While this year’s Cannes didn’t erupt in the same fiery protests as 1968—when filmmakers occupied the Palais and the festival shut down—the air was thick with tension. A blackout of more than 5 hours occurred before the closing ceremony (rumored to be deliberate), Robert De Niro’s fiery anti-authoritarian (read: Trump) Palme d’Or speech, and a slate of politically charged films confronting fascism, global strife, and modern disillusionment made it clear: cinema remains a battleground.
This year’s event includes the return of Spike Lee and his gripping crime drama Highest 2 Lowest, Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or-winning It Was Just an Accident, and several other works that boldly confront political and social realities. Each film offers a distinct perspective on our turbulent times, proving cinema remains one of our most vital forms of cultural expression. From dark comedies to intimate character studies, these Cannes highlights don’t just entertain – they challenge audiences to see the world differently by igniting debates, challenging power, and reflecting our fractured world with unflinching clarity. Here are the Cannes 2025 standouts destined to command your attention.
HIGHEST 2 LOWEST
Spike Lee reunites with Denzel Washington in this dazzlingly entertaining spin on Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 kidnapping procedural, taking Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low to new highs – a soul-searching genre movie that entertains while sounding the alarm about where the culture could be headed. The plot has been transposed to New York City, allowing the acclaimed director to bring his unique perspective, dialogue, and kinetic energy to burn. The plot?
After a kidnapping forces hip hop mogul David King (Denzel Washington) to put his priorities into perspective, he throws down in the remake’s all-new climax. As David reclaims what drives him,the audience is subjected to Lee’s own passions: as a teacher of film, a speaker of truths, and an elder statesman to the community. The cast is top notch, and for those that questioned Lee casting A$AP Rocky in a key role, reviews are already praising his performance.
EDDINGTON
Joaquin Phoenix stars as a small town sheriff in New Mexico, who, infuriated with mask mandates, decides to run for mayor against the current sheriff, played by the world’s current internet daddy, Pedro Pascal. The premise may sound simple, but it is anything but as the film descends into a madness only May 2020 can provoke, bringing to life a world pushed to the edge by an obsession with the internet. It’s funny and horrifying all at the same time. Is the world ready to revisit the Dark Ages of 2020 all over again? We shall see later this year!
DIE, MY LOVE
She’s been largely absent from the silver screen for most of the past five years, but Jennifer Lawrence is back in a major way with this Cannes entry, a hypnotic, chaotic exploration of a young mother’s postpartum spiral. The film is not for everyone’s tastes, but what movie is? The debate will undoubtedly continue well into Oscar season, as Die, My Love made headlines for selling for $24 million. Critics are already predicting Lawrence to be nominated come awards season.
PILLION
Alexander Skarsgård has been making the rounds lately on red carpets in leather daddy outfits and the look plays into his latest project. In Pillion, Skarsgård plays a dom biker who takes a meek man (Harry Melling) as his submissive in Harry Lighton’s film. There is no shying away from showing everything that this world entails and audiences will undoubtedly be shocked. But even more shocking is how it also plays like a heartening coming-of-age story that makes you smile by the time the credits roll.
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT
Jafar Panahi’s extraordinary revenge parable won the Palme d’Or with a very simple premise: A man (Ebrahim Azizi) finds his family trip interrupted when his car breaks down. A mechanic (Vahid Mobasseri) thinks he recognizes him as the person who tortured him for years in prison. He abducts the traveler, and then proceeds to round up several other former inmates to confirm that he is indeed the culprit. It plays at times like a thriller and road movie instead of a theatrical production. Every moment of the film asserts Panahi’s work as a master right down to the final shot.
SENTIMENTAL VALUE
Arguably one of the most universally praised films of this year’s Cannes, Joachim Trier’s family drama continues his winning streak after the highly praised The Worst Person in the World (2021) hit his creative reset button. It also reminds audiences of the Norwegian filmmaker’s work in the first place, dating back to his gobsmacking first feature Reprise (2006).
Once again working with his longtime co-writer Eskil Vogt and Renate Reinsve, Trier carefully weaves a morality tale around a once-prominent movie director (Stellan Skarsgård) hoping to return to the spotlight with a new project. He offers the role based on his daughter to his actual daughter, an anxiety-prone stage actor (Reinsve) with a grudge against dad. Then he decides to cast an American movie star (Elle Fanning) instead, and film the whole thing in their actual family house.
THE MASTERMIND
Josh O’Connor (Challengers) may be a household name by the end of next year, but in 2025, he has two shots at elevating his profile with two entries at the festival. In this Vietnam War-era period piece, Josh O’Connor plays a man who plans to steal a series of Arthur Dove paintings from a museum in his Boston suburb of Framingham. But the movie is more about what he does after the crime, bumbling around almost aimlessly in search of something resembling freedom.
HONEY DON’T!
The second entry in Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s self-proclaimed “lesbian B-movie trilogy” centers around one Honey O’Donoghue (Margaret Qualley) — a crime-solving, wisecracker trying to figure out who left a burnt corpse in the New Mexico desert. The case soon turns out to be anything but open and shut, and ends up involving a popular local preacher (Chris Evans), mobsters, missing teens, and a mysterious French femme fatale (Lera Abova). Unlike the duo’s seven-car pile-up Drive-Away Dolls (2024), this still somewhat messy attempt to mix Coen-esque mayhem with sapphic erotica shakes the ingredients into a far more satisfying cocktail; you’ll likely be talking about the sex scene between Honey and Aubrey Plaza’s tough-talking cop for a while. What really earns it a place here is the way Qualley turns this private investigator into an update of an old noir staple that’s equal parts screwball and hard boiled. It’s some of the best work she’s ever done, and we’d gladly watch a whole other trilogy just devoted to this sultry, take-no-shit sleuth.
THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME
Wes Anderson returns with his singular mix of corporate-espionage thriller, slapstick comedy, and father-daughter family drama, centered around Anatole “Zsa Zsa” Korda (Benicio Del Toro), international business-magnate of mystery. He’s trying to make sure his dream project involving a multinational transport system becomes a reality before he’s offed by rivals; if he can also manage to mend fences with his estranged daughter (Mia Threapleton), who wants nothing to do with her dad and yearns to become a nun, that’s simply a bonus.
All the usual hallmarks of an Anderson project are present here, from an all-star ensemble cast to the meticulously composed imagery that’s made him a film-nerd idol. The scene stealer of the film is Threapleton, whose deadpan reactions, comic timing and chemistry with Del Toro make this feel like there’s a heart beating underneath it all.
THE HISTORY OF SOUND
Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor offer more proof that they are among the best contemporary actors currently around in Oliver Hermanus’ account of a fleeting gay love affair interrupted by World War I. Adapted from Ben Shattuck’s short story, the film’s romance blossoms from the intimate experience the two main characters share of traveling the backwoods of Maine in 1919, collecting traditional folk tunes from rural people.
Cannes 2025 – Where Cinema Meets the Moment
This year’s Cannes Film Festival proved once again that cinema is not just an escape, but a mirror held up to the world—sometimes fractured, sometimes crystal clear. Expect these titles to dominate conversations, from think pieces to Oscar campaigns. Whether you’re drawn to political firebrands, heart-wrenching dramas, or genre-bending surprises, Cannes 2025 delivered. The heat is real—don’t miss these films when they hit theaters!
