Cannes 2025: Everything you need to know about 78th film festival

The Cannes “Palme d’Or” awaits its winner

The most prestigious award, the Palme d’Or, has already been delivered to the festival's main residence. As usual, two versions of the statue were made.

One has already been awarded — it was presented to global film legend Robert De Niro.

"Palme d’Or" (photo: Getty Images)

The honorary award was given to the actor for his contribution to the development of cinema: his career began back in the 1960s and includes over 110 films, many of which are considered classics.

The second Palme d’Or will be awarded on May 25 after the main competition.

Juliette Binoche heads the jury

This year, the jury will be chaired by renowned French actress Juliette Binoche.

Juliette Binoche (photo: instagram.com/juliettebinoche)

The jury also includes:

• Halle Berry (USA) – actress, director, and Oscar winner
• Payal Kapadia (India) – director and screenwriter
• Alba Rohrwacher (Italy) – actress and arthouse cinema star
• Leïla Slimani (France/Morocco) – writer, journalist, and literary award laureate
• Dieudonné Hamadi (DR Congo) – director and producer
• Hong Sang-soo (South Korea) – director and screenwriter, acclaimed in world cinema
• Carlos Reygadas (Mexico) – director
• Jeremy Strong (USA) – actor, known for the series "Succession"

"Naked" dresses banned

Festival organizers have decided to tighten the dress code. From now on, no nudity or even its hint will be allowed on the red carpet. Any overly revealing or transparent dresses are officially banned. These new rules apply not only to the carpet but to all official festival areas.

"This year, the Cannes Film Festival has clearly written into its charter certain rules that have in fact been in effect for some time. The goal is to ban complete nudity on the red carpet following French law," the official festival website states.

Organizers also emphasized they may deny access to guests whose clothing causes discomfort to others or disrupts the cinema experience. The change likely comes in response to a scandal at the Grammys, where Kanye West appeared with his wife, Bianca Censori, who was nearly naked.

Main competition program

This year, the festival received a record number of submissions — nearly 3,000. Only 19 films made it into the main competition. Among them are three French films, including "Dossier 137" by Dominik Moll.

Among the American entries:

• "The Phoenician Scheme" by Wes Anderson, starring Scarlett Johansson
• "Eddington" by Ari Aster, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone

Also in competition:

• Italian biopic "Fuori" about Goliarda Sapienza
• Brazilian thriller "Agente Secreto"
• Japanese drama "Renoir"

Additionally, Cannes will screen a new film by Kirill Serebrennikov, "The Disappearance of Josef Mengele," as well as the long-awaited "Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning" with Tom Cruise, who will personally present the movie at the festival.

Ukraine in the spotlight

On May 13, during the 78th Cannes Film Festival, there will be a special program dedicated to the war in Ukraine. Organizers announced this on the event’s official website.

"This ‘Ukraine Day’ is a reminder of the commitment of artists, authors, and journalists to tell the story of this conflict at the heart of Europe, which has affected the Ukrainian people and the world for three years. The program underscores the Cannes Festival’s engagement and its ability to tell the story of global challenges—our future’s issues—through cinema," the statement reads.

The program includes three films:

• "Zelensky" – a documentary by Yves Jolland, Lise Varpnes, and Ariane Chemin about Volodymyr Zelensky’s path from comedian to president, leading a nation at war.
• "Notre Guerre" (“Our War”) – by Bernard-Henri Lévy and Marc Roussel. The filmmakers documented Ukrainian soldiers and civilians in Sumy Oblast and near Pokrovsk from February to April 2025. It includes an interview with Zelensky before his trip to the US and footage of the "Anna of Kyiv" brigade. This is the final part of a four-episode project shown at the UN and US Congress.
• "2,000 Meters to Andriivka" – a work by director Mstyslav Chernov and Associated Press photographer Oleksandr Babenko. It focuses on the daily life of soldiers from Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade. Filming started in September 2023 and took nearly a year and a half to complete.

You might also be interested in:

• All the winners of the BAFTA TV Awards
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Sources: Cannes Festival website, Facebook page of the Embassy of Ukraine in France.