Cannes 2025 wrap-up
The 78th Festival de Cannes has come to a close, Jafar Panahi's It Was Just An Accident took the top prize, and there were plenty more films to be excited about. Programmer David Kelly and Head of Cinema Alice Black have shared their highlights from the second half of the festival (for this earlier thoughts, you can check out Dispatches From Cannes)
Alice Black - Head of Cinema
History of Sound - The on-screen pairing of two of our favourite actors working today - Josh O'Connor & Paul Mescal - was one of the films we were most looking forward to at this year's Cannes. Directed Oliver Hernandes (Beauty, Living) and based on a short story by Ben Shattuck, it follows the relationship between David and Lionel, two soulmates who meet in 1917 while attending the Boston Music Conservatory. After World War I, they travel together recording the folk songs of their countrymen in rural Maine in the summer of 1920. Comparisons to Brokeback Mountain were rightly brushed aside by Mescal at the film's press conference. This film is completely different in tone and ambition. It quieter, more reserved (at times maybe a little too much so) but with lots admire in how it looks, sounds and in its sense of place.
The Little Sister (La Petite Dernière) - The directorial debut of actress Hafsia Herzi, this coming-of-age story is an adaptation of Fatima Daas's 2020 autofiction novel about the youngest of three daughters in a French-Algerian family. Wanting to find her own path in life, she begins university studies in Paris, where she embraces new experiences. She struggles to develop her identity and balance emerging desires, including her attraction to women, while also maintaining a sense of loyalty to her family. While hardly groundbreaking, the film explores the struggle of being different in a culture which holds traditional values deftly. And newcomer Nadia Melliti (this is her first role, after being spotted by a casting director on the streets of Paris) is an exciting talent to watch out for.
The Love That Remains - Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason (A White, White Day & Godland) explores the end of a relationship in this beautifully observed, intimate exploration of an ordinary family navigating their new reality after the parents separate. There's no animosity between the mum and dad (a visual artist and a off-shore fisherman) and everyone, including the kids (Pálmason's own children), are doing their best to adjust. Blending unexpected fantasy elements and a superb performance by Panda the sheepdog (Pálmason's own pet who won this year's Palme dog award), the film gives a wonderful sense of humdrum everyday life mixed with inner turmoil.
It Was Just An Accident - You know it's been a satisfying Cannes when the film you loved most wins the top prize. This year's well deserved Palme d'Or winner is Jafar Panahi's thriller about a disparate group of ex-prisoners who unexpectedly find themselves face-to-face with their sadistic jailer. Made without permission of the Iranian authorities, Panahi based the script on is own experiences and those of fellow prisoners incarcerated by the government. As each character grapples with the morality of revenge, we go on a journey through contemporary Tehran and the reality of life under an authoritarian regime. As with all of Panahi's films, it walks a tightrope between humour, humanity and horror perfectly - gripping from start to finish. What a joy to watch this master filmmaker at the top of his game.
David Kelly - Programmer
Going to see a new Lynne Ramsay feature is all too rare of an occurrence, so the anticipation and expectation was high ahead of DIE, MY LOVE. Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson play a married couple whose relationship begins to unravel shortly after the birth of their first child. It’s a funny, surreal, nightmarish and frustrating experience on first viewing. The soundtrack is spectacular, and Sissy Spacek is a scene stealer.
Oliver Laxe’s SIRAT is a tense and anxiety ridden journey with a father who is searching for his daughter amongst the desert raves in Morocco. Joined by his son and their dog, they team up with a group of hippies searching for the next rave. Set against the backdrop of societal collapse, the group goes deeper into the wilderness and that’s where things are truly turned on their head. A genuinely jaw dropping moment splits this film in two and leaves you wondering where they all go from here. Comparisons to Mad Max and The Searchers have been made about Sirat and you can see why. I’m looking forward to more people seeing it so I can discuss the second half with them. It left me a bit speechless.
Joachim Trier’s hugely anticipated SENTIMENTAL VALUE had me rushing to the Grand Theatre Lumiere for a packed early morning screening on the second last day of the festival. Set for the most part in a family home that is showing signs of structural collapse, filled with traumatic memories and is about to become the setting for an ageing director’s (brilliantly played by Stellan Skarsgard) final and most personal film. It’s an at times light, comedic and devastating family drama with Trier at his most Bergmanesque.
My other Cannes highlights were the tender LGBTQ coming of age story THE LITTLE SISTER, Harris Dickinson’s Mike Leigh-esque URCHIN and Akinola Davies’ poetic and stunning MY FATHER’S SHADOW.