This year’s Cannes Film Festival was a mixed bag, with some films sparking excitement and others leaving audiences underwhelmed. Despite last year’s success stories, including Anora, The Substance, and Emilia Pérez, the festival’s lineup struggled to live up to expectations.
A standout film among the competition was Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, a sprawling drama about 1970s dictatorship in Brazil. Sergei Loznitsa’s Two Prosecutors, which explored Stalin-era Soviet Russia through a Dostoyevskian lens, also impressed with its existential grandeur of evil.
Other notable films included Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, which probed the complexities of patriarchy and family dynamics, and Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, a poignant tale of neglectful fatherhood. However, not all was well at Cannes – former Palme d’Or winner Julia Ducournau’s Alpha was met with confusion.
The festival also delivered on its promise to tackle tough subjects, including political cruelty and tyranny, as seen in Jafar Panahi’s A Simple Accident. Meanwhile, The Secret Agent offered a glimpse into the petty corruption of 1970s Brazil, while Two Prosecutors brought the darkness of Stalin’s regime to light.
Despite the mixed bag, there were some standout performances – particularly from Stellan Skarsgård in Sentimental Value and Josh O’Connor in The Mastermind. Ultimately, only time will tell if this year’s Cannes lineup will mark a new burst of excitement, but for now, it feels good to have a diverse and thought-provoking crop of films.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/may/23/palme-dor-winner-cannes-film-festival-who-will-win