Cannes Film Festival 2025: How To Get The Most Out Of It

Forbes

12-05-2025

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After 78 years, the Cannes Film Festival (Festival de Cannes) continues to dazzle with its glamor, glitz and surprises, showcasing the best of cinema from around the world and rewarding the best films with the Palme d'Or, the Grand Prix, the Prix du Jury and many other distinctions.
The famous event, one not to be missed for cinema professionals and lovers of the 7th art as well as for those wanting to see and be seen, is well under way from May 13 to 24, 2025, at Cannes' Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on the Croisette, a long boulevard that stretches for some two kilometers along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
The legendary venue has been retrofitted this year to offer 2,309 seats at the Louis Lumière auditorium, making it Europe's largest cinema equipped with Dolby Atmos immersive sound technology that features a staggering 128 permanent speakers, 20 ceiling speakers, 5 kilometers of cables and 29 amplifiers.
Follow the complete program here.
For the Opening Ceremony day on Tuesday, May 13, the Festival and its official partners -- the Cannes Mayor Office, France Télévisions and Brut -- is presenting the exceptional screenings of three films dedicated to the War in Ukraine.
This 'Ukraine Day' is 'a reminder of the commitment of artists, authors and journalists to tell the story of this conflict in the heart of Europe, which has been affecting the Ukrainian people and the world for three years now and a commitment to give voice to those who bear witness to contemporary realities and stand up for the truth,' the Festival explains.
This year's 78th Cannes Film Festival, with actress Juliette Binoche as president of the jury, is the first in nearly 60 years to feature the competition jury chaired by a woman for two consecutive years.
Binoche joins the short list of female French actors who have occupied the main jury chair in the past including Jeanne Moreau, Michèle Morgan, Isabelle Adjani and Isabelle Huppert.
In fact, there are seven new films directed by women in the main competition, alongside the out-of-competition 'Leave One Day,' a crowd-pleasing musical directed by Amélie Bonnin, the first ever premiere to open Cannes.
Among the featured female films this year are: Lynne Ramsay's 'Die My Love," Kelly Reichardt's 'The Mastermind,' Julia Ducournau's 'Alpha,' Mascha Schilinski's 'Sound of Falling' (previously titled 'The Doctor Says I'll Be Alright, But I'm Feelin' Blue'), Hafsia Herzi 's 'La Petite Dernière,' Chie Hayakawa's 'Renoir' and Carla Simón's 'Romeria.'
Added to those illustrious names are other first-time directors with films premiering at Cannes' prestigious sidebar Un Certain Regard prize: Scarlett Johansson, with 'Eleanor the Great' which The Guardian has declared as 'perhaps the one with the strongest commercial prospects, having already sold to Sony Pictures and now drumming up Oscar buzz for its star, June Squibb, who plays an elderly woman who relocates from Florida to New York.'
Johansson also stars this year in a film in the main competition , Wes Anderson's 'The Phoenician Scheme.'
Kristen Stewart is also making her directorial debut with 'The Chronology of Water,' an adaptation of Lidia Yuknavitch's traumatic memoir, Zelensky by Yves Jeuland, Lisa Vapné and Ariane Chemin (France 2025), Notre Guerre, directed by Bernard-Henri Lévy and Marc Roussel (France-Ukraine 2025) and 2000 Meters to Andriivka by Mstyslav Chernov (Ukraine-USA, 2025)
Despite its 'untamed' fame and its yearly reinventions, Cannes traditionally pays tribute to the classics, starting with the choice of presenting for the first time in its history a double official poster of the movie A Man and a Woman showing actors Anouk Aimée and Jean-Louis Trintignant in the legendary movie that under director Claude Lelouch's camera won the Palme d'Or in 1966, two Academy Awards in 1967 and dozens of prizes around the world.
With that embrace, considered one of the most famous in the 7th art, the Cannes Festival explained that it wants 'to (re)unite; to bring bodies, hearts and souls closer together; to encourage freedom and portray movement in order to perpetuate it; to embody the whirlwind of life to celebrate it, again and again,' during times that 'seem to want to separate, compartmentalize or subjugate.'
In the 'classics' lane, the list to grace the festival screens is rich with gems including Charlie Chaplin's centenary The Gold Rush, appearing in a pre-opening on May 13, the 25th anniversary of Amores Perros by Alejandro G. Iñárritu, a tribute to Edward Yang with the restored print of Yi-Yi, the 90th anniversary of Merlusse by Marcel Pagnol, the half-centenary of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, rare films from Colombia and Iraq, Sri Lanka's first female director, Jayne Mansfield through her daughter actress Mariska Hargitay, Satyajit Ray by Wes Anderson thanks to Martin Scorsese's The Film Foundation, the Argentinian film, Más Allá del Olvido which, according to the Festival 'makes you wonder if Alfred Hitchcock might have been inspired by it for Vertigo,' and Barry Lyndon as the closing film.
The main program of the Festival is by invitation only, but in addition to the Official Selection, there are several parallel sections spotlighting emerging talent and different films, such as the Quinzaine des Cinéastes, Semaine de la Critique and ACID.
For tourists and the general public there is also the glitz and spectacle of the red carpets' entrance and exit of celebrities and film stars as well as the appearance of celebrities at previews and gala evenings. 'Photographers and fans gather on the Croisette to immortalize these glamorous moments and share in the excitement of the festival,' Sortir à Paris reports.
Running alongside the main events of the 78th edition of the Festival, a tradition returns this year that's open to all comers, welcoming film buffs and casual visitors alike for free screenings that span world cinema classics, premieres and restored jewels by the beach.
Every day at 9:30 pm, the Festival reinvents itself as night falls, transforming the Croisette's Plage Macé, opposite the Hotel Majestic, into an open-air cinema under the stars. From Japanese animation to Hollywood noir and European arthouse — all to be savored under the Cannes night sky.
In addition to the screenings, meetings and Official Selection events held at the Palais des Festivals, it's another way for everyone to get involved to the great cinema party.
"The program for the 78th Festival will include: film teams on stage, premieres and world cinema classics. From Hong Kong action to Italian intimism, from Japanese animation to Hollywood classics, embark on a cinephile's world tour that concludes with Any Number Can Win…on the sands of Cannes," the organizers invite.
Opening the program on May 13 is Terrence Malick's A Hidden Life, followed by a newly restored 4K version of John Woo's Hard Boiled on May 14, presented by Shout! Studios.
French cinema gets a spotlight with Les Mauvais Coups on May 15. The grand 1946 epic Duel in the Sun, restored with support from The Film Foundation thanks to Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg, will be featured on May 16.
May 17 brings a Cannes original: The Legend of the Palme d'Or Continues, a new documentary by Alexis Veller, followed by Billy Wilder's classic Sunset Blvd in a meticulous 4K restoration.
Here is the complete 'Cinema de la Plage' program.
Before each screening of the Cannes Film Festival By the Beach program, audiences can enjoy eclectic musical warm-up numbers by TwinSelecter, a DJ duo spinning a mix of funk, soul, disco, jazz, and more to set the mood for the cinematic evenings.