It’s not an Indian summer season at Cannes 2025-OxBig News Network

What the 78th Cannes Film Festival didn’t anticipate when it introduced a stricter costume code (disallowing nudity and voluminous attire) was that somebody would flip up on the crimson carpet dressed like a large chicken. The incident occurred on Day 5 on the premiere of the Jennifer Lawrence-Robert Pattinson starrer Die, My Love, a psychodrama a few new mom’s descent into psychological instability.

A couple of days later, the no-selfie rule imposed by the competition (in 2018) didn’t cease Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise and his crew from taking selfies both, a few of them with their tongues out in jest. It’s quintessential Cannes — no quantity of gatekeeping can take away from the glamour and showmanship on the most prestigious movie competition on the planet.

This 12 months’s version of the competition, which opened on May 13, comes shut on the heels of U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement to impose tariffs on motion pictures produced outdoors the nation. What this implies for productions that financial institution on enterprise within the U.S. market stays unclear, however there may be palpable trepidation amongst movie executives.

While business stories recommend that deal makings are sluggish this 12 months, it stays to be seen if the tariff drama is in charge. That stated, a number of critically well-received motion pictures (Brazilian thriller The Secret Agent, multi-generational German drama Sound of Falling, and Richard Linklater’s Godard biopic New Wave, to call a number of) are enjoying out alongside Hollywood premieres comparable to Spike Lee’s Highest to Lowest, Ari Aster’s Eddington and Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water — in and out of doors of the competitors sections. European auteurs, together with Joachim Trier, the Dardenne brothers and Julia Ducournau, and acclaimed Iranian administrators Jafar Panahi and Saeed Roustaee, have additionally showcased their work on the competition.

Smaller Indian attendance

Actor Aishwarya Rai on the crimson carpet at Cannes 2025.
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‘India at Cannes’ made headlines final 12 months, with as many as eight movies in participation, and Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light profitable the Grand Prix. The Indian presence this 12 months is restricted to director Neeraj Ghaywan’s Homebound, starring Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor. The movie, about two childhood associates and their seek for dignity by way of a job within the police pressure, premiered within the prestigious sidebar part, Un Certain Regard, the place it received a 9-minute standing ovation.

Ghaywan is returning to Cannes a decade after his Masaan was screened on the competition and received the FIPRESCI Prize (awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics). Talking about Homebound earlier than its premiere, the filmmaker stated, “I’m hoping to see how the humanity of the film resonates with the rest of the world. I hope people understand and relate with it. I just want people to like it because it took a lot for me to make it — I have taken 10 years for my second film.”

Martin Scorsese is an govt producer for the movie, a course of that concerned Zoom calls, script consultations and elaborate notes, Ghaywan revealed.

Additionally, a newly restored model of Satyajit Ray’s 1969 traditional, Aranyer Din Ratri, a Walden-esque story a few group of associates escaping the mundanity of their lives, was screened within the Cannes Classics part. Hollywood filmmaker Wes Anderson referred to as Ray an “inspiration” in his gushing 10-minute tribute to the filmmaker. He was joined by actors Sharmila Tagore and Simi Garewal, each of whom fondly remembered their work within the movie.

Film restorer Shivendra Singh Dungarpur, actors Sharmila Tagore and Simi Garewal, director Wes Anderson and others on the crimson carpet at Cannes, May 19, 2025.
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Another Indian interplay that acquired some traction on social media was a video of actor Robert De Niro hugging his Silver Linings Playbook co-star Anupam Kher, forward of the Cannes screening of the latter’s musical drama, Tanvi the Great.

But maybe the largest splash this 12 months was filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s new position as a jury member — alongside French actor Juliette Binoche, American actors Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong and others. She was in full settlement that judging movies competing for the Palme d’Or was a deal with. “I have never had an opportunity to watch all the festival competition films in the past because when you have a movie you are focused on your thing. So, to see this whole curation and discuss it with the jury team has been wonderful,” she advised Hollywood Reporter.

Director and Cannes 2025 jury member Payal Kapadia, whose movie ‘All We Imagine As Light’ received the Grand Prix at Cannes final 12 months.
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Selective highlights?

At the Bharat Pavilion, it’s enterprise as ordinary, with trailer launches, spherical desk discussions and networking classes. Upcoming movies — together with the latest Berlinale hit Baksho Bondi, helmed by Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi with Tilottama Shome within the lead, Kher’s Tanvi The Great, Neeraj Churi’s queer movie Sabar Bonda, and Biriyaani director Sajin Baabu’s Theater: The Myth of Reality — had been launched on the venue.

While the Pavilion’s schedule is packed, one sore level stays that the flicks in competitors by no means get sufficient discover right here. An insider noticed that the eye reserved for market movies (the Marché du Film part) isn’t shared with competition part motion pictures which have earned their entry. In different phrases, solely institution pleasant movies are promoted.

Marché du Film can be the place producers pay to have non-public screening of their movies for bragging rights, and as anticipated, hopeful Indian producers flit out and in of conferences to market their work. “It has been back-breaking and intense but also a gorgeously invigorating festival,” stated Smriti Kiran, founder and director of the newly launched manufacturing firm Polka Dots LightField.

“As a fairly new film producer and buyer, I spent my time doing meetings, pitching, attending workshops, conversation sessions, shadowing producers and throwing myself into sidebar events to understand the world of co-productions, film grants, distribution and acquisition avenues, script labs and film professional networks that exist across the world,” added Kiran.

Interestingly, any promotion of the one Indian movie in competitors, Homebound, is conspicuously absent from the competition schedule, although the Pavilion hosted an unplanned last-minute session with Ghaywan and producer Karan Johar, simply earlier than the movie’s premiere. “The biggest change for India this year at the festival is that Payal Kapadia broke the glass ceiling, and she made it possible for Indian movies to be noticed,” Ghaywan noticed.

For the movie’s lead actor, Ishaan Khatter, recent from the publicity of his new Netflix series The Royals, Cannes is a “full circle” second. “Cannes being the Mecca of film festivals, it was always a dream to go there with a film. It’s everything and more I could have hoped for. The energy there was so beautiful, people genuinely care about cinema with a passion,” he stated.

Actor Ishaan Khatter promotes his movie ‘Homebound’ at Cannes 2025.
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Another notable look at Cannes is by director Honey Trehan, to drum up assist for his 2023 movie, Punjab ’95. Trehan’s biopic of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, starring Diljit Dosanjh, was introduced as a line-up on the 2023 Toronto Film Festival, earlier than being pulled out, and is but to be launched in India over censorship troubles.

Trehan stated his pressing want is to not let the excitement across the movie die and to clear a path for at the very least a world launch. “It’s not just my film,” stated the filmmaker. “Movies like Santosh [which had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes last year, where it received positive reviews], have also not been released in India because the government feels the subject is controversial. Throttling artistic freedom in the name of censorship is detrimental to good art. Good cinema needs to reflect historical truths and lived realities of our people.”

Leading to the Oscar buzz

At Cannes, generally contenders that might win the distinguished Palme d’Or take their time to emerge through the two weeks of the competition. At the time of this text going to press, a Ukrainian movie referred to as Two Prosecutors, about life within the Soviet Union beneath Stalin’s rule, was making a buzz for the large prize, in response to the critics jury grid by Screen journal. The identical may very well be stated of Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, with the director himself travelling to Cannes, a rarity that attracted a lot consideration.

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (centre) with the forged of his movie ‘It Was Just an Accident’, at Cannes 2025.
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This 12 months, there are 22 movies in the principle competitors part dominated by Hollywood and European motion pictures, with two Iranian movies, one Japanese movie and one Brazilian movie within the roster. Several competition goers, nevertheless, aren’t totally satisfied in regards to the output. “This is a festival about which I am very divided,” stated Freddy Savalle, a authorized govt with a French manufacturing firm.

“The Japanese offered contemplative films that bored me considerably, but there has been a very good selection of French and even Belgian movies. What I regret, and it is often the case every year, is that the festival invites prestigious directors, who have nothing new to say, or who repeat themselves, like Wes Anderson, for example. They are invited only because they are big stars and because they have had success in the past,” stated Savalle.

Director Wes Anderson promotes his movie ‘The Phoenician Scheme’ at Cannes 2025.
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Anderson’s movie, an journey caper in his typical idiosyncratic vogue, comes with beautiful units and glorious casting as anticipated, and a tiresomely acquainted narrative. Critics are divided. According to BBC’s Nicholas Barber, “The good news is that The Phoenician Scheme is one of Anderson’s funnier films, with a commitment to knockabout zaniness which lets you smile at the Anderson-ishness rather than simply roll your eyes at it.”

Whether the Cannes to Oscar pipeline will come to go this 12 months like final is just too early to inform. There isn’t an Anora or Emilia Perez but, however among the many promising movies premiered is queer drama, The History of Sound, by Oliver Hermanus; Mastermind by American indie darling Kelly Reichardt; and Woman and Child by the Iranian director Saeed Roustaee.

Closer house, will Ghaywan’s Homebound, for example, replicate the success of his debut movie, Masaan? “It might sound like a cliché but I genuinely do not expect the film to win anything,” Ghaywan stated. “I don’t want to put any pressures or expectations on it, I’m just very glad it’s here because I think it deserves to be,” added Khatter. Even if Homebound doesn’t win something, Bollywood may be proud it produced these skills.

The author is a Düsseldorf, Germany-based journalist.