REPORT: Next Step 2025 @ Cannes’ Critics’ Week
- Ten young filmmakers will take part in the programme steered by Cannes’ Critics’ Week, supporting directors making the leap to feature films
For the 12th year, the Critics’ Week team led by Ava Cahen is running its Next Step programme (headed up by Thomas Rosso), which looks to help young filmmakers (previously selected to compete in Cannes’ parallel section) make the transition from short films to feature films. The agenda notably includes a workshop (running 6 – 12 December in Moulin d’Andé and then in Paris), but also a competition which will see one of the projects rewarded in May on the Croisette (read our news on this year’s winner, The Last Tears of the Deceased by Beza Hailu Lemma).
Recent works backed by Next Step (which has supported 106 projects of 41 different nationalities since inception) include Aisha Can’t Fly Away [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Morad Mostafa
film profile] by Morad Mostafa (screened in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section in 2025), Forastera [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Lucía Aleñar Iglesias (awarded the FIPRESCI Prize in Toronto), Gorgonà [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Evi Kalogiropoulou
film profile] by Evi Kalogiropoulou (screened in Venice’s International Critics’ Week), The Visitor [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vytautas Katkus
interview: Vytautas Katkus
film profile] by Vytautas Katkus (crowned Best Director in Karlovy Vary), Don’t Let Me Die [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrei Epure
film profile] by Andrei Epure (screened in Locarno’s Filmmakers of the Present line-up)and Aro berria [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Irati Gorostidi Agirretxe (selected for San Sebastian’s New Directors section). A raft of films are also due for release in 2026-2027, courtesy of Zou Jing, Jacqueline Lentzou, Felipe Gálvez, Yannick Casanova, Pedro Peralta, Rémi Saint-Michel, Fernanda Tovar, Jela Hasler, Konstantina Kotzamani, Valentina Homen, Arvin Belarmino and Hao Zhao.
Five young European filmmakers stand tall among the ten directors gracing the line-up: Estonia’s Anna Hints (with her first fiction feature after the multi-award-winning documentary Smoke Sauna Sisterhood [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Anna Hints
film profile]), France’s Marie Larrivé (with an animated project) and Carmen Leroi, Irish-English talent Róisín Burns and the Netherlands’ Robert-Jonathan Koeyers. Rounding off the selected few are Mexico’s Marinthia Gutiérrez Velazco, fellow Mexican Juan Pablo Villalobos, Malaysia’s Ananth Subramaniam and Brazilians Leonardo Martinelli and Bruno Ribeiro. These promising directors will benefit from screenplay and production advice in the Next Step workshop, offered up by Leyla Bouzid, Franco Lolli, Juliette Lepoutre, Yacine Badday, Philippe Barrière and Thomas van Zuylen. A session on film music is also on the cards, in the form of tailored consultations involving Florencia Di Concilio, Clémence Ducreux, The Penelopes and Saycet.
For the record, Critics’ Week has also introduced two complementary programmes: Next Step II, in existence since 2023 (read our article on this year’s iteration), and Next Step Studio, which will be launched in 2026 in partnership with DW.
The 2025 Next Step projects are as follows:
Happy Hardcore – Róisín Burns (Ireland/England)
Production: Barberousse Films (France)
It’s 2004 in Liverpool and 17-year-old Sean deserts his post at the height of the Iraq war to return to England. On the run from the army, he finds the person dearest to him: his sister. Hunted by the authorities, he’s forced to hide in a tunnel. Days go by, and the violence and loneliness he tried to escape soon catch up with him.
Nabor - Marinthia Gutiérrez Velazco (Mexico)
Production: Violeta Cine (Mexico)
Co-production: L’heure d’été (France)
It's the late 50's in Tijuana, where young Martha Elba discovers love, shame, and family secrets in a home plagued by jealousy and the nights spent by her father in cabarets. Amidst the turmoil of teenage desire and disillusions, she witnesses her parents’ relationship slowly disintegrating. Her perspective morphs into that of an entire generation which is opening its eyes, witnessing the end of innocence and the emergence of doubt.
Black Hairy Beast – Anna Hints (Estonia)
Production: Stellar Film (Estonia), Kae Noh (Estonia)
During a folklore festival in Estonia, Indian dancer Mahesh and local journalist Liis fall madly in love. But as Mahesh tries to find his place in his lover’s country, he notices a shift in his body and identity, awakening a cursed mythological creature within. Their love soon finds itself grappling with society’s gaze and the wild instincts they discover inside of themselves.
Story of August – Robert-Jonathan Koeyers (The Netherlands)
Production: KeplerFilm (The Netherlands)
Over three summers, following her parents’ divorce, a lively and determined teenager called August spends her holidays with her father in a changing seaside town. As time goes by, while searching for her own place in the world, she discovers the cracks and silences within her family. She learns to face the emotional legacy they’ve left her and to break the cycle of family trauma.
Erika - Marie Larrivé (France)
Production: Eddy Cinéma (France)
It’s 1999 in Brittany, and retired, 68-year-old computer engineer Sylvia is gravely ill. She has entrusted herself to the care of Dr. Dubois, who, according to village rumours, has discovered a miracle cure for cancer. But as the storm of the century approaches the coast, Sylvia begins to question her doctor’s methods.
L’expérience impossible – Carmen Leroi (France)
Production: Sans regret (France), KG Productions (France)
Théo is passionately in love with Eve who’s twenty years his senior. When Eve falls seriously ill, Théo is devastated. “I wish I were her age and had met her twenty years earlier”, he laments. A strange doctor, whom he’s found to treat Eve, takes him at his word and sends him back to 2004, where he gets to live in the body of another version of himself...
Fantasma Neon – Leonardo Martinelli (Brazil)
Production: Duas Mariola Filmes (Brazil)
In Rio de Janeiro, bicycle delivery worker João dreams of purchasing a motorbike to improve his life and support his family. Since his mother died, he’s become the family’s sole provider, taking care of his brother, Luiz, who harbours a secret. When an accident at work triggers protests among the delivery staff, his belief in merit and solidarity wavers. Caught between ambition and loyalty, João discovers the cost of his dreams in a city where singing is also an act of resistance.
Saturday in Copacabana – Bruno Ribeiro (Brazil)
Production: Reduto Filmes (Brazil)
During a night out in Copacabana, a thirty-something pianist prone to inner turmoil runs into an old flame, just as a major turning point is looming in her life. The bustling streets, the music, and the memories stir emotions she thought were forgotten. At dawn, she must choose between the comfort of the present and the pull of an unfinished past.
Pray To The Thunder – Ananth Subramaniam (Malaysia)
Production: Sixtymac Pictures (Malaysia)
Co-production: Idio Sync inc. (Malaysia), Epicmedia (Philippines), Akanga Film Asia (Singapore), DW (France)
In a Tamil town in Malaysia dominated by an authoritarian priest, a rebellious young woman called Thunder channels her anger into performing with her punk band on the village stage, normally reserved for the priest’s religious processions. Their music electrifies the younger generation and incites the wrath of traditionalists, sparking a confrontation between modernity and superstition. As tensions rise, Thunder discovers a mystical power which threatens to upset this already delicate balance.
Ladrones de cuadros – Juan Pablo Villalobos (Mexico)
Production: Laterna Films (Mexico)
Co-production : Balade Sauvage Productions (France)
After witnessing a murder, Arcadio – a disillusioned painter turned delivery man in Mexico City – narrowly escapes an attempt on his life and finds refuge in his grandmother’s home in the state of Oaxaca. As days go by peacefully in the village, he meets a mysterious Finnish art conservator and claims some of his grandmother’s paintings as his own… Until the strange and unsettling killer finally tracks him down.
(Translated from French)
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