Organizers of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival revealed Thursday that several high-profile filmmakers, including Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, and Richard Linklater, will compete for the prestigious Palme d’Or. The festival, which previously showcased Oscar-winning films like Anora and other notable contenders in 2024, is set to feature a lineup packed with major names in cinema.
Thierry Frémaux, the artistic director of Cannes, made the announcement during a press conference in Paris alongside festival president Iris Knobloch. When asked about the pressure following the festival’s success in 2024, Frémaux compared it to an athlete defending their title. “What happened last year was great,” he said, referring to the festival’s recent success.
Films in the competition include Aster’s Eddington, a Western set during the pandemic, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, and Emma Stone; Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, featuring Benicio Del Toro as a European profiteer; and Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, a French-language film about Jean-Luc Godard and the French New Wave.
Julia Ducournau, who won the Palme d’Or in 2021 for Titane, will return with Alpha, set in 1980s New York and focusing on a young girl with a parent suffering from AIDS. Two films starring Josh O’Connor are also part of the competition: The History of Sound by Oliver Hermanus, co-starring Paul Mescal, and The Mastermind by Kelly Reichardt, an art heist set during the Vietnam War.
Frémaux revealed 19 films in total vying for the Palme d’Or, six of which are directed by women. Other familiar Cannes regulars include Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, with their latest film Young Mothers, and Joachim Trier, who returns with Sentimental Value.
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, whose last film No Bears was released amid his imprisonment, will also present his new film Un Simple Accident.
Notably, some films were expected but didn’t appear in the announced lineup, such as Terrence Malick’s The Way of the Wind, Spike Lee’s remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Highest 2 Lowest, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. While Frémaux declined to comment on their absence, he mentioned that more films may be added to the selection later.
Shortly after the press conference, Spike Lee announced on Instagram that Highest 2 Lowest had been invited to Cannes, but would be featured in the Out of Competition category.
In the festival’s Un Certain Regard section, Scarlett Johansson will debut her directorial work Eleanor the Great, starring June Squibb, while actor Harris Dickinson will premiere his first directorial effort, Urchin. Bono will also attend the festival for the premiere of Bono: Stories of Surrender, a film about his one-man stage show, directed by Andrew Dominik, which will be featured in the special screenings section.
Cannes also announced that Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning will debut at the festival, marking a return to the Croisette for Tom Cruise, who was awarded an honorary Palme d’Or three years ago. This year, Robert De Niro will receive the same honor during the opening ceremony.
The festival runs from May 13 to May 24, and its opening night will feature Leave One Day, the first film by French director Amélie Bonnin.
