The 78th edition of the Cannes Film Festival is shaping up to be a year of familiar names, high expectations, and a notably strong Hollywood turnout. In a press conference held in Paris, festival director Thierry Frémaux, alongside president Iris Knobloch, unveiled a competition lineup that includes new films from Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, Kelly Reichardt, Richard Linklater, and Julia Ducournau — all of whom return to the Croisette with previous Cannes recognition to their names.

Wes Anderson returns to competition with The Phoenician Scheme, a mystery-comedy with a sprawling cast that includes Benicio del Toro, Tom Hanks, Michael Cera, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Scarlett Johansson. Anderson last competed in 2021 with The French Dispatch. Horror auteur Ari Aster, known for Hereditary and Beau Is Afraid, brings Eddington, described as a psychological ensemble piece starring Joaquin Phoenix, Emma Stone, Pedro Pascal, and Austin Butler. It marks Aster’s first appearance in the main competition and his most ambitious project to date with A24.

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Kelly Reichardt, a frequent fixture on the American indie circuit, returns with The Mastermind, a Vietnam War-era film led by Josh O’Connor. O’Connor also appears in Oliver Hermanus’ The History of Sound, a queer romance set during World War I, co-starring Paul Mescal. Hermanus, whose Living premiered at Sundance in 2022, makes his Cannes competition debut.

Julia Ducournau’s third feature Alpha is expected to be one of the more closely watched entries this year. Ducournau, who won the Palme d’Or in 2021 for Titane, remains one of the few women to have received the top honor in the festival’s history. Richard Linklater, meanwhile, presents a new narrative feature whose title and subject remain under wraps.

In the out-of-competition slate, Tom Cruise will return to Cannes with Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. Though not in the running for the Palme d’Or, Cruise’s presence on the Croisette follows his 2022 appearance for Top Gun: Maverick and is likely to generate significant press attention. Jodie Foster also appears out of competition in Vie Privée, a French-language thriller directed by Rebecca Zlotowski.

Juliette Binoche has been named jury president for this year’s competition. Robert De Niro will receive the festival’s honorary Palme d’Or, in recognition of his long-standing contributions to international cinema.

The top prize last year went to Sean Baker’s Anora, which went on to receive multiple Oscar wins including Best Picture. Baker’s win extended a streak for distributor Neon, whose previous Palme d’Or titles — including Anatomy of a Fall, Triangle of Sadness, and Parasite — all found critical, commercial and Oscar success beyond the Croisette.

Last year’s competition also featured Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, which made history as the first Indian film in three decades to compete for the Palme d’Or, alongside Mohammed Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, both of which were awarded the Grand Prix and Special Jury Prize, respectively.

Here’s the full lineup of titles premiering at the Cannes Film Festival 2025

Opening Night

Leave One Day (dir. Amélie Bonnin)

Out of Competition

Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning (dir. Christopher McQuarrie)

Colours of Sky (dir. Cedric Klapisch)

Vie Privée (dir. Rebecca Zlotowski)

The Richest Woman in the World (dir. Thierry Klifa)

In Competition

Sentimental Value (dir. Joachim Trier)

Sound of Falling (dir. Mascha Schilinski)

Romeria (dir. Carla Simón)

The Mastermind (dir. Kelly Reichardt)

The Eagles of the Republic (dir. Tarik Saleh)

Dossier 137 (dir. Dominik Moll)

The Secret Agent (dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)

Fuori (dir. Mario Martone)

Nouvelle Vague (dir. Richard Linklater)

Two Prosecutors (dir. Sergei Loznitsa)

La Petite Dernière (dir. Hafsia Herzi)

A Simple Accident (dir. Jafar Panahi)

The History of Sound (dir. Oliver Hermanus)

Renoir (dir. Chie Hayakawa)

Alpha (dir. Julia Ducournau)

Sirat (dir. Oliver Laxe)

Young Mothers (dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne)

Eddington (dir. Ari Aster)

The Phoenician Scheme (dir. Wes Anderson)

Un Certain Regard

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (dir. Diego Céspedes)

My Father’s Shadow (dir. Akinola Davies Jr)

Urchin (dir. Harris Dickinson)

Meteors (dir. Hubert Charuel)

A Pale View of Hills (dir. Kei Ishikawa)

Eleanor the Great (dir. Scarlett Johansson)

Pillion (dir. Harry Lighton)

L’inconnue de la Grande Arche (dir. Stephane Demoustier)

Aisha Can’t Fly Away (dir. Morad Mostafa)

Once Upon a Time in Gaza (dir. Arab Nasser, Tarzan Nasser)

The Plague (dir. Charlie Polinger)

Heads or Tails? (dir. Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis)

Homebound (dir. Neeraj Ghaywan)

The Last One for the Road (dir. Francesco Sossai)

Karavan (dir. Zuzana Kirchnerová)

Promised Sky (dir. Erige Sehiri)

Special Screenings

Stories of Surrender (dir. Bono)

Tell Her That I Love Her (dir. Romane Bohringer)

A Magnificent Life (dir. Sylvain Chomet)

Cannes Premiere

Amrum (dir. Fatih Akin)

Splitsville (dir. Michael Angelo Covino)

Connemara (dir. Alex Lutz)

The Disappearance of Josef Mengele (dir. Kirill Serebrennikov)

Orwell: 2 + 2 = 5 (dir. Raoul Peck)

The Wave (dir. Sebastián Lelio)

Midnight

Songs of the Neon Night (dir. Juno Mak)

Exit 8 (dir. Genki Kawamura)

Dalloway (dir. Yann Gozlan)