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Cannes Film Festival · 2025

Cannes Film Festival 2025

Special Screenings

Programme

8 films · 6 reviews

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Arco

Review preview for Arco

It’s the sort of sweet-natured fable that makes adults nostalgic for childhood, but both the near and far futures it presents are, to children themselves, already likely to seem out of date.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
In 2075, a 10-year-old girl, Iris, witnesses a mysterious boy in a rainbow suit fall from the sky. It’s Arco. He comes from an idyllic far future where time travel is possible. Iris shelters him and will do whatever it takes to help him return to his time.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Ugo Bienvenu; Writer: Ugo Bienvenu, Félix de Givry; Stars: Natalie Portman, Louis Garrel, Swann Arlaud, Alma Jodorowsky, Vincent Macaigne, Oxmo Puccino)

Full review See: Arco director Hugo Bienvenu on how he managed to follow his dream with help from Natalie Portman

Bono: Stories Of Surrender

Review preview for Bono: Stories Of Surrender

The amount of material is impressive.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
A vivid reimagining of Bono’s critically acclaimed one-man stage show, Stories of Surrender: An Evening of Words, Music and Some Mischief…

(Country: US, Italy, Ireland; Year: 2025; Director: Andrew Dominik; Stars: Bono, Gemma Doherty, Kate Ellis, Jacknife Lee)

Full review

Julian Assange And The War On Journalism (The Six Billion Dollar Man)

Review preview for Julian Assange And The War On Journalism

This is a consistently interesting film and a good exercise in navigating historical narratives, even if it’s not exactly what its UK title might have viewers expecting.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
This film traces the saga of Julian Assange, a contemporary icon of the right to information, whose recent release from prison has reignited the global debate on press freedom.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Eugene Jarecki; Writer: Eugene Jarecki; Stars: Pamela Anderson, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Naomi Klein, Jeremy Scahill, Chris Hedges)

Full review

Little Amélie (Little Amélie Or The Character Of Rain)

Review preview for Little Amélie

Amélie doesn’t just narrate but completely dominates this film as a personality.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Amélie is a little Belgian girl born in Japan. Thanks to her friend Nishio-san, the world is full of adventure and discovery. But on her third birthday, an event changes the course of her life. For Amélie, everything is at stake at that age, happiness as well as tragedy.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang, Mailys Vallade; Writer: Amélie Nothomb, Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang, Aude Py, Mailys Vallade, Eddine Noël; Stars: Loïse Charpentier, Victoria Grobois, Yumi Fujimori, Cathy Cerda, Marc Arnaud, Laetitia Coryn, Haylee Issembourg, Isaac Schoumsky, François Raison, Emmylou Homs)

Full review See: The makers of Little Amélie on why perceptions about animation are changing

A Magnificent Life (The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol, Marcel et Monsieur Pagnol)

Review preview for A Magnificent Life

The screenplay is packed with absorbing detail.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
Animated consideration of the life of the cinema pioneer.

(Country: France, Belgium, US, Luxembourg; Year: 2025; Director: Sylvain Chomet; Writer: Sylvain Chomet, Marcel Pagnol; Stars: French version: Laurent Lafitte, Géraldine Pailhas, Thierry Garcia, Anaïs Petit, Vincent Fernandel, Véronique Philipponnat. English version: Matthew Gravelle, Lu Corfield, Jonathan Keeble, Celyn Jones, Jess Nesling, Flora Montgomery)

Full review See: Sylvain Chomet on animating Marcel Pagnol's career in A Magnificent Life

Mama

Review preview for Mama

Sinai portrays the situations one might find quite common and “close to home” with precision and emotional clarity.

Marko Stojiljkovic · 3.5 out of 5
After many years working far from home, Mila is forced to temporarily leave her seaside mansion - and her secret romance - to return to her family in a remote Polish village. But the long-awaited reunion is far from what she imagined.

(Country: Israel, Poland, Italy; Year: 2025; Director: Or Sinai; Writer: Or Sinai; Stars: Evgenia Dodina, Chelli Goldenberg, Meir Suissa)

Full review See: Dual identity

Tell Her I Love Her

Romane has directed a film adaptation of the book that Clémentine Autain wrote and dedicated to her mother, actress Dominique Laffin. Through this project, Romane is forced to confront her past and her own mother, who abandoned her when she was nine months old.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Romane Bohringer; Writer: Clémentine Autain, Romane Bohringer, Gábor Rassov; Stars: Romane Bohringer, Dominique Frot, Clémentine Autain, Eva Yelmani, Josiane Stoléru, Raoul Rebbot-Bohringer, Liliane Sanrey-Baud)

The Wonderers

The Roussier family lives in a fragile equilibrium around the younger sister, Bertille, who suffers from a severe disability with an unclear diagnosis. Her parents, Madeleine and Gilles, and her sister Marion, each of them tries their best to deal with the doubts and needs surrounding this extraordinary child who could die at any moment. What does the future hold for this couple, and for Marion whose responsibilities made her grow up too fast? When a new diagnosis is unveiled, horizons open up…

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Joséphine Japy; Writer: Joséphine Japy, Olivier Torres; Stars: Mélanie Laurent, Félix Kysyl, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Angelina Woreth, Anne Loiret, Stéphane Varupenne, Sarah Pachoud, Thomas Gioria, Birane Ba, Pascal Decolland, Juliette Gasquet, Najim Zeghoudi, Maxence Tual, Ilinka Lony)