Founded in 1946 as a postwar cultural statement, Cannes Film Festival is still a cultural mainstay on the Croisette, and for two weeks it comes into frame, with red carpets, standing ovations, and marathon screenings inside the Grand Auditorium Lumière, the festival’s centre piece venue.
At the core is the Palme d’Or competition, judged by a rotating jury of filmmakers, actors, and artists, but Cannes runs wide with the Un Certain Regard for bold experiments, Directors’ Fortnight and Critics’ Week for emerging voices, and high-profile Out of Competition slots for the major premieres.
This year was no different, and brought directorial debuts from Scarlett Johansson and Kristen Stewart, along with new films from Richard Linklater, Wes Anderson, and Spike Lee. Denzel Washington was awarded an honorary Palme d’Or during the premiere of Highest 2 Lowest, his new collaboration with Spike Lee, marking one of the week’s biggest standing ovations and biggest moments. To make it happen, the festival shuffled its calendar to fit into Washington’s whirlwind visit, his only day off from performing Othello in New York alongside Jake Gyllenhaal.
Meanwhile, fashion labels weren’t just seen on the red carpet, Lacoste and Ami Paris deepened their relationship with cinema producing films and backing key programs. Lacoste premiered its first feature, Chien 51, a noir-tinged thriller, while Ami Paris stepped into the spotlight as an official partner of Critics’ Week. And we have to mention the red-carpet moment: Alexander Skarsgård, and his YSL waders.
Angelina Jolie also made a return to the red carpet after a 14-year hiatus from Cannes, turning heads and making headlines as she does. And Tom Cruise once again brought blockbuster energy to the Croisette with Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. The out-of-competition screening packed the Grand Théâtre Lumière, and was followed by a five-minute standing ovation.
As for one of the most talked-about films, The Secret Agent by Kleber Mendonça Filho is a Brazilian political thriller set during the final years of the 1970s dictatorship. It’s a slow-burner, full of tension which earned it a 13-minute standing ovation. There was also Sound of Falling, a German epic from Mascha Schilinski that unspools themes of generational trauma with gothic precision, reflecting her signature stylistic approach.
Richard Linklater returned with Nouvelle Vague, a black-and-white homage to the French New Wave that dramatises the making of Breathless, but this time with a meta twist. While Jennifer Lawrence gave what has been regarded as her most fearless performance yet in Die, My Love, directed by Lynne Ramsay, which looks at motherhood and mental illness with intensity and restraint.
There’s always a coming-of-age tale, and this year it comes in the form of Julia Ducournau’s Alpha. It’s brutal, tender, and unsettling. Premiering in the Official Competition, Hafsia Herzi’s La Petite Dernière offered a quiet, emotionally rich portrait of a young Muslim lesbian navigating her identity and faith in contemporary France.
In Love Me Tender, director Anna Cazenave Cambet adapted Constance Debré’s autobiographical novel into an emotionally charged feature that screened in Un Certain Regard. Vicky Krieps stars as a mother who loses custody of her son after coming out, in a story that examines personal freedom, gender, and the politics of love. The film was also in competition for the Queer Palm, and was praised for its honesty and stripped-down storytelling.
Egyptian director Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away Anymore was also selected for Un Certain Regard. Cantered on a Sudanese domestic worker in Cairo, it quietly explores themes of displacement and resilience. That same understated emotional depth could be felt in Renoir, where Chie Hayakawa crafted a gentle, poetic portrait of an 11-year-old girl coping with the loss of her father in ‘80s Tokyo, one of the festival’s most tender, subtle gems.
Oliver Laxe’s Sirât was a surreal, dreamlike story of a father searching for his son in the Sahara, with echoes of Mad Max and spiritual allegory. And finally, Two Prosecutors by Sergei Loznitsa delivered a sharp satire of Stalin-era justice, that saw equal measures of comedy and terror come into play.
Cannes calls the festival “an opportunity to reaffirm the value of cinemas and the power of the collective experience” and this year, it did just that, with films that lingered, challenged, unsettled, and brought joy.
