Who will win the Palme at Cannes? [2025 edition]

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Poll Results

OptionVotes
THE MASTERMIND by Kelly REICHARDT 8
UN SIMPLE ACCIDENT by Jafar PANAHI 4
JEUNES MÈRES by Jean-Pierre et Luc DARDENNE 3
THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME by Wes ANDERSON 2
SOUND OF FALLING by Mascha SCHILINSKI 2
RENOIR by HAYAKAWA Chie 2
AGENTE SECRETO by Kleber MENDONÇA FILHO 2
SIRAT by Oliver LAXE 2
SENTIMENTAL VALUE by Joachim TRIER 1
EDDINGTON by Ari ASTER 1
NEW VAGUE by Richard LINKLATER 0
ROMERÍA by Carla SIMÓN 0
EAGLES OF THE REPUBLIC by Tarik SALEH 0
ALPHA by Julia DUCOURNAU 0
THE HISTORY OF SOUND by Oliver HERMANUS 0
DOSSIER 137 by Dominik MOLL 0
LA PETITE DERNIÈRE by Hafsia HERZI 0
FUORI by Mario MARTONE 0
TWO PROSECUTORS by Sergei LOZNITSA 0


jaymc, Thursday, 10 April 2025 19:00 (three months ago)

lol I pulled that from the Cannes site and didn't realize that they inexplicably translated part of Nouvelle Vague into English

jaymc, Thursday, 10 April 2025 19:04 (three months ago)

Is that the Paul Eddington biopic we’ve all been waiting for?

Ward Fowler, Thursday, 10 April 2025 19:09 (three months ago)

"New Vague" vmic for Linklater

Lithium Just Madison (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 10 April 2025 19:10 (three months ago)

I'm far from a cinephile but my heart says it's Reichardt's year.

justfanoe (Greg Fanoe), Thursday, 10 April 2025 20:29 (three months ago)

"Reichardt heist movie" makes me curious.

the way out of (Eazy), Thursday, 10 April 2025 20:54 (three months ago)

Is Chie Hayakawa taking the slot usually reserved for Naomi Kawase?

gjoon1, Thursday, 10 April 2025 22:29 (three months ago)

I was hoping that Bi Gan's "Resurrection" would be included. Maybe it's not ready. His first two films, "Kaili Blues" and "Long Day's Journey Into Night" were both really good I thought

I'm curious about Mascha Schilinski's "Sound of Falling", which has received a lot of advance praise

Dan S, Thursday, 10 April 2025 22:46 (three months ago)

If we haven't seen them (like THE MASTERMIND by Kelly REICHARDT), I have no idea

Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 10 April 2025 22:52 (three months ago)

nobody has seen them! I am merely keeping up an annual thread started in the last few years by Eric H.

jaymc, Thursday, 10 April 2025 23:00 (three months ago)

thank you jaymc!

Dan S, Thursday, 10 April 2025 23:03 (three months ago)

Yes, since they are premiering at Cannes, none of us has seen them. It's just speculation based on knowledge of and love for the directors, general film gossip, plot points put forward ahead of time, and hype by companies hoping to acquire the films

I think 3 or 4 more films may be added to the lineup. The 2025 Cannes Film Festival runs from May 13th - May 24th, so we'll at least get to see what people attending the screenings think by the middle of the festival before this poll closes May 21st

Dan S, Thursday, 10 April 2025 23:04 (three months ago)

Neil Young (UK film critic based in Austria) already has his yearly odds on his website, which will keep changing until the end of the festival, and right now his top 5 is

4/1 Chie Hayakawa RENOIR
5/1 Mascha Schilinski SOUND OF FALLING
6/1 Jafar Panahi A SIMPLE ACCIDENT
8/1 Carla Simón ROMERÍA
8/1 Julia Ducournau ALPHA

https://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/reviews/cannes2025/

I mean - he could only have marginally more insight at this point than we do

Dan S, Thursday, 10 April 2025 23:23 (three months ago)

two weeks pass...

Lynne Ramsay and Saeed Roustayi added to the competition. Perhaps we need a new poll?

Frederik B, Friday, 25 April 2025 12:13 (three months ago)

And when at least a few of us have watched'em.

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 25 April 2025 12:18 (three months ago)

isn't this how the poll has always been done?

jaymc, Friday, 25 April 2025 12:20 (three months ago)

Definitely more interesting excercise when none of us have watched these. Reading the Cannes lineup based on history, names, rumours.

abcfsk, Friday, 25 April 2025 12:28 (three months ago)

isn't this how the poll has always been done?

― jaymc, Friday, April 25, 2025

I know and I don't like it! It's like when people discussing Oscar win possibilities without watching the nominated movies. Pedantic complaint, I know, carry on.

the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 25 April 2025 12:30 (three months ago)

It should end earlier, before anyone has seen them. I agree it's not interesting if people vote based on the hype at the festival.

Frederik B, Friday, 25 April 2025 13:26 (three months ago)

But I think it's fun to vote on something as absurd as what a random jury will call the best. We should def do a poll on who will win the conclave in Rome as well.

Frederik B, Friday, 25 April 2025 13:29 (three months ago)

my vote for the conclave is Matteo Zuppi

Anyway, I think voting based on the hype of the festival is what animates these threads.

I wish they had added the Bi Gan film, but he apparently ran into problems with censors

Dan S, Friday, 25 April 2025 23:14 (three months ago)

"Back in February, Juliette Binoche was named president of the jury for the 78th Cannes Film Festival, but the jury itself had yet to be unveiled, that is, until today."

"Joining Binoche is a diverse group of international artists: American actress Halle Berry, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia, Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher, Franco-Moroccan author Leïla Slimani, Congolese filmmaker and producer Dieudo Hamadi, South Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo, Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas, and American actor Jeremy Strong."

Dan S, Wednesday, 30 April 2025 00:01 (three months ago)

Well, that changes everything. It must be Carla Simón's to lose, right?

Frederik B, Wednesday, 30 April 2025 06:15 (three months ago)

On a more serious note, I could easily see her take it. 'Alcarràs' was really good. The one I'm most excited about is Oliver Laxe. 'Mimosas' was crazy and the trailer to the new one makes it seem like he's the token 'experimental' choice this year like Gomes or Serra earlier.

Frederik B, Wednesday, 30 April 2025 06:23 (three months ago)

I've never watched Mimosas but it sounds interesting. I loved Alcarràs

Dan S, Wednesday, 30 April 2025 23:04 (three months ago)

According to World of Reel, a tentative schedule has leaked for the competition entries

May 14: Schilinski, Loznitsa, McQuarrie
May 15: Moll, Laxe
May 16: Aster, Herzi
May 17: Ramsay, Linklater, Hayakawa
May 18: Mendonça, W. Anderson
May 19: Ducournau, Saleh, S. Lee
May 20: Martone, Panahi, Zlotowski
May 21: Hermanus, Trier, Simón
May 22: Roustaee
May 23: Reichardt, Dardenne

I have read that the films thought to be the strongest are usually shown in the middle/latter part of the festival. That doesn’t mean much, but the thought is that the earliest films shown are forgotten by the end, and the last films are shown after everyone has made up their minds.

Reichardt’s film for the second time gets scheduled on the last day, but I don’t think she cares about any awards. (Dardennes’ film “Rosetta”, their first film at Cannes, which won the Palme D’Or, was also screened on the last day in 1999 apparently.) There are a lot of unknowns about the scheduling, probably involving post-production and what the directors have to say about their own preferences for when they want to show up based on their schedules

Dan S, Friday, 2 May 2025 23:16 (three months ago)

Also according to them: “As for Bi Gan’s “Resurrection,” it’s apparently booked to screen on May 22, but has still not been announced by Cannes. Hopefully, it passed through Chinese censors and will indeed be playing at the festival. The runtime for that film is said to be 2.5 hours.“

Dan S, Friday, 2 May 2025 23:20 (three months ago)

There was an announcement today that Bi Gan's film "Resurrection" will be in the official competition, which is very last minute, since the festival starts next week

Dan S, Thursday, 8 May 2025 22:30 (two months ago)

Wow! So cool :) Hope there's an even longer longtake this time.

Frederik B, Friday, 9 May 2025 08:20 (two months ago)

Haven't seen any of these but rooting for Reichardt, haha.

TO BE A JAZZ SINGER YOU HAVE TO BE ABLE TO SCAT (Jazzbo), Friday, 9 May 2025 13:41 (two months ago)

So the festival started off with Robert De Niro accepting an honorary Palme d'Or

new odds according to Neil Young:

3/1 Chie Hayakawa RENOIR [116min] Jap/Fra/Phi/Sin/Indo
7/2 Bi Gan RESURRECTION [160] Chi/Fra
5/1 Mascha Schilinski SOUND OF FALLING [149] Germany
5/1 Carla Simón ROMERÍA [115] Spa/Ger
7/1 Jafar Panahi IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT [105] (previous times in competition: 1) Iran/Fra/Lux
8/1 Joachim Trier SENTIMENTAL VALUE [135] (2) Nor/Fra/Den/Ger

https://www.jigsawlounge.co.uk/film/reviews/cannes2025/

Dan S, Wednesday, 14 May 2025 01:42 (two months ago)

I don't know much about Chie Hayakawa, but I don't think she is like Naomi Kawase. Hayakawa's first film was Plan 75, which won a special recognition in the Camera d'Or competition. It was unsettling.

The description of this new film is:

"Suburban Tokyo, 1987. 11-year-old Fuki's father, Keiji, is battling cancer, and in and out of hospital. Her mother, Utako, is constantly stressed out from caring for Keiji while holding down a full-time job. Left alone with her rich imagination, Fuki becomes fascinated by telepathy and falls ever deeper into her own fantasy world."

it sounds interesting to me

Dan S, Wednesday, 14 May 2025 02:21 (two months ago)

Early Kawase is really good, btw. Shara especially.

Frederik B, Wednesday, 14 May 2025 07:00 (two months ago)

I liked her film Sweet Bean from 2015. That's the only one I've seen.

Mascha Schilinski's The Sound of Falling has gotten great reviews from Indiewire and Variety. It seems like it doesn’t have a coherent narrative as much as a sense of resonance of ghosts and trauma across generations.

Sergei Losnitza is the Ukrainian director of Two Prosecutors, also presented today in competition.

“Set in a provincial Soviet town in 1937, at the height of Josef Stalin’s reign of terror, Loznitsa’s latest is a harrowing portrait of one man’s powerlessness when confronting the ruthless machinery of a brutal, capricious state.”

Losnitza made Donbass 7 years ago which won the 2018 Un Certain Regard’s directing prize and My Joy 10 years ago. Both of them are beautiful but insanely chaotic films

Dan S, Thursday, 15 May 2025 00:21 (two months ago)

I see now his name is spelled Loznitsa

Dan S, Thursday, 15 May 2025 00:23 (two months ago)

tomorrow we get Dominik Moll with Dossier 137. He is a director who has been in competition twice before, with With A Friend Like Harry... (2000) and Lemming (2005). I have not seen his films and know nothing about him

also Oliver Laxe, for a film about a father's search for his missing daughter in the deserts of southern Morocco. He won the Directors' Fortnight Prize in 2010 for You Are All Captains, the Critics' Week Grand Prize in 2016 for Mimosas, and the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize in 2019 for Fire Will Come. I have not seen any of his films either

Dan S, Thursday, 15 May 2025 00:59 (two months ago)

Mascha Schilinski's The Sound of Falling has gotten great reviews

yeah, I really want to check this out

Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 15 May 2025 01:11 (two months ago)

Loznitsa has become a major documentarian lately, with major works about Ukrainian history like 'Maidan' about the revolution and 'The Invasion' about the war. Plus he has made a series of documentaries based on archival footage, of which 'State Funeral', featuring insane never seen before footage made for a propaganda documentary about the funeral of Stalin which was never finished. The new film looks like the most austere he has ever been, but it gets really great reviews. Perhaps it might be his popular breakthrough?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmJE6KWkVXM

I saw 'With a Friend Like Harry' in highschool more than twenty years ago. Never felt the need for more Moll...

But as stated above, the Laxe might be the one I'm looking forward to the most. 'Mimosas' is a classic, and the trailer for 'Sirât' looks great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r854X85Q49s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HvwhOY63Ig

Frederik B, Thursday, 15 May 2025 09:56 (two months ago)

I usually like to follow Cannes through a mix of podcasts and tweets. The former seem quite slow compared with previous years (at least anglophone ones): my favourite one, Nick Rapold's Last Movie I Saw has had one episode with guest Alison Willmore (they both adored The Sound of Water). Nothing from Film Comment podcast so far this year. The Izzy and Murtado Picture Show is a new one on me though.

As for tweets, it's all a bit fractured now, with some people on Bluesky. Refuse to check Threads as well.

Alba, Thursday, 15 May 2025 15:29 (two months ago)

The Sound of Falling, rather!

The Shape of Water
The Sound of Music
The Chronology of Water

Bleurgh

Alba, Thursday, 15 May 2025 15:30 (two months ago)

I see that THE MYSTERIOUS GAZE OF THE FLAMINGO has made an early bid for Cannes-iest title of the year.

Alba, Thursday, 15 May 2025 15:49 (two months ago)

I don't know what to believe about any of these reports, but it's fun to read them.

As for Loznitsa's Two Prosecutors, David Jenkins had this to say about it:

"Loznitsa’s lackadaisical film comprises three intimate set pieces based around extended and poetically-literate dialogue scenes. In between these moments, we see shots of Kornyev waiting and often dozing off. He fights with patience against this unseen foe, yet his naivety is all too conspicuous when it comes to believing for even a second that he might succeed in his well-meaning odyssey against the all-encompassing power structure.

Two Prosecutors offers a fairly standard critique of the bureaucratic superstate in which there is always someone a few steps ahead ready to stomp you under its boot heel. Shot in the oppressively boxy 1.37:1 aspect ratio, the film is beautifully framed, blocked and edited, with editor Danielius Kokanauskis in particular locating a series of hypnotic, pendulum-like rhythms in the extended conversation sequences.

Yet as serious and prescient as the film may be politically, it feels too much like a quaint variation on a story that’s been told many times before (not least by Loznitsa himself!), all likely herded under the clichéd thematic banner of “Kafkaesque”. It’s a supremely well-made piece of work whose function and message never quite manage to transcend the prosaic. Still, in the strange times we’re currently living through, maybe it’s worth sounding that necessary siren one more time for luck."

from little white lies

https://lwlies.com/festivals/two-prosecutors-first-look-review/

Dan S, Thursday, 15 May 2025 22:47 (two months ago)

so mostly positive

as far as Dossier 137 goes, Indiewire also gave it a mostly positive review:

xhttps://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/dossier-137-review-1235123685/

reading the description, it reminds me of Jacques Audiard's Paris, 13th District

Dan S, Thursday, 15 May 2025 23:05 (two months ago)

tomorrow we get Ari Aster's Eddington, which I'm looking forward to. The poster image is kind of shocking. It is a close-up of art by David Wojnarowicz depicting bison being forced off a cliff in New Mexico, as a metaphor for how our government treated people with AIDS in the late 80s. (He died of AIDS in 1992.) It is supposedly a pandemic film. I don't know what the connection is

I loved and hated Beau Is Afraid

Also tomorrow there is a film by Hafsia Herzi, in competition for the first time. She is a French/Tunisian/Algerian woman, and her film is called La petite dernière.

It is about a woman leaving her close-knit suburban family to study philosophy in Paris, and she finds herself caught between her religious upbringing and the freedom of student life in the city.

Dan S, Friday, 16 May 2025 00:16 (two months ago)

The poster image you mention is pretty familiar to a lot of folks, though, as it was the single cover for U2’s “One.”

Ned Raggett, Friday, 16 May 2025 01:14 (two months ago)

I didn't know that!

Dan S, Friday, 16 May 2025 02:00 (two months ago)

Just reading about Kristen Stewart's directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, which includes among its supporting cast both Jim Belushi and Kim Gordon.

jaymc, Friday, 16 May 2025 15:14 (two months ago)

NY Times:

Aster is keen to zero in on the moment when our fraying social fabric was torn apart, and the movie has already inspired battle lines as strongly drawn as the political sides “Eddington” means to satirize. Early reviews have been wildly mixed, and at a cocktail party that followed the Cannes press screening, I watched several critics square off: Though fans of the film found it bold and daring, detractors called it unfunny, too on the nose, and more eager to lampoon annoying liberals than the conservative main characters.

the way out of (Eazy), Friday, 16 May 2025 22:29 (two months ago)

The Guardian hated it

Andy the Grasshopper, Friday, 16 May 2025 22:49 (two months ago)

Interesting

The reviews of Oliver Laxe’s Sirât suggest that everyone has been wowed by this film. Most reviews have loved it, but I read one that said its abrupt shift in tone 2/3 of the way in was too extreme, and was to its detriment.

Nicholas Rapold's podcast btw, mentioned by Alba above, has a new episode discussing Two Prosecutors and Dossier 137

Dan S, Friday, 16 May 2025 22:50 (two months ago)

xp thanks tipsy!

I haven’t read reviews yet of Eagles of the Republic, but Julia Ducournau’s Alpha, a sort of body-horror AIDS allegory, has gotten very disparate reactions (but mostly bad). David Ehrlich gave it a D+, calling it dour and dismal. Variety described it as muddled. The Hollywood Reporter review made it sound interesting to me though, I will definitely watch it.

Tomorrow we get the premiere of Mario Martone’s Fuori. He’s a Neapolitan filmmaker who has been in competition twice before. I’ve never much wanted to watch his films, but this one sounds mildly interesting. IMDB’s description is “A writer ends up in prison for a crazy and unexpected act, where she meets with some young inmates. Once out the writer and the other women maintain their friendship, an authentic bond that no one else will be able to understand.”

The film tomorrow that I’m anticipating more is Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident. I have not read anything that tells us much about this. I’ve seen three of his many previous films - This Is Not a Film (2011), Taxi (2015), and No Bears (2022) - all of which were excellent. He’s won the Golden Camera, UCR Jury Prize, and Screenplay for three other films I have never seen, and has competed for the Palme d’Or once before. He also won the Berlin Film Festival top prize in 2015 for Taxi

Dan S, Monday, 19 May 2025 23:26 (two months ago)

No Bears is about a filmmaker (a version of Panahi, played by himself) who is trying to remotely film a docudrama about a couple wanting to escape Iran to Turkey and then to Europe (through an assistant director over zoom or facetime), and he is also dealing with an increasingly irate group of villagers in the border town where he is staying, because they suspect he has photographed a young woman (who was promised to a villager at birth) with another man.

The weird thing is the way the film gradually seems to blur fiction and reality

Dan S, Monday, 19 May 2025 23:50 (two months ago)

Yeah, I'm possibly most keen to see new Panahi from this lot. I still get plenty of mileage out of his stuff.

His breaking of the fourth wall in one of his early films blew my mind slightly as a youngster, so adjacent blurring-fact-and-fiction hijinks becoming more central to his seriously constrained later work is quite the silver lining.

Nag! Nag! Nag!, Tuesday, 20 May 2025 00:15 (two months ago)

Yeah, the 'taking off the cast' moment, as he later called it in 'This Is Not A Film', is one of the major moments in modern cinema. The clip from the new one is quite low key, but look at the incredibly precise blocking and camera movement. It's part of why he makes it seem like he controls the whole world with his directing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILemYMAgts

Mario Martone makes films from a Southern Italian viewpoint, and was perfect as a constant presence in Venice. Some of his films are better than others, with 'We Believed' as probably the most important. A counter-history of the unification of Italy as seen from the south, where the victory by the Northern Piedmonters is seen as more of the same, rather than a victory. But I don't get what he is doing in Cannes, 'Nostalgia' was boring as fuck, and tons of interesting young Italian directors are being kept out of the limelight so he can show his really quite conventional films on the biggest stage there is. But that is Cannes under Thierry Frémaux in a nutshell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bGzBHzjglE

At least Kirill Serebrennikov has been demoted to Cannes Premieres with his latest, 'The Disappearance of Joseph Mengele'.

Frederik B, Tuesday, 20 May 2025 07:55 (two months ago)

Panahi’s film has gotten predictably great reviews. He seems destined to win some prize.

Tomorrow there are three premieres

First, Carla Simón’s Romería. “With her mother's diary in hand, Marina's search for official documents for university leads her to her biological family on the Atlantic coast. What starts as an administrative quest reveals long-buried family secrets.

Her film Alcarràs was a beautiful pastoral film about a family about to lose their peach farm in Catalonia. It was only her second film. It won the Golden Bear at the Berlin film festival.

Dan S, Tuesday, 20 May 2025 23:24 (two months ago)

Also a new film by Joachim Trier, who directed the amazing Oslo Trilogy - Reprise (2006), Oslo, August 31st (2011) and The Worst Person in the World (2021). My favorite is Oslo, August 31st. I love Anders Danielson Lie as an actor. The new film is title Sentimental Value, which is a kind of generic title that I’m not crazy about. It apparently centers on two sisters (one played by Renate Reinsve) whose mother died, bringing their estranged father back into their orbit.

Trier said about it: “Things are very polarized and very aggressive right now, and I completely respect people who want to use art now as a way of yelling out their anger and their opinions. I get it,” Trier says. “But at the same time, you could also look inward at what we are trying to protect in a world that’s getting quite brutal. There’s something about tenderness that’s just very humane, that we need to express.”

Dan S, Tuesday, 20 May 2025 23:29 (two months ago)

My film critic friend loved the Panahi.

jaymc, Tuesday, 20 May 2025 23:34 (two months ago)

not sure who that is, but it seems everyone liked it

Oliver Hermanus is a South African director also in competition for the first time. I kind liked Moffie (2019), a coming-of-age story set in a brutal basic training camp for South African boys conscripted into the military during apartheid and SA’s war against Angola. I think ‘Moffie’ is Afrikaner for ‘faggot’, which tells you something about the plot.

His new film is The History of Sound, based on a story by Ben Shattuck, about the relationship between two men who meet in 1916 and then travel together in the summer of 1919 to record the folk songs of their countrymen in rural New England, starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor.

My friend jokes that these are the two straight actors who always star as gay characters in films

Dan S, Tuesday, 20 May 2025 23:47 (two months ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Wednesday, 21 May 2025 00:01 (two months ago)

don't think I've ever seen Josh O'Connor playing a straight guy

symsymsym, Wednesday, 21 May 2025 00:02 (two months ago)

I remember he portrayed Prince Charles for a bit in The Crown, which I thought was a pretty great performance

Dan S, Wednesday, 21 May 2025 00:34 (two months ago)

Excited about the Carla Simón. Her debut 'Summer 1993' was about a young girl who had to live with relatives after her parents died, and it was supposedly autobiographical. She made a docu-hybrid short 'Letter To My Mother For My Son' on the same subject, which was on MUBI for while. The new one seems to sorta be about the same story. The trailer looks quite stylized, though, where I thought her biggest asset was the wonderful naturalism in her films.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUch0tgMW_Y

The one from Joachim Trier looks like more of the same, but that is not a bad thing. Agree that 'Oslo, August 31st' is his best.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJWgkJ7C6nw

Frederik B, Wednesday, 21 May 2025 06:40 (two months ago)

I've seen people say Trier's Sentimental Value is the obvious favourite for the Palme. Not sure if this is based on pre-festival word or just that they think he's on that trajectory. Nothing of his has hit me remotely as hard since Oslo, August 31st, though I still haven't seen his earlier Reprise.

Alba, Wednesday, 21 May 2025 06:49 (two months ago)

cannes seems to love him though

brony james (k3vin k.), Wednesday, 21 May 2025 06:52 (two months ago)

I'd have said he was one of the favorites, and a few of the others has gotten a pretty muted response, so I could easily see him take it. I think Panahi must be the overwhelming favorite right now, though? I hadn't realized he had actually been allowed to travel to France this time, first time in twenty years he is there. Would be such a big moment if he won. It would also mean he has won the Golden Leopard, Golden Lion, Golden Bear and Golden Palm, and I'm not sure anyone has done that before...

Frederik B, Wednesday, 21 May 2025 07:04 (two months ago)

the EGOT of film festivals!

Dan S, Wednesday, 21 May 2025 22:43 (two months ago)

The reviews of todays entries are slow to come out, but The History of Sound got a pretty good review in Indiewire

Tomorrow is Bi Gan’s Resurrection, the film I’ve been most looking forward to reading about in this festival. It was added at the very last minute. It may end up being too esoteric to win any awards.

His two previous films - Kaili Blues (2015) and Long Day’s Journey Into Night (2018) - were quite opaque but were kind of mesmerizing.

Kaili Blues features a single-take 41 minute-long hand-held tracking shot in a small town in the Guizhou province in China, where the main character, a small-town doctor, hitches a ride on the back of a motorbike, rides in a flatbed truck, gets his shirt mended, gets his hair washed, etc. It is a film about “grappling with ancient traditions in a modern China, as well as an outline of one man’s regrets”, and has surreal scenes where he meets people from his past and future.

Long Day’s Journey Into Night also features an hour-long single shot at the end, but in 3D.

The director is still young (in his 30s) and I think he has a lot of potential

Dan S, Wednesday, 21 May 2025 23:28 (two months ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Thursday, 22 May 2025 00:01 (two months ago)

I'm excited for the Reichardt, but it probably won't win bc it's been programmed for the last day.

jaymc, Thursday, 22 May 2025 00:12 (two months ago)

I voted for Agente Secreto, but this does seem like Jafar Panahi's moment

Dan S, Thursday, 22 May 2025 00:30 (two months ago)

I like the Reichardt films I've seen, but a 'heist film'? Huh

Andy the Grasshopper, Thursday, 22 May 2025 00:42 (two months ago)

I mean, First Cow was kind of a heist film

jaymc, Thursday, 22 May 2025 03:17 (two months ago)

Teaser to 'Resurection' looks incredible, and yeah, first two Bi Gan films were something else.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTh8gePW6FM

Today there's also Saeed Roustayis 'Woman and Child'. His last Cannes film was quite good, but my favourite of his i 'Just 6.5', which is kinda a crime film about the hunt for a drug kingpin, but really is so much more than that, and a lot about the Iranian regime.

Also, today there's a new film from Israeli director Nadav Lapid in Director's Forthnight. Again, don't get why he isn't in main competition, 'Ahed's Knee' was one of the best films in competition in 2021. His reason for making the film: “When you see your country is in the worst point of its history and is committing the worst crimes, what else can you do than try to find an audiovisual way to express that?” Perhaps that was too provocative for Cannes?

But all in all, it looks like the competition has been pretty underwhelming so far.

Frederik B, Thursday, 22 May 2025 10:01 (two months ago)

Pretty amazing interview with Nadav Lapid about the film: https://www.screendaily.com/features/israeli-filmmaker-nadav-lapid-on-his-post-october-7-film-yes-i-can-never-run-away-from-the-war-it-will-follow-me/5205293.article

Frederik B, Thursday, 22 May 2025 10:04 (two months ago)

Nanako Tsukudate liked Sirât and NOTHING ELSE

https://icsfilm.org/festivals/cannes/2025-cannes/cannes-2025-ics-press-industry-panel/

Alba, Thursday, 22 May 2025 11:47 (two months ago)

xps I agree, Frederick, that Ahed’s Knee was one of the best films in competition at the 2021 festival.

It reminds me somewhat of Synonyms (2019) in that it focuses on the world of a supremely self-absorbed but fascinating central character. This film really seems to be even more confident in its visual approach though, with constant switching of points of view and with very inventive camera techniques and interpolation of unlikely musical interludes. It’s the kind of film that’s hard to look away from. I'm looking forward to seeing Yes!, which strangely also features a main character named 'Y'.

I see that Bi Gan’s Resurrection didn’t premiere until 10:16 pm tonight in Cannes, which means the jury will have to watch 3 films tomorrow, the last day - Resurrection, the Dardennes film, and last of all Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind. I thought I read that the reason Reichardt's film is being shown last is so that Josh O’Connor, who is working on another project, can show up (haha) for the premiere

Dan S, Thursday, 22 May 2025 22:58 (two months ago)

Bi’s Resurrection has gotten the expected befuddled responses. Reichardt’s The Mastermind has had generally positive reviews.

I think the Palme d’Or comes down to Trier’s Sentimental Value or Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident, with Mendonça Filho’s Secret Agent getting a major award

Dan S, Saturday, 24 May 2025 00:18 (two months ago)

No surprises really

Palme d’Or: “It Was Just an Accident” by Jafar Panahi
Grand Prix: “Sentimental Value” by Joachim Trier
Jury Prize: “Sirât” by Oliver Laxe & “Sound of Falling” by Mascha Schilinski (TIE)
Best Director: Kleber Mendonça Filho for “The Secret Agent”
Best Actress: Nadia Melliti for “The Little Sister”
Best Actor: Wagner Moura for “The Secret Agent”
Best Screenplay: “The Young Mother’s Home” by Luc Dardenne & Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Prix Spécial: “Resurrection” by Bi Gan

Alba, Saturday, 24 May 2025 17:59 (two months ago)

Yeah, that's a fairly good guess, Dan S :)

Frederik B, Saturday, 24 May 2025 18:11 (two months ago)

Except for Secret Agent getting two awards, not one...

Frederik B, Saturday, 24 May 2025 18:12 (two months ago)

kind of a surprise that Jennifer Lawrence didn't win best actress?

jaymc, Saturday, 24 May 2025 18:26 (two months ago)

so Neon has won its 6th consecutive Palme

jaymc, Saturday, 24 May 2025 18:28 (two months ago)

Well they did buy most of the contenders

Alba, Saturday, 24 May 2025 18:32 (two months ago)

My film critic friend loved the Panahi.

― jaymc, Tuesday, 20 May 2025 23:34 (four days ago)

not sure who that is, but it seems everyone liked it


https://www.rogerebert.com/festivals/cannes-2025-it-was-just-an-accident-alpha

jaymc, Saturday, 24 May 2025 18:33 (two months ago)

Seems like this is the first year in a while that no American film won any award?

the way out of (Eazy), Saturday, 24 May 2025 18:44 (two months ago)

Americans have got a pope. That's enough for now.

Alba, Saturday, 24 May 2025 18:47 (two months ago)

It's honestly fairly normal that no US films win. The Zone of Interest only sorta US film winning in 2023. War Pony won Camera d'Or in 2022 if that counts. And even if those count, no US film won anything in 2021.

Frederik B, Saturday, 24 May 2025 18:55 (two months ago)

There's a lot of US films in competition these years, but they honestly don't win that much, usually.

Frederik B, Saturday, 24 May 2025 18:56 (two months ago)

Seems like this is the first year in a while that no American film won any award?

before Anora, the last American film in competition to win an award was BlacKkKlansman in 2018

jaymc, Saturday, 24 May 2025 18:57 (two months ago)

Oh wow, I’m totally off. I was confusing the awards with the hyped American performances/directors that didn’t win.

the way out of (Eazy), Saturday, 24 May 2025 20:01 (two months ago)

This thread has been interesting to follow

Is there any chance that someone here has a gift link to Justin Chang’s article “All the Films in Competition at Cannes 2025, Ranked from Best to Worst” from the New Yorker? Or an archive link? I would love to read it, he posted a link to it this morning, but it’s behind a paywall for me

He seems enthusiastic about this edition of Cannes

Dan S, Monday, 26 May 2025 23:22 (two months ago)

this stays between us:

https://archive.fo/DZJea

symsymsym, Monday, 26 May 2025 23:52 (two months ago)

thank you so much, symsymsym!

Dan S, Tuesday, 27 May 2025 00:04 (two months ago)

np :) he's a very good writer imo, I appreciate being guided towards the piece

symsymsym, Tuesday, 27 May 2025 00:12 (two months ago)

Dan, are you on faculty anywhere these days? I pay a $70/year “educator rate”, easily one of my best value subscriptions

brony james (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 27 May 2025 02:11 (two months ago)

I'm not. That is a good rate. I'm thinking I will trade out my subscription to The Atlantic for The New Yorker.

I cancelled my subscription to the LA Times. What a worthless, uninteresting website! and with a heinous owner, Patrick Soon-Shiong. It's shocking that for such a big city there is no good paper. When they let Justin Chang go and then refused to endorse anyone in the last election I knew it was time to cancel.

SF is a fraction of the size of LA, but has two interesting papers, SFChronicle and SFStandard, and also has a free website SFGate.

Dan S, Tuesday, 27 May 2025 03:16 (two months ago)

LA times is pretty bad if you’re used to real national papers. I forget how much I pay for that one but it’s probably too much

brony james (k3vin k.), Tuesday, 27 May 2025 03:22 (two months ago)

one month passes...

The show goes on, unfortunately

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n12/daniella-shreir/diary

xyzzzz__, Thursday, 3 July 2025 12:42 (one month ago)

In lieu of a Lav Diaz thread - anyone caught Magellan yet? Single screening here in a month's time.

etc, Monday, 14 July 2025 22:13 (three weeks ago)

No but want to

xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 15 July 2025 09:57 (three weeks ago)


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