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Cannes Film Festival · 2025

Cannes Film Festival 2025

Un Certain Regard

Programme

20 films · 9 reviews

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Aisha Can't Fly Away Anymore

Aisha is a 26-year-old Sudanese caregiver living in a neighbourhood in the heart of Cairo where she witnesses the tension between her fellow African migrants and local gangs and struggles to cope with her fears and lost battles.

(Country: Tunisia, Qatar, Egypt; Year: 2025; Director: Morad Mostafa; Writer: Sawsan Yusuf; Stars: Ziad Zaza, Emad Ghoniem, Mamdouh Saleh, Buliana Simona)

World premiere

Caravan (Karavan)

A woman and her mentally disabled son take an unexpected road trip.

(Country: Slovakia, Italy, Czechia; Year: 2025; Director: Zuzana Kirchnerová; Writer: Tomás Bojar, Zuzana Kirchnerová, Kristina Majova; Stars: Anna Geislerová, Jana Plodková, Mario Russo, Stefano Cenci, Giandomenico Cupaiuolo, Juliana Olhová, Lady Maru, Oscar de Summa, Lea Cirianni, Michele Abbondanza, David Vostrcil)

World premiere

The Chronology Of Water

Review preview for The Chronology Of Water

While tolerance levels for this kind of self-consciously arty style will vary, it is hard to fault the fizzing ambition and high-voltage energy that K-Stew and her team bring to the party.

Stephen Dalton · 3.5 out of 5
A troubled young woman escapes an abusive childhood, family tragedy and addiction issues by slowly finding her creative voice as a writer.

(Country: US, France, Latvia, Spain, UK; Year: 2025; Director: Kristen Stewart; Writer: Kristen Stewart, Lidia Yuknavitch; Stars: Imogen Poots, Thora Birch, Jim Belushi, Tom Sturridge, Charlie Carrick, Jeremy Ang Jones, Earl Cave, Michael Epp, Susannah Flood, Kim Gordon, Alexander Johnson, Anton Lytvynov, Esme Allen, Hal Weaver, Alina Lytvynova)

Full review

World premiere

Eleanor The Great

Witty and proudly troublesome 94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein, after a devastating loss, tells a tale that takes on a dangerous life of its own.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Scarlett Johansson; Writer: Tory Kamen; Stars: June Squibb, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Hecht, Erin Kellyman, Will Price, Lia Lando, Greg Kaston, Michael Everett Johnson, Swanmy Sampaio, Marcha Kia, Cole Tristan Murphy, Stephen Singer, Rita Zohar, Luis Castro de Leon, Jacob Flekier)

World premiere

The Great Arch (L'inconnu de la Grande Arche)

Review preview for The Great Arch

An absorbing account.

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
1982. French President François Mitterrand decides to launch an international architectural competition for the flagship project of his mandate: the Great Arch of La Défense, aligned with the Louvre and the Arc de Triomphe. Against all odds, Otto von Spreckelsen, a Danish architect, wins the competition...

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Stéphane Demoustier; Writer: Laurence Cossé, Stéphane Demoustier; Stars: Claes Bang, Sidse Babett Knudsen, Xavier Dolan, Swann Arlaud, Alessandro Bressanello, Michel Fau, Olivia Hahn Reichstein, Pierre-François Grunenwald, Thomas Garcia)

Full review

World premiere

Heads or Tails? (Testa o croce?)

At the dawn of the 20th century, Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show rolls into Italy, peddling the myth of the American frontier and sparking the imagination of Rosa, a young woman trapped in a stifling marriage to a powerful and violent landowner. When a rodeo between American cowboys and Italian butteri ends in tragedy, Rosa flees with Santino, the daring local rider who bested the Americans. But her dreams of freedom collide with reality.

(Country: Italy, US; Year: 2025; Director: Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis; Writer: Carlo Salsa, Matteo Zoppis, Alessio Rigo de Righi; Stars: Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Alessandro Borghi, John C. Reilly, Peter Lanzani, Mirko Artuso, Gabriele Silli, Gianni Garko)

World premiere

Homebound

Review preview for Homebound

Too much of the social grammar remains out of reach unless viewers are willing to research afterwards, and a drama this grounded in real structures shouldn’t require homework to fully land.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
Two childhood friends from a small North Indian village chase a police job that promises them the dignity they’ve long been denied. But as they inch closer to their dream, mounting desperation threatens the bond that holds them together.

(Country: India; Year: 2025; Director: Neeraj Ghaywan; Writer: Neeraj Ghaywan; Stars: Ishaan Khatter, Janhvi Kapoor, Vishal Jethwa, Tushar Phulke)

Full review

World premiere

I Only Rest In The Storm (O Riso E A Faca)

Review preview for I Only Rest In The Storm

It's so lost in post-colonial anger that it falls foul of being disingenuous or a trap for European audiences.

Casper Borges · 2 out of 5
A Portuguese environmental engineer, travels to Guinea Bissau to conduct an impact report for a road-building project. As he grapples with heat and isolation, he meets two locals equally yearning to find their own way. But tensions arise within their ambiguous relationship.

(Country: France, Portugal, Brazil, Romania; Year: 2025; Director: Pedro Pinho; Writer: Pedro Pinho; Stars: Sérgio Coragem, Cleo Diára, Jonathan Guilherme)

Full review

World premiere

The Last One For The Road (Le Citta Di Pianura)

Review preview for The Last One For The Road

Blends a shaggy dog story with a road trip.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Carlobianchi and Doriano, two broke fiftysomethings with a “never skip the last drink” philosophy, meet Giulio, a shy architecture student adrift in life. What starts as a chance encounter turns into a chaotic road trip through the Venetian plains.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2025; Director: Francesco Sossai; Writer: Adriano Candiago, Francesco Sossai; Stars: Filippo Scotti, Pierpaolo Capovilla, Roberto Citran, Andrea Pennacchi, Sergio Romano)

Full review

World premiere

Love Me Tender

Review preview for Love Me Tender

Krieps operates at her usual level of greatness, and Anna Cazenave Cambet does her a favour by putting her in the spotlight.

Marko Stojiljkovic · 3 out of 5
One late summer, Clémence tells her ex-husband that she’s having romantic relationships with women. Her life is turned upside down when he takes custody of her son. Clémence must fight to remain a mother, a woman and a free woman.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Anna Cazenave Cambet; Writer: Anna Cazenave Cambet; Stars: Vicky Krieps, Antoine Reinartz, Monia Chokri, Viggo Ferreira-Redier, Féodor Atkine, Park Ji-min, Manuel Vallade, Aurélia Petit, Salif Cissé)

Full review See: Interview with Anna Cazenave Cambet about Love Me Tender , Love Me Tender director Anna Cazenave Cambet on sexuality, motherhood and gender balance

World premiere

Meteors

France’s rural wasteland. Three long-time friends, Tony has become the construction king, Mika and Daniel the kings of nothing. They have big dreams but little luck. Cornered after another blunder, they end up working for Tony at the nuclear dumping ground. So far, so bad…

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Hubert Charuel; Writer: Hubert Charuel, Claude Le Pape; Stars: Paul Kircher, Idir Azougli, Salif Cissé, Stéphane Rideau)

World premiere

The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo

1982. Eleven-year-old Lidia lives with her beloved queer family in a desert mining town in northern Chile. As an unknown and deadly disease begins to spread, legend has it that it is transmitted between two men, through a simple glance, when they fall in love. While people are accusing her family, Lidia must find out whether this myth is real or not.

(Country: Chile; Year: 2025; Director: Diego Céspedes; Writer: Diego Céspedes; Stars: Tamara Cortes, Matías Catalán, Paula Dinamarca)

World premiere

My Father's Shadow

Set over the course of a single day in the Nigerian capital Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis, it follows a father, estranged from his two young sons, as they travel through the city.

(Country: UK, Nigeria; Year: 2025; Director: Akinola Davies; Writer: Akinola Davies, Wale Davies; Stars: Sope Dirisu, Efon Wini, Chibuike Marvelous Egbo, Godwin Egbo)

World premiere

Once Upon A Time In Gaza

Gaza, 2007. Yahya, a young student, forges a friendship with Osama, a charismatic restaurant owner with a big heart. Together, they start peddling drugs while delivering falafel sandwiches, but they are soon forced to grapple with a corrupt cop and his oversized ego.

(Country: France, Palestine, Germany, Portugal; Year: 2025; Director: Arab Nasser, Tarzan Nasser; Stars: Majd Eid, Nader Abd Alhay, Ramzi Maqdisi)

World premiere

A Pale View Of Hills (Toi Yamanami No Hikari)

Review preview for A Pale View Of Hills

All of this fine work has potential, but too often the deeper ideas in the book are teased only to be abandoned.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
UK 1982. An young aspiring Japanese-British writer plans to write a book based on her mother Etsuko’s post-war experiences in Nagasaki. Haunted by the suicide of her older daughter, Etsuko begins to recount her memories from 1952 as a young mother-to-be. The writer begins to find troubling inconsistencies in the recollections.

(Country: Japan, UK, Poland, Singapore; Year: 2025; Director: Kei Ishikawa; Writer: Kazuo Ishiguro, Kei Ishikawa; Stars: Suzu Hirose, Fumi Nikaidô, Yoh Yoshida, Camilla Aiko, Kôhei Matsushita, Tomokazu Miura, Rie Shibata, Lynette Edwards, Daichi Watanabe, Romain Danna)

Full review See: Interview with Kei Ishikawa about A Pale View Of Hills

World premiere

Pillion

Review preview for Pillion

The constant contrast is the trick, which later extends to the emotional stakes.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
A man is taken on as a motorbike club's leader's submissive but begins to question that role.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Harry Lighton; Writer: Harry Lighton, Adam Mars-Jones; Stars: Alexander Skarsgård, Harry Melling, Georgina Hellier, Brian Martin, Zamir Mesiti)

Full review

World premiere

The Plague

Review preview for The Plague

Borrowing tropes from horror, the film adds an uncanny undercurrent to its drama.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
At an all-boys water polo camp, a socially anxious 12-year-old is pulled into a cruel tradition targeting an outcast with an illness they call “The Plague.” But as the lines between game and reality blur, he fears the joke might be hiding something real.

(Country: Romania, US; Year: 2025; Director: Charlie Polinger; Writer: Charlie Polinger; Stars: Everett Blunck, Kenny Rasmussen, Lennox Espy, Joel Edgerton, Elliott Heffernan, Kayo Martin, Lucas Adler, Caden Burris, Kolton Lee)

Full review See: Interview with Kayo Martin and Everett Blunck about The Plague

World premiere

A Poet (Una Poeta)

Oscar Restrepo’s obsession with poetry brought him no glory. Aging and erratic, he has succumbed to the cliché of the poet in the shadows. Meeting Yurlady, a teenage girl from humble roots, and helping her cultivate her talent brings some light to his days, but dragging her into the world of poets may not be the way.

(Country: Colombia, Germany, Sweden; Year: 2025; Director: Simón Mesa Soto; Writer: Simón Mesa Soto; Stars: Guillermo Cardona, Rebeca Andrade, Ubeimar Rios, Humberto Restrepo, Margarita Soto, Allison Correa)

World premiere

Promised Sky (Promis le ciel)

Marie, an Ivorian pastor and former journalist, has lived in Tunisia for ten years. Her home becomes a refuge for Naney, a young mother seeking a better future, and Jolie, a strong-willed student carrying her family’s hopes. The arrival of a little orphan girl challenges their sense of solidarity in a tense social climate, revealing both their fragility and strength.

(Country: Tunisia, Qatar, France; Year: 2025; Director: Erige Sehiri; Writer: Anna Ciennik, Malika Cécile Louati, Erige Sehiri; Stars: Aïssa Maïga, Mohamed Grayaâ, Laetitia Ky)

World premiere

Urchin

Mike, a rough sleeper in London, trapped in a cycle of self-destruction, attempts to turn his life around.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Harris Dickinson; Writer: Harris Dickinson; Stars: Frank Dillane, Amr Waked, Murat Erkek, Megan Northam, Shonagh Marie, Falco Flow, Karyna Khymchuk)

World premiere