All the French films at the 78th Cannes Film Festival

12 MAY 2025

The Competition of the 2025 edition of the Cannes Film Festival (May 13 to 24) once again presents a fine portrait of contemporary French cinema, with five French films in the running for the Palme d'Or.

France invariably remains a land of welcome for cinema and the cradle of numerous international co-productions, and will be present in all sections with a total of almost 116 new films produced or co-produced, with minority-French productions, shorts, and XRs, including 65 in the Official Selection, all formats included.

The festival will open with the romantic comedy Leave One Day, Amélie Bonnin's debut feature starring Bastien Bouillon and Juliette Armanet, which will screen after the opening ceremony during which Mylène Farmer will perform a brand new song. The international jury is chaired by Juliette Binoche.

Five French films or majority-French co-productions will represent French cinema in Competition, including three in French, and two directed by women.

Julia Ducournau, Palme d'or 2021 with Titane, will present her third feature Alpha, starring Tahar Rahim and Golshifteh Farahani.
For the third time in Competition after Harry, He is Here to Help (2000) and Lemming (2005), Dominik Moll, still buoyed by the public triumph of The Night of the 12th (Cannes Première 2022), will present Case 137, a thriller starring Léa Drucker.
Hafsia Herzi returns four years after Good Mother (Un certain regard), with The Little Sister, an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Fatima Daas.
Two other majority-French productions, but not in French: Deux procureurs by Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa, an adaptation of a novel about the Stalin regime, and Nouvelle Vague, the highly awaited film by American director Richard Linklater, shot in France and recounting the making of Breathless by Jean-Luc Godard.

Alpha

Filmmakers from every continent will also be presenting minority-French co-produced films in Competition: Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Tarik Saleh, Chie Hayakawa, Bi Gan, Mario Martone, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Joachim Trier, Oliver Laxe, and Jafar Panahi.

Official Selection - other sections

Three animation films will be presented in Special Screenings: A Magnificient Life by Sylvain Chomet, Arco by Ugo Bienvenu, and Little Amélie or the Character of Rain by Liane-Cho Han and Maïlys Vallade.

A Magnificient Life

Cannes audiences will discover new films by Rebecca Zlotowski, Thierry Klifa, Martin Bourboulon, and Cédric Klapisch (Out of Competition), Romane Bohringer, and Joséphine Japy (debut feature) in Special Screenings, Alex Lutz, Raoul Peck, and the duo Lise Akoka & Romane Gueret (Cannes Première), Hubert Charuel, Stéphane Demoustier, Anna Cazenave Cambet, and Diego Céspedes in Un Certain Regard, Yann Gozlan and Vincent Maël Cardona (Midnight Screenings), while Tony Gatlif's latest film is programmed in Cinéma de la plage.

Diane Kurys's last film and a documentary by Raphaël Quenard and Hugo David will be presented in Cannes Classics, and a tribute will be paid to 90-year-old Pierre Richard, with the screening of his new film as director, The Man Who Saw the Bear.

All information relating to Cannes XR can be found here.

Parallel strands

In Directors' Fortnight, after an opening tribute to Laurent Cantet, and the presentation of Enzo directed by Robin Campillo, the selection will include new films by Antony Cordier, Julia Kowalski, and Thomas Ngijol, as well as two debut features by Louise Hémon and Prïncia Car.

In Critics' Week, which opens and closes with two French films (Adam’s Sake by Laura Wandel to open, and Dandelion's Odyssey by Momoko Seto to close), the selection includes two majority-French premieres Nino by Pauline Loquès and Imago by Déni Oumar Pitsaev.

ACID features the return of Sophie Letourneur and Philippe Katerine with L'Aventura, and second features by Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux and the Anton Balekdjian/Mattéo Eustachon/Léo Couture trio, as well as two documentaries by Sepideh Farsi and Sylvain George.

Enzo