24/04/2025 - Lynne Ramsay and Saeed Roustaee join the competition; Anna Cazenave Cambet, Pedro Pinho and Kristen Stewart are in Un Certain Regard; Hlynur Pálmason, Kôji Fukada and Lav Diaz for Cannes Première

UPDATE (5 May 2025): The selection has been completed with new titles – read about them here.

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As expected, the Official Selection of the 78th Cannes Film Festival (13-24 May) has been topped off by 16 feature films. There are now 21 movies in the running for the Palme d'Or (see the article – seven of which have been directed by women). Indeed, joining the race are Scot Lynne Ramsay with Die, My Love (her third time taking part in the competition – Best Screenplay and Best Actor Awards in 2017) and Iran’s Saeed Roustaee with Woman and Child (her second time).

The Cannes Première programme has been enriched by the addition of The Love That Remains by Iceland’s Hlynur Pálmason, Love on Trial by Japan’s Kôji Fukada and Magellan by the Philippines’ Lav Diaz (toplined by Gael García Bernal).

The 16 titles previously announced for the Un Certain Regard selection (see the news) will now rub shoulders with Love Me Tender by France’s Anna Cazenave Cambet (toplined by Vicky Krieps), A Poet by Colombia’s Simón Mesa Soto (Short Film Palme d’Or in 2014 for Leidi and Rising Star Award in the 2021 Critics’ Week with Amparo), I Only Rest In The Storm by Portugal’s Pedro Pinho (who rose to fame in the Directors’ Fortnight in 2017 with The Nothing Factory) and The Chronology of Water, the feature-length directorial debut by US star Kristen Stewart.

Rocking up as Midnight Screenings are No One Will Know by France’s Vincent Maël Cardona and Honey Don’t by US helmer Ethan Coen.

Also of note are Special Screenings for the French animated films Little Amélie or the Character of the Rain by Maïlys Vallade and Liane-Cho Han (an adaptation of the novel The Character of Rain by Belgium’s Amélie Nothomb) and Arco by Ugo Bienvenu, as well as for The Wonderers by France’s Joséphine Japy and Mama by Israel’s Or Sinai. Lastly, as part of a tribute to Pierre Richard, there will be a screening of his feature The Man Who Saw the Bear.

Here is the full list of selected films:

Competition

The Phoenician Scheme - Wes Anderson (USA/Germany)
Eddington - Ari Aster (USA)
The Young Mother’s Home - Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne (Belgium/France)
Alpha - Julia Ducournau (France/Belgium)
Renoir - Chie Hayakawa (Japan/France/Indonesia/Singapore)
The History of Sound - Oliver Hermanus (UK/USA)
The Little Sister - Hafsia Herzi (France/Germany)
Sirat - Óliver Laxe (Spain/France)
Nouvelle Vague - Richard Linklater (France)
Two Prosecutors - Sergei Loznitsa (France/Germany/Romania/Latvia/Netherlands/Lithuania)
Fuori - Mario Martone (Italy/France)
The Secret Agent - Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil/France)
Case 137 - Dominik Moll (France)
It Was Just an Accident - Jafar Panahi (France/Luxembourg/Iran)
Die, My Love - Lynne Ramsay (USA/Canada/UK)
The Mastermind - Kelly Reichardt (USA)
Woman and Child - Saeed Roustaee (Iran/France)
Eagles of the Republic - Tarik Saleh (Sweden/France/Denmark/Finland)
Sound of Falling - Mascha Schilinski (Germany)
Romería - Carla Simón (Spain/Germany)
Sentimental Value - Joachim Trier (Norway/France/Denmark/Germany)

Un Certain Regard

Promised Sky - Erige Sehiri (France/Tunisia) (opening film)
Love Me Tender - Anna Cazenave Cambet (France)
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo - Diego Céspedes (France/Germany/Spain/Chile/Belgium)
Meteors - Hubert Charuel (France)
My Father's Shadow - Akinola Davies Jr (UK/Ireland/Nigeria)
The Great Arch - Stéphane Demoustier (France/Denmark)
Urchin - Harris Dickinson (UK)
Homebound - Neeraj Ghaywan (India)
A Pale View of Hills - Kei Ishikawa (Japan/UK/Poland/Singapore)
Eleanor the Great - Scarlett Johansson (USA)
Caravan - Zuzana Kirchnerová (Czech Republic/Slovakia/Italy)
Pillion - Harry Lighton (UK/Ireland)
A Poet - Simón Mesa Soto (Colombia/Germany/Sweden)
Aisha Can't Fly Away - Morad Mostafa (Egypt/Sudan/Tunisia/Saudi Arabia/Qatar/France/Germany)
Once Upon a Time in Gaza - Arab & Tarzan Nasser (France/Germany/Portugal/Palestine)
I Only Rest In The Storm - Pedro Pinho (Portugal/France/Romania/Brazil)
The Plague - Charlie Polinger (USA)
The Last One for the Road - Francesco Sossai (Italy/Germany)
The Chronology of Water - Kristen Stewart (USA/UK/France/Latvia)
Heads or Tails? - Matteo Zoppis & Alessio Rigo de Righi (Italy/USA)

Cannes Première

Amrum - Fatih Akin (Germany)
Splitsville - Michael Angelo Covino (USA)
Magellan - Lav Diaz (Portugal/Spain/France/Philippines/Taiwan)
Love on Trial - Kôji Fukada (Japan/France)
The Wave - Sebastián Lelio (Chile)
Connemara - Alex Lutz (France)
The Love That Remains - Hlynur Pálmason (Iceland/Denmark/Sweden/France)
Orwell: 2+2=5 - Raoul Peck (France/USA)
The Disappearance of Josef Mengele - Kirill Serebrennikov (France/Germany/Mexico/USA/UK)

Out of Competition

Leave One Day - Amélie Bonnin (France) (opening film)
Colours of Time - Cédric Klapisch (France)
The Richest Woman in the World - Thierry Klifa (France/Belgium)
Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning - Christopher McQuarrie (USA)
Highest 2 Lowest - Spike Lee (USA)
A Private Life - Rebecca Zlotowski (France)

Midnight Screenings

No One Will Know - Vincent Maël Cardona (France)
Honey Don’t - Ethan Coen (USA)
Dalloway - Yann Gozlan (France/Belgium)
Exit 8 - Genki Kawamura (Japan)
Sons of the Neon Night - Juno Mak (China/Hong Kong)

Special Screenings

Arco - Ugo Bienvenu (France)
Tell Her That I Love Her - Romane Bohringer (France)
The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol - Sylvain Chomet (France/Luxembourg/Belgium)
Bono: Stories of Surrender - Andrew Dominik (USA)
The Wonderers - Joséphine Japy (France)
The Man Who Saw the Bear - Pierre Richard (France)
Mama - Or Sinai (Israel/Poland/Italy)
Little Amélie or the Character of the Rain - Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han (France)

(Translated from French)