On May 12, the 78th International Cannes Film Festival begins, which will be held on the French Riviera. This year, 22 films are presented in the main competition, informs France 24.
The festival will last from May 13 to 24, and will be opened by the film “Go Once” directed by Amelie Bonnin from France. During the opening ceremony, American actor Robert De Niro will be presented with an honorary Palme d’Or. The main jury of the competition was headed by the French actress Juliette Binoche. Along with her, the winners will be chosen by directors Hong San Soo, Carlos Reygadas, Payal Kapadia, Dido Hammadi, actor Jeremy Strong, actresses Halle Berry and Alba Rohrwacher, and writer Leila Slimani.
On the opening day of the film festival, there will be a special film screening dedicated to the war in Ukraine. The audience will be presented with three tapes that highlight this topic in different ways. In particular, the documentary film “Zelensky” by Yves Zholan, Lisa Vapne and Ariane Schemin (France, 2025) will be shown, which tells about Volodymyr Zelensky’s journey from an actor’s career to the position of president in wartime.
There will also be a premiere of the film “Notre Guerre” by Bernard-Henri Levy, co-directed with Marc Roussel (France-Ukraine, 2025), which depicts the fighting in Pokrovsk and Sumy, where French volunteers fight alongside Ukrainian defenders. The third will be Mstislav Chernov’s new work – “À 2000 mètres d’Andriivka”, dedicated to the events in Donetsk region; it is a continuation of his documentary understanding of the war after the tape “20 days in Mariupol”.
Among the main contenders for awards are Wes Anderson’s film “Phoenician Circuit” with Bill Murray, Benicio del Toro and Michael Cera, Richard Linklater’s film “New Wave” about the creation of Jean-Luc Godard’s film “On the Last Breath”, as well as “Eddington” by Ari Astaire, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler, Deirdre O’Connell and others. The events of this film unfold against the background of the pandemic and the conflict between the mayor and the prosecutor.
The competition program also included the films “Sentimental Value” by Joachim Trier, “Two Prosecutors” by Serhiy Loznytsia, “Secret Agent” by Kleber Mendons Filho, “By Accident” by Jafar Panahi, “Romeria” by Carla Simon, “The Sound of Falling” by Masha Shilinski, “Eagles of the Republic” by Tariq Saleh, “Genius” by Kelly Reichardt, “The Dossier” 137″ Dominika Moll.
Also among the participants of the main competition are “Freedom” by Mario Martone, “Mist Sirat” by Oliver Lachet, “The Last” by Afsia Erzi, “History of Sound” by Oliver Hermanus, “Renoir” by Thie Hayakawa, “Alpha” by Julia Ducournot, “Young Mothers” by Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. After the announcement of the program, three more paintings were added to the competition: “Die My Love” by Lynn Ramsey, “Woman and Child” by Said Rustai and “Resurrection” by Bi Gan.
As part of the Cannes Premiere program, screenings of Kirill Serebrennikov’s The Disappearance of Josef Mengele, Michael Angelo Covino’s All Her Exes, and Fatih Akin’s Amrum are scheduled. The “Special View” program this year included the directorial debuts of Scarlett Johansson (“Eleanor the Great”) and Harris Dickinson (“Urchin”).
