The 2025 Cannes Film Festival promises to be “even more dazzling than usual”

“For a fortnight every May, there are more stars in Cannes than in the firmament (or in the old MGM studios). The 2025 edition promises to be even more dazzling than usual, as Hollywood's elite prepare to descend on the Côte d'Azur to meet the biggest names in the global film community.”

The website of the American television station CNN is definitely in full swing, as it presents the ^78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which begins on May 13 with the opening screening, out of competition, of Partir un jour, the first feature film by French director Amélie Bonnin (in theaters in France the same day).

In recent years, several Oscar-winning films have first premiered and won awards at Cannes – including Sean Baker's Anora , which won the Palme d'Or and the Oscar for Best Picture in 2024. This success has clearly encouraged top filmmakers "to line up to walk the red carpet and expose themselves to the barbs of sleep-deprived critics," CNN continues.

American television is predicting an “exceptional” 2025 vintage, visibly seduced by the “large American contingent” announced. On May 13, during the opening ceremony, a Palme d’Or will be awarded to Robert De Niro for his career. On May 14, Tom Cruise will return, out of competition, to present Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (in theaters May 21) . On May 19, Spike Lee, president of the jury in 2021 , will come to defend Highest 2 Lowest, also out of competition (in theaters September 5).

Spike Lee's feature film may not be in the running for the Palme d'Or, but it is, strangely enough, the film that graces the cover of the Cannes Film Festival issues of The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, two leading publications on the American entertainment industry. The New York director presents Highest 2 Lowest as a "reinterpretation" of Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film Between Heaven and Hell , starring Denzel Washington, alongside musicians Ice Spice and A$AP Rocky.

The "most star-studded red carpet of the festival" ? CNN is expecting it on May 18, with the cast of The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson 's new film (in theaters May 28), screened in the official selection: Bill Murray, Riz Ahmed, Tom Hanks, Scarlett Johansson , Benicio Del Toro, Willem Dafoe, among others, are expected on the Croisette.

American director Wes Anderson is a regular at Cannes, as are the Dardenne brothers (Belgium), Sergei Loznitsa (Ukraine) , Lynne Ramsay (United Kingdom), Kelly Reichardt (United States) and Jafar Panahi (Iran), all in the running for the Palme d'Or.

However, CNN is curiously watching for what it calls a “changing of the guard,” with the emergence of new names in the official selection, such as the German Mascha Schilinski for Sound of Falling* (screened on May 14), the South African Oliver Hermanus for The History of Sound * (May 21), or the Spanish Carla Simón, Golden Bear winner in Berlin in 2022, with Our Suns , who will come to present Romería* (also May 21). American television is not adding to its list the French Hafsia Herzi, even though she is also a newcomer to the big league with La Petite Dernière (May 16, and October ¹ in theaters).

CNN is also eagerly awaiting the Un Certain Regard selection, which features the first steps behind the camera of three prominent Hollywood actors: Kirsten Stewart ( The Chronology of Water*, May 16), Harris Dickinson (Urchin*, May 17) and Scarlett Johansson ( Eleanor the Great*, May 20).

The official selection jury, chaired by French actress Juliette Binoche, will announce its winners on May 24.

* These films do not yet have an announced release date in French theaters.