Cannes Film Festival 2025 Lineup Unveiled: New Films by Ari Aster, Richard Linklater, and Wes Anderson

Cannes Film Festival 2025 Lineup Unveiled: The 78th Cannes Film Festival disclosed that new features of Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, and Richard Linklater will contend for the Palme d'Or this year.

The French film festival thus responded with a full lineup of big-name authors for 2025, coming out of the 2024 edition that produced the Academy Award best-picture winner Anora, along with a number of Oscar contenders in Emilia Pérez, The Substance, and The Apprentice.

Thierry Frémaux, artistic director of the festival announced the elections in a news conference held in Paris in concert with festival president Iris Knobloch.

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Asked if he was under pressure after the number of Oscar contenders from last year, Frémaux answered that the organizers feel a bit like an athlete putting his title back on line.

Entries included Aster's Eddington, a pandemic-set Western starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal and Emma Stone; Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme, starring Benicio Del Toro as a European profiteer; and Linklater's appropriately French-language Nouvelle Vague, about Jean-Luc Godard and the French New Wave.

Returning to the festival is Julia Ducournau, whose Titane won the 2021 Palme d'Or, making her just the second female filmmaker to earn Cannes' highest honor, with the 1980s New York-set Alpha about an 11-year-old child whose parents has AIDS.

Two of the films featuring Josh O'Connor made it into the competition entry list. These were Oliver Hermanus' The History of Sound which will also star Paul Mescal, and Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind, an art heist film that was set in the period of the Vietnam War.

Fremaux altogether announced 19 films vying for Palme d'Or, six directed by women. Others included in the fray were previously regulars at Cannes, including two from Palme winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The Dardenne brothers' latest was entitled Young Mothers. Joachim Trier, whose The Worst Person in the World was among highlights during the 2021 Cannes festival, also comes back in the competition with Sentimental Value, which likewise stars Renate Reinsve.

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, whom imprisonment happened during opening of last secretly made, unreleased film, the 2022's No Bears, until he was on hunger strike, will be presenting his latest, titled Un Simple Accident.

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Among the films that many thought would show up at Cannes but weren't announced were Terrence Malick's long-awaited Jesus drama," "The Way of the Wind," Spike Lee's Akira Kurosawa remake "Highest 2 Lowest," and "One Battle After Another," by Paul Thomas Anderson. New movies by Jim Jarmusch and Kristen Stewart were also anticipated to make the Cannes cut.

When asked about their absence, Fremaux refused to comment, as he preferred to concentrate on awarding those films that won. He mentioned, however, that more titles might be added to the selection later.

However, one hour after the Paris press conference, Lee said on Instagram that "Highest 2 Lowest" is indeed going to Cannes.

Representatives for the festival didn't immediately respond to messages.

Scarlett Johannson will hold her directorial debut at the festival's Un Certain Regard section with Eleanor the Great starring June Squibb. Harris Dickinson, whose work featured Urchin, will also present his directorial debut in the same section.

Bono is also set to attend the premiere of Bono: Stories of Surrender, Andrew Dominik's film adaptation of the singer's one-man stage show, on the Croisette. This will form part of the special screenings at Cannes.

Cannes had earlier announced the opening of Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning at the festival, which three years ago handed performance star Tom Cruise an honorary Palme d'Or. This year will see the same award presented to Robert De Niro at the opening ceremony of the festival.

Following in the steps of Greta Gerwig, it is Juliette Binoche who will preside over the jury awarding the Palme d'Or this year. Knobloch stated that this is the first time in 60 years that two women will follow one another in this role.

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