Of the roughly 35 films I saw across 10 days, here are the standouts of Cannes 2025. In terms of the competition films, at least, this has been one of the most enjoyable, well-built slates I’ve seen in the 15 years or so that I’ve been attending the festival. There’s always something you’re going to miss; one of the tragedies of being human is that we can’t be in two places at once. But then, one of the delights of being human is sitting down, turning off your phone, and for once not multitasking, instead giving yourself fully to the vision before you on the screen. Some of the films and performances mentioned here will surely shape the conversation come Oscar time. And though it may be a while before some of the less-flashy films on this list become viewable, in some form, in the United States, seeking them out will widen your world, as it has mine.
Nouvelle Vague
Richard Linklater’s agile, witty, elegant picture about the making of a movie that possibly only film lovers and bona fide old people care about—Jean-Luc Godard’s cannon-shot of a debut, 1959’s Breathless—may end up being appreciated by only about 2.6 percent of the general population. Who would make a picture like that? Only someone who cares. Nouvelle Vague, part of the Cannes competition slate, is the ultimate inside-baseball making-of movie. But even more than that, it’s a picture that stands strong on the side of art, of history, of working to solve the puzzle of things that maybe at first you don’t fully understand. It’s both a shout of joy and a call to arms. It’s all about the bold, muscular act of caring. [Read the full review.]
The History of Sound
Oliver Hermanus’ romantic melodrama divided critics here at Cannes, not because it was daring or controversial but because, it seemed, the filmmaking was…
