From the unnerving sights and sounds of “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Zone of Interest,” and “Killers of the Flower Moon,” to the garish genre delights of “The Substance” and “Emilia Pérez,” the Cannes Film Festival has become increasingly inseparable from year-end movie conversations. Of the event’s last five big winners—recipients of the coveted Palme d’Or, or the Golden Palm—four have gone on to be nominated for best picture at the Academy Awards. Two of them even won: Bong Joon Ho’s class thriller “Parasite” in 2020, and Sean Baker’s neorealist fairytale “Anora” earlier this year.
Cannes 2025 continues to gain traction as a launchpad for widely acclaimed and potentially Oscar-worthy films. Despite this year’s fest featuring zero English-language award winners in the main competition, a number of highly anticipated works are likely to make waves once they hit your local cinemas.
Only one film on this list has an announced release date, but the majority were acquired for North American distribution either during or before the festival, all but ensuring Cannes’ continued place as a conversation centerpiece for mainstream viewers over the coming year.
“Die, My Love”
Purchased by “The Substance” distributor Mubi for an enormous $24 million price tag, Lynne Ramsay’s first feature since 2017’s “You Were Never Really Here” is an unpredictable romantic drama buoyed by Jennifer Lawrence’s and Robert Pattinson’s star power. As young parents who have recently moved into a rural home, their slowly crumbling relationship is stress-tested by miscommunication and domestic malaise, leading to a brash film with animalistic lead performances, and a soundtrack of nonstop toe-tappers.
“Highest 2 Lowest”
A remake of Akira Kurosawa’s understated Japanese class drama “High and Low,” “Highest 2 Lowest” is the first collaboration in nearly two decades between New York maestro Spike Lee (“Do the Right Thing”) and perennial Hollywood leading man Denzel Washington, who was awarded an honorary Palme d’Or at this year’s ceremony. Set for theatrical release by A24 on Aug. 22 and a streaming release via Apple TV+ on Sept. 5, “Highest 2 Lowest” begins as a stilted melodrama, but Lee’s tight control over tonal shifts yields some of the most electric filmmaking of his lengthy career. It’s a pulsing morality play about how far a rich record executive (Washington) will go to save the kidnapped son of his poor chauffeur (Jeffrey Wright). By the end, the film successfully teases out themes around how wealth and success have a tendency to separate people from their roots.
“It Was Just an Accident”
Acquired by Mubi internationally and by Neon in North America (the sixth straight Palme d’Or winner in the company’s rolodex), “It Was Just an Accident” is dissident Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s first production since being released from prison. The film is a furious roadtrip comedy-drama that speaks truth to power through a carefully considered tale of former inmates debating what to do with an unconscious man they believe tortured them in captivity.
“The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo”
Although yet to find North American distribution, it may not be long before Diego Céspedes’ tender, rigorous film finds a home, since it won the top prize at Cannes’ parallel Un Certain Regard section, honoring films with a unique point of view. “Flamingo” explores the familial and romantic ties of a group of transgender women living in a Chilean mining town. Combining the bigotry of the early AIDS crisis with magical realism, the film follows 11-year-old Lidia (Tamara Cortés) and her queer family as rumors spread about a mysterious disease transmitted by locking eyes with gay men or trans women. The film captures the dueling love and fear LGBTQ+ people had to contend with in the era.
“Pillion”
Set for release by indie powerhouse A24, Harry Lighton’s “Pillion” features Harry Melling (who played Dudley Dursley in the “Harry Potter” films) as a reclusive shut-in who finds himself after becoming the submissive in a BDSM relationship with a charismatic biker (Alexander Skarsgård). Winner of the Un Certain Regard award for best screenplay, the film uses broad archetypes to craft a raucously entertaining saga that treats queer leather subculture with a matter-of-factness befitting the average heterosexual rom-com. Despite its characters living in the discomforting gray area between consent and begrudging acceptance, it’s a surprising crowd-pleaser.
“Resurrection”
The jury awarded “Resurrection,” one of the most esoteric works at Cannes, with a Special Award prize on closing night. A purveyor of “slow cinema” (in the vein of Soviet master Andrei Tarkovsky), Bi Gan’s exuberant, episodic journey employs an abstract sci-fi framework about dreams as rebellion. He crafts images of a kind you likely haven’t seen before, or never thought possible. From head-spinning odes to silent cinema to jaw-dropping, half-hour-long takes rushing through a city at sunrise, the film collapses the history of movies into two-and-a-half hours, while portraying its infinite possibilities. Janus Films has just acquired the North American rights to this Chinese arthouse odyssey.
“The Secret Agent”
A Neon-Mubi combination release, “The Secret Agent” unfolds during Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s. Led by Wagner Moura—who was awarded the festival’s best actor trophy alongside Kleber Mendonça Filho’s best director win—the story follows a technology expert reuniting with his toddler son while on the run for mysterious reasons. A tale of dangerous circumstances and secrets that reveal themselves gradually (the premise only becomes clear halfway through the 158-minute runtime), the movie’s rich historical detail and magnetic characters create a vivid sense of time and place, giving rise to an alluring period drama about living under the boot of authority.
“Sentimental Value”
After his moving millennial drama “The Worst Person in the World” in 2021, Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier made a triumphant return with family saga “Sentimental Value,” which won the festival’s Grand Prix. Trier re-teams with actor Renate Reinsve for the story of an Oslo stage performer whose estranged filmmaker father (Stellan Skarsgård) approaches her for an unusual reconciliation: an offer to cast her in a tragic role written with her in mind. Equal parts shattering and soothing, the movie captures the difficult road to healing through generational wounds, and the function of art as a conduit for difficult emotions. The film is set for release by Mubi internationally, and by Neon in North America.
“Sirât”
The co-recipient of the festival’s Jury Prize alongside “Sound of Falling,” Óliver Laxe’s existential Spanish drama “Sirât” (another Neon-Mubi release) turns a sprawling Moroccan desert into a venue for deep reflections. The narrative follows an elderly father, accompanied by his young son, joining a group of desert ravers to find his teenage daughter as war breaks out across the globe. With foreboding sound design born from bass-heavy techno, and practical filmmaking akin to “Mad Max: Fury Road,” the story takes increasingly absurd and despondent turns, pushing its characters to their breaking points. The film is a meditation on just how much people are willing (or able) to endure when it feels like the end of the world is near.
“Sound of Falling”
A ghostly tale set in the confines of a German farmhouse, Mascha Schilinski’s Mubi release—the other film awarded this year’s Jury Prize—unfolds over a century and follows the entwined lives of four generations of women and girls, separated by decades. Slipping back and forth in time, the non-linear drama captures family secrets, the evolving social confines of femininity, and the specters of death and depression. While only Schilinski’s second feature, it plays like the seasoned work of a major voice in arthouse cinema, and it’s sure to give willing audiences both a challenging and rewarding experience.
