PARIS (AP) — New movies from Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, and Richard Linklater will compete for the Palme d’Or on the 78th Cannes Movie Competition, organizers introduced Thursday.
Coming off a 2024 version that produced the Academy Award best-picture winner “Anora,” in addition to plenty of Oscar contenders in “Emilia Pérez,” “The Substance” and “The Apprentice,” the French movie competition responded with a 2025 lineup stuffed with big-name auteurs.
Thierry Frémaux, Cannes’ inventive director, introduced the alternatives in a information convention in Paris with competition president Iris Knobloch.
Requested if he was underneath stress after producing so many Oscars contenders final yr, Frémaux stated the competition organizers really feel like an athlete placing his title again on the road.
“What happened last year was great,” he said. “And what happened the year before was great. The last seven, eight years, Cannes and the films of Cannes were great.”
Entries embody 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.
Julia Ducournau, whose “Titane” received the Palme d’Or in 2021, making Ducournau solely the second feminine filmmaker to ever obtain Cannes’ prime honor, will return to the competition with the Nineteen Eighties New York-set “Alpha,” about an 11-year-old with a guardian who has AIDS.
Two movies starring Josh O’Connor made it into the competitors lineup: Oliver Hermanus’ “The History of Sound,” co-starring Paul Mescal, and Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind,” an artwork heist movie set throughout the Vietnam Conflict.
Fremaux altogether introduced 19 movies vying for the Palme d’Or, six of that are directed by ladies.
Different beforehand Cannes regulars coming again embody two-time Palme winners Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne. The Belgian filmmaking brothers’ newest is titled “Young Mothers.” Joachim Trier, whose “The Worst Person in the World” was a spotlight of the 2021 Cannes, is again in competitors with “Sentimental Value,” which likewise stars Renate Reinsve.
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, who was imprisoned throughout the launch of his final, secretly made movie, 2022’s “No Bears,” and not released until he went on a hunger strike, will unveil his latest film, “Un Simple Accident.”
Among the many movies some had hoped would possibly present up in Cannes however that weren’t introduced have been Terrence Malick’s long-awaited Jesus drama “The Way of the Wind,” Spike Lee’s Akira Kurosawa remake “Highest 2 Lowest,” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another.” New movies by Jim Jarmusch and Kristen Stewart had additionally been anticipated within the Cannes lineup.
Requested about their absence, Fremaux declined to remark, saying he wished to as a substitute concentrate on the photographs which made the lower. He, nevertheless, stated extra movies could possibly be later added to the choice.
An hour after the press convention in Paris, nevertheless, Lee stated on Instagram that “Highest 2 Lowest” is, certainly, going to Cannes.
“Bon Jour. Good Morning. Whaddup. Da New SPIKE LEE JOINT-HIGHEST 2 LOWEST Starring My Brother DENZEL WASHINGTON Has Been Invited To Da 2025 CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (In The Out Of Competition Category),” Lee wrote.
Representatives for the competition did not instantly reply to messages.
Taking part in within the competition’s Un Sure Regard sidebar is Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, “Eleanor the Great,” starring June Squibb. Harris Dickinson, the “Babygirl” star, may also premiere his directorial debut, “Urchin,” in the identical part.
Bono may also be coming to the Croisette for the premiere of “Bono: Stories of Surrender,” Andrew Dominik’s movie of the singer’s one-man stage present. That can play in Cannes’ particular screening part.
Cannes earlier introduced that “Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning” will launch on the competition, which three years in the past bestowed an honorary Palme d’Or on Tom Cruise. This yr, Robert De Niro is ready to obtain one throughout the competition’s opening ceremony.
Following within the footsteps of Greta Gerwig, Juliette Binoche will head the jury that determine this yr’s Palme d’Or. Knobloch stated it is the primary time in 60 years that two ladies succeed one another on this position.
The competition runs Could 13-24. The opening night time movie, enjoying out of competitors, will probably be “Leave One Day,” the primary film by French director Amélie Bonnin.
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Coyle reported from New York
