Cannes 2025 - Awards and comments

Last year's awards was always going to be a tough act to follow, in which all the right films were rewarded (in my humble opinion!) and with a Palme d'or that went on to win the Oscar for best film, repeating Parasite's feat a mere few years later (although Sean Baker seemed more excited about winning the former than the latter). It seems like the bad memory of the last truly disastrous awards (2016, a year seared in the memories of Cannes attendees) is far behind us and this year, Juliette Binoche and her jury gave us a honourable list of awards.

Cannes 2025 - The Mastermind by Kelly Reichardt

The Mastermind is set in the 1970s and feels, in many respects, as though it could have been made then. Not as an exercise in nostalgia or hollow imitation, but in its mood: a gradually darkening tone, a background of social unease, and a moral landscape that remains ambiguous throughout. It is a film that resists easy characterisation, content to let its characters drift through uncertainty rather than obvious narrative arcs.

The premise is simple: JB Mooney (Josh O'Connor), a carpenter and amateur art thief, goes along with a bigger heist that, needless to say, does not go as planned. Kelly Reichardt is less interested in the mechanics of crime than the people behind it and the motives that put it into motion. The 1970s setting is crucial, but it is handled with restraint. There is no fetishisation of period detail, no series of signifiers. Instead, the era is evoked through atmosphere: tired interiors, muted colours, the sense of a society no longer convinced of its own coherence. Political and economic tensions are present, but mostly as background noise, shaping behaviour rather than driving plot. 

Cannes 2025 - The Last One for the Road by Francesco Sossai

The Last One for the Road starts with a seemingly simple premise: two broke fifty something friends with a "one last drink” philosophy meet a shy architecture student by chance and embark on an unexpected road trip with him. What unfolds is a film that initially feels modest but grows into something resonant: a reflection on youth, ageing and intergenerational curiosity that stays with you long after the end credits have rolled

Cannes 2025 - Vie Privée by Rebecca Zlotowski

When renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner (Jodie Foster) learns of the death of one of her patients, doubting the official version of events, she becomes convinced that something is amiss and decides to look into the circumstances herself. 

Vie privée is a psychological thriller but its genre category only tells part of the story. What makes the film  enjoyable and entertaining even if fairly slight is not the quickly forgotten resolution of its mystery  but Jodie Foster, delivering one of those performances that makes you remember, if it was ever needed, what a great, versatile actress she is, helped by a nicely written and compelling character, the most interesting part she has played in years. 

Cannes 2025 - Fuori by Mario Martone

Based on Goliarda Sapienza’s autobiographical account of her time in prison and her complex bond with a fellow inmate, both behind bars and beyond, Fuori has a soft, affecting touch that suits it perfectly. Rather than shaping Sapienza’s experience into a conventional story of incarceration or redemption, the film chooses something more elusive even if it means risking alienating some audiences that might expect a more conventional narrative.

Cannes 2025 - Magellan by Law Diaz

Set during the early stages of European expansion, Magellan follows the famed explorer Ferdinand Magellan as he embarks on his fateful voyage. When Magellan arrives in unfamiliar territories, encounters with indigenous populations quickly expose the ideological foundations of his mission. What begins as an expedition driven by prestige, faith, and imperial competition gradually becomes more complex and morally compromised.

Cannes 2025 - Alpha by Julia Ducournau

Winning a Palme d'or at an early age and the start of one's career can be a mixed blessing, like jury president Wim Wenders warned Steven Soderbergh about when he handed him the top award back in 1989. Expectations skyrocket and stakes are higher, so there was an intense curiosity about what 2021 winner Julia Ducournau would do next after Titane, being one of the youngest recipients in the history of the festival, only the second female director to do so and for such an unusual film. With Alpha, she returns to Cannes with her most devastating work yet, bold, mournful and very personal. On paper, the premise might sound almost too on-the-nose: a body horror metaphor for the AIDS epidemic but she takes it to far more unexpected and affecting places.