Scoping Out The Largest Film Festival In The World

The Most Exciting Premieres at Cannes 2025

I’ll be attending the Cannes Film Festival this year as press. Which means I’ve been waking up at 1am the last few nights in order to claim tickets for screenings when they drop at 7am in France.¹ The perfect way to prepare for jet lag.

The festival is a behemoth. Attending is like being shot through a grinder of the most beautiful world cinema. It’s a whirlwind of impossible scheduling, espresso, scrambling back to your lodging to get into formal attire for a screening, and frantically trying to find time to eat so that your-blood-sugar-doesn’t-crash-and-you-loose-the-ability-to-read-subtitles-in-the-middle-of-a-3-hour-art-house-film-about-colonialism². This is (apparently) my idea of a good time. I’m excited about the opportunity to see some amazing films at the largest annual gathering in celebration of global cinema.

It feels like the year of film really starts at Cannes. Often the big players at the fest will go on to make a splash at the Oscars, as Palme d’Or winner Anora did last year, The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall did the year before, Parasite did in 2019 (just to name a few recent examples). But it’s not just a chance to get a jump on the hits, it is also a chance to catch some amazing films that might totally be overlooked by American audiences. The goal of my coverage is to loop you in on what you should really keep an eye out for in the coming year.

To kick things off, here’s a quick breakdown of what I’m most looking forward to seeing.

Most Anticipated:

Eddington dir. Ari Aster
While I didn’t love Beau is Afraid as much as Midsommar and Hereditary, Ari Aster has always delivered a film that is provocative, unsettling, and distinct. Eddington, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler is about a standoff between a small town mayor and sheriff in May 2020. There’s a trailer out, and it looks bonkers. I’m particularly interested to see how Aster’s horror lens engages with contemporary events. Will this have the visceral punch of Hereditary and Midsommar? Trend more towards the bold yet wavering sprawl of Beau is Afraid? Or will it be something entirely new from the director? I’ll report back.

The Mastermind dir. Kelly Reichardt
In my opinion Kelly Reichardt is one of the most overlooked American directors in recent time. Her beautiful First Cow got lost the the folds of COVID era film releases. I was lucky enough to see the gently funny and profound Showing Up premiere the last time I was at Cannes. She crafts beautifully understated but psychologically insightful character dramas, and she a rare Director/Editor! The Mastermind, which stars Josh O’Conner (who’s been doing some of my favorite work recently) and Alana Haim (who was fantastic in Licorice Pizza), is about an art heist, which on the surface feels like a bit of a departure from her typical work. I’m excited to see how she treats the material, and also for the possibility that a more commercially oriented story might finally garner her some of the recognition she’s due.

Die My Love dir Lynne Ramsay
Scottish Director Lynne Ramsay is another woman whose work deserves more credit than it receives. We Need To Talk About Kevin is shocking and bold and You Were Never Really Here continues her peripheral, unique take on masculinity and violence. Very little is know about the plot of Die My Love (the description in the Cannes program just says “Amour Folie Folie Amour”) but Ramsay’s unique gaze combined with a promising cast (Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Lakeith Stanfield, & Sissy Spacek) makes this one feel like it’s likely to be one of the most interesting films at the fest.

A Simple Accident dir Jafar Panahi
We also know very little about Jafar Panahi’s latest film, but his work continues to be incisive, defiant, and somehow even playful in the face of having to do his work illegally in his home country of Iran. Panahi has been imprisoned for his work, banned from making film, and even banned from leaving the country. His pseudo documentaries weave together fiction and reality, blending meta commentary on his situation with beautiful cultural portraits of Iran (aka “sorrid realism”). I admire the unwavering commitment to work that is daring and politically relevant even in the face of suppression and I’m excited to see what this film has to offer.

The Phoenician Scheme dir Wes Anderson
Of course, if you know my work at all you know I’ll be queuing up for Wes Anderson’s latest pastel pastiche. This time for a reportedly very talky (can it get more dialogue heavy than the recent French Dispatch?) film centering on a character played by Benicio del Toro. Anderson reportedly pitched it to del Toro by saying “I'm thinking of you for the lead. But there's going to be a lot of talking.”

I know many people are beginning to tire of what they consider Anderson’s “shtick” but I personally find him to be continuing to develop and unfold his form into increasingly surreal and unique territory, and he’s certainly one of the most stylistically singular directors working today, and I’m glad he continues to make movies exactly the way he feels like making them.

Nouvelle Vague (New Wave) dir Richard Linklater
Richard Linklater was one of the directors I encountered as a budding cinephile who introduced me to just how much freedom that was available within the cinematic form if you were willing to playfully explore. Why not re-invent the form? It’s an energy he borrowed from the French New Wave directors and so it’s fitting that he choose to tell the story of the making of Godard’s Breathless, perhaps the most well known film from the French New Wave era.

I don’t know what to expect here, bringing a film like this to Cannes borders on pandering to the audience (I say that lovingly). But in the midst of a lot of films that look like they deal with heavier material or more serious drama, knowing Linklater’s sensibility this looks like it might be a shorter, fun reprieve in the midst of the more serious fare.

Sentimental Value (Affeksjonsverdi) dir Joachim Trier
The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier’s last film, was one of my favorites of 2022. He’s one of the filmmakers who really seems to have his thumb on the pulse of millennial ennui. And it from the look of things Sentimental Value will find him continuing to explore that territory. The Worst Person In The World had that metamodern affect of being both playfully tongue-in-cheek and truly sincere at the same time (which I like—although I know it’s not everyone’s cup of tea) and I wonder if that tone will carry through here as well. I’ll keep you posted.

Everything Else:

There’s many more I could name: Julia Ducournau, who made one of the most transcendently viscerally horrifying movies I’ve ever seen with Palme d’Or winner Titane, is back this year with a film called Alpha that I’m actually feeling kinda nervous to sit through.

Oliver Hermanus’ History of Sound looks like it could be incredible. Actors Kristen Stewart, Scarlett Johansson, and Harris Dickinson are all premiering their directorial debuts, which I’m always curious to see. And I’m always excited to be introduced to work from talent I’m not yet familiar with.

Part of the fun of a film festival is getting to see a curated set of films that don’t yet have any sort of cultural response attached to them. There’s a feeling that you’re “discovering” the film. Many of the movies don’t even have trailers yet, so you get to walk in blind, free of any expectations. There’s no cultural consensus yet and so you have a sense that any movie could be anything from one of the best movies of the decade, to just your average fare for the year, and all you have to go on is your own experience of the film.

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I’m planning a video/newsletter that will be released directly after the festival recapping the fest and highlighting the movies I think you’ll want to look out for in the coming year—but if all goes well I’ll also be posting some updates along the way, probably a mix of paid and public. I’m hesitant to make any promises though because this is my first time covering the fest while I attend and I’m unsure of what I’ll realistically have the energy for.

1. Tickets are free, you just need to claim them—and they go fast, most screening are booked within seconds.

2. This happened to me last time I went and I had to walk out of a movie. My deepest apologies to Pacification. It wasn’t you it was me.