length directorial debut, Urchin. Dickinson also wrote the film, which stars Frank Dillane as a London drifter in the process of trying to turn his life around. In late 2024, Dickinson told Dazed of the film, “It’s about the people that fall between the cracks. It’s about mental health and about the ways in which the system fails people in certain ways.” Dickinson is no stranger to the Croisette, having starred in 2022’s Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness.

Eleanor the Great (Scarlett Johansson)

Scarlet Johansson is playing double duty at this year’s festival. In addition to starring in Wes Anderson’s Phoenician Scheme, she’s premiering her directorial debut: Eleanor the Great, which stars June Squibb as the titular Eleanor, a 90-year-old Floridian who moves to New York City, following the death of her best friend, to rebuild her life. The Oscar-nominated Squibb, herself 95 years old, has been acting since the 1950s but had a career resurgence after last year’s buzzy indie hit Thelma. It’ll be great to see her back in a lead role.

Splitsville (Michael Angelo Covino)

When we think of Cannes, we may first think of serious, prestigious dramas—but it’s always nice to get a buzzy comedy in the mix, too. Splitsville is just that. The film centers a friend group rocked by a divorce and the revelation of an open marriage, which leads each member to question their life choices. Starring Adria Arjona, Dakota Johnson, Kyle Marvin, Nicholas Braun, and O-T Fagbenle, Splitsville looks to be a thoroughly enjoyable investigation of the state of modern relationships, told through the wry, tragicomic lens of director Michael Angelo Covino (who also stars in the film as Johnson’s husband).