Between Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, Spike Lee’s return with Highest 2 Lowest, and a shark-infested thriller called Dangerous Animals, Cannes 2025 is shaping up to be a spectacular, strange, and star-studded affair. Here’s our rundown of the 15 films you absolutely can’t miss on the Croisette this year.
🏆 After Anora… what now?
Sean Baker stunned everyone last year by winning the Palme d’Or for Anora — a film that went on to sweep five Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director. But Cannes doesn’t rest.
After the explosive entries of 2024 (Megalopolis, The Substance, Furiosa, Les Graines du figuier sauvage), the 78th edition of the festival is once again stacked: 50+ official selections, 11 titles in Critics’ Week, and 18 films in Directors’ Fortnight.
Nineteen features are running for the Palme, including six directed by women. And while some big names are missing (Terrence Malick, Park Chan-wook, Na Hong-jin…), there’s more than enough firepower in this year’s crop to keep Cannes buzzing.
🎞️ The 15 films we won’t be missing (alphabetical order, not ranking!)
Alpha
🗓 Release: August 20 – 🏛 Selection: Official Competition
📸 First still already has us hooked
Julia Ducournau (Titane) is back. Alpha follows a rebellious 13-year-old girl in a surreal 1980s city inspired by New York. Living with her mother, their lives spiral when the girl returns home from school with a mysterious tattoo.
Expect themes of grief, AIDS, inheritance, and horror-fueled emotional wreckage. Starring Tahar Rahim, Golshifteh Farahani, Emma Mackey, and Finnegan Oldfield. Heavy. And very promising.
Dangerous Animals
🗓 Release: July 23 – 🏛 Selection: Directors’ Fortnight
🦈 “It’s going to bleed on the Croisette.”
A surfer is kidnapped by a serial killer obsessed with sharks. Sounds like a B-movie? Think again. Directed by Sean Byrne (The Loved Ones), this is shaping up to be a midnight crowd-pleaser — part thriller, part gore fest, all crazy.
Eddington
🗓 Release: July 16 – 🏛 Selection: Official Competition
💥 Political chaos, conspiracy, murder, COVID nightmares
Ari Aster (Hereditary, Midsommar) finally hits a major European festival with a political horror-drama that promises pure cinematic mayhem.
Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, and Austin Butler headline this tale of secrets and survival set in a post-pandemic world. Unmissable.
Exit 8
🗓 Release: September 3 – 🏛 Selection: Midnight Screenings
🚇 Trapped in the infinite metro
A video game becomes a film. And a nightmare. Adapted by Toho and directed by Genki Kawamura (producer of Belle, Suzume), this Japanese psychological horror plays with repetition, perception, and paranoia.
Minimalist setting. Maximum dread.
Highest 2 Lowest
🗓 Release: TBA – 🏛 Selection: Out of Competition
🎧 Spike Lee remakes Kurosawa (kind of)
A modern take on High and Low, with Denzel Washington as a music mogul caught in a moral and criminal crossfire. Spike Lee returns to Cannes with another bold concept — and we wouldn’t expect anything less.
La Disparition de Josef Mengele
🗓 Release: TBA – 🏛 Selection: Cannes Premiere
⚠️ Potentially the controversial film of 2025
Directed by Kirill Serebrennikov (Leto, Limonov), this historical drama follows the notorious Nazi doctor on the run through South America post-WWII. Based on Olivier Guez’s novel. Complex, dark, and likely to split opinions.
Les Aigles de la République
🗓 Release: October 22 – 🏛 Selection: Official Competition
🎭 Egypt’s biggest actor dragged into political cinema
Tarik Saleh (Cairo Conspiracy) is back with another explosive political thriller. A state-sponsored movie drags a national celebrity (Farès Farès) into a battle between propaganda, ethics, and personal loyalty. Lyna Khoudri also stars.
L’Intérêt d’Adam
🗓 Release: October 1 – 🏛 Selection: Critics’ Week Opening Film
👩👦 Mother, nurse, justice
A 4-year-old is hospitalized. His mother overstays her welcome. A nurse makes a bold decision. Belgian filmmaker Laura Wandel (Playground) opens Critics’ Week with an emotional story on motherhood and systemic cruelty. Starring Léa Drucker and Anamaria Vartolomei.
My Father’s Shadow
🗓 Release: TBA – 🏛 Selection: Un Certain Regard
🇳🇬 First Nigerian film in Cannes history
Set in Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian elections, this drama follows a father and two sons navigating chaos and identity. Directed by Akinola Davies, starring Sope Dirisu (Gangs of London). A major milestone.
Nouvelle Vague
🗓 Release: October 8 – 🏛 Selection: Official Competition
🎥 Linklater meets Godard
Richard Linklater fictionalizes the filming of Breathless, with Guillaume Marbeck as Jean-Luc Godard and Zoey Deutch as Jean Seberg. A cinematic love letter told with Linklater’s signature charm and smarts.
Sound of Falling
🗓 Duration: 2h39 – 🏛 Selection: Official Competition
👩🌾 Four women, four generations, one farmhouse
Mascha Schilinski’s second feature is a time-traveling, feminist epic set in a rural German farmhouse. Four girls. Four eras. Time collapses.
If it’s anything like its premise, this could be one of the festival’s great discoveries.
Splitsville
🗓 Release: TBA – 🏛 Selection: Cannes Premiere
💔 Divorce. Drama. And one open relationship.
Michael Angelo Covino returns after The Climb with another bittersweet comedy. Two couples share a vacation. One’s getting divorced. The other is, well, figuring things out. With Dakota Johnson and Adria Arjona.
Sons of the Neon Night
🗓 Release: TBA – 🏛 Selection: Midnight Screenings
💊 Hong Kong noir is back
Explosions, gangsters, pharma corruption — and a killer cast (Louis Koo, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Takeshi Kaneshiro). A brutal throwback to classic HK thrillers with neon lighting and noir attitude. Gritty and glorious.
The Phoenician Scheme
🗓 Release: May 28 – 🏛 Selection: Official Competition
🎭 Wes Anderson goes… dark?
The story of a faked death, family empire, and a nun. Anderson’s usual visuals but a more sinister twist. With an ensemble that includes Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Benicio Del Toro, Scarlett Johansson, and like, everyone else.
Valeur Sentimentale
🗓 Release: August 20 – 🏛 Selection: Official Competition
🎭 Family wounds and cinematic therapy
Joachim Trier teams up again with Renate Reinsve for a family drama full of ghosts, grief, and unfinished stories. Co-starring Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsgård. Could be the tearjerker of the year.
