I’ve already tackled the 118 most anticipated films of 2025, and now it’s time to have our official first spitball of this coming May’s Cannes Film Festival. I’ll be writing one of these every month until the announcement of the lineup in April.
Yes, despite Cannes still being five months away, things are clearly starting to rev up with the selection committee, and I keep getting emails about posting an early spitball list of the potential titles that might show up next May on the Croisette. Well, here it is. In total, I have around 60 films listed in this piece.
On-paper, there are too many films to choose from this year. There’s an innumerable amount of A-list auteurs who are expected to have new films ready by next May. However, you can forget about Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” Edward Berger’s “The Ballad of a Small Player,” and Kathryn Bigelow’s untitled White House thriller showing up, they’re Netflix content and that means a Venice premiere is all but assured for them.`
Every year, anywhere between 19 to 23 films get selected for competition. Some filmmakers are pactically reserved a spot to premiere, it’s part of the politics that comes with selecting Cannes films. These are my current bets for titles that might be going for the Palme d’Or, 20 films.
Die My Love (Lynne Ramsay)
Alpha (Julia Ducournau)
Father Mother Sister Brother (Jim Jarmusch)
The Phoenician Scheme (Wes Anderson)
Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Nouvelle Vague (Richard Linklater)
The Mastermind (Kelly Reichardt)
No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook)
The Way of the Wind (Terrence Malick)
Jupiter (Andrey Zvyagintsev)
Highest 2 Lowest (Spike Lee)
Sentimental Value (Joachim Trier)
The Secret Agent (Kleber Mendoca Filho)
Young Mother (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)
Orphan (Laszlo Nemes)
Resurrection (Bi Gan)
Butterfly Jam (Kantemir Balagov)
Yes! (Nadav Lapid)
Disappearance (Kiril Serebrenikkov)
Chocobar (Lucrecia Martel)
Notice, only one French filmmaker there (Ducournau). It’s become mandatory to have anywhere between 4-6 films from France in competition. This year, it’s going to be a bloodbath of well-known French directors vying for those spots:
Red Rocks (Bruno Dumont)
Untitled sci-fi (Arthur Harrari)
The Magnificent Life of Sylvain Pagnol (Sylvain Chomet)
Dossier 173 (Dominik Moll)
Sacrifice (Roman Gavras)
Une Affaire (Arnaud Desplechin)
Enzo (Robin Campillo)
Vie Privee (Rebecca Zlotowski)
Stitches (Alice Wincour)
As for Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Battle of Baktan Cross” (or is it “One Battle After Another”?), there’s no way in knowing what Warner Bros will be doing with that one. Puck’s Matt Belloni recently reported that it might have been “punted” to 2026, but for now, its August 8, 2025 release date still stands.
When it comes to U.S. titles, it’s always unpredictable how Cannes boss Thierry Fremaux judges the American crop submitted to him on any given year. He’s been known to reject plenty of A24 films, and already has Jarmusch, Reichardt, Anderson, Malick, Lee and Linklater as practically cant-miss submissions. At this point, these are all maybes …
Caught Stealing (Darren Aronofsky)
The Smashing Machine (Benny Safdie)
After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino)
Eddington (Ari Aster)
Mother Mary (David Lowery)
Blue Moon (Richard Linklater)
Ella McCay (James L. Brooks)
I Want Your Sex (Greg Araki)
Mission: Impossible (Christopher McQuarrie)
F1 (Joseph Kosinski)
How about another 20 titles from all over the world?
In the Hands of Dante (Julian Schnabel)
Wake of Umbra (Carlos Reygadas)
Hope (Na Hong-jin)
On Land and Sea (Hylmur Pálmason)
Rosebushpruning (Karim Aïnouz)
Eagles of the Relublic (Tarik Saleh)
Tu ne fear point d’image (Kaouther BenHania)
After (Oliver Laxe)
L’interet D’Adam (Laura Wandel)
The Drama (Kristofer Borgli)
At the Sea (Kornél Mundruczó)
Silent Friend (Ildiko Enyedi)
Duse (Pietro Marcello)
Romería (Carla Simon)
El Ser Querido (Rodrigo Sorogoyen)
Dreams (Michel Franco)
Dry Leaf (Alexandre Koberidze)
Occupation (Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi)
Miroirs No. 3 (Christian Petzold)
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