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With Cannes news rolling out, is there a 2025 thread that's eluding me or has creating a new one just been overlooked?

You're in it!

Meanwhile, the aforementioned Cannes lineup.

The Competition strikes me as quite young (people are getting older), but it also strikes me as not as good as it could have been given the heavy-hitters in contention. (It would have helped had Joaquin Phoenix not wasted a year of Todd Haynes's time.) Four of the greatest active directors to have never appeared in Competition in Christian Petzold, Radu Jude, Hlynur Pálmason, and Bi Gan arrived with very good odds of landing, and all have been rejected in some capacity. Maybe Pálmason isn't with the right sales company? Frémaux is generally weird with Germans (and Latin America), so maybe two Germans is too many? Bi Gan is still finishing, but it has been screened, and it could, presumably still happen. Frémaux just doesn't have time for Radu Jude, it seems. Perhaps Pálmason, Petzold and their producers calculated this to be the best spot for them given the number of big titles (primarily English language) ready for the Lido, the Jarmusch included supposedly after its own Competition rejection.

Any of those four at their most mediocre still intrigue more than Mario Martone, Tarik Saleh, and Saeed Roustayi. Frémaux cannot resist his Americans and Italians, but at least the Americans generally deliver. The only Italian to deliver in Frémaux's reign is Rohrwacher, at least twice. Pietro Marcello, if available, would have been a better pick, as I haven't seen anyone look forward to Martone. Venice will take it sight unseen. Saleh's last film was amateurish and had more in common with his same year's Chris Pine action film than he'd admit. Saeed Roustayi didn't quite land in 2022. If he fails this year, he's in danger of being one of those weird, Created by Cannes directors ala Serebrennikov and Kawase, who linger and haunt, but never generate excitement.

At least Frémaux cooled it with the French this year. Dominik Moll and Hafsia Herzi received the César bump, but I'm expecting at least the former to be fairly mundane. It will likely be dumb, but Ducournau's does at least have the potential as something to talk about. Linklater's is French, too, and the hope there is for it to be very funny as Linklater can be.

The two Spanish entries are inspired choices. I don't know if even one of them will be in Spanish, but they are inspired debutantes regardless.

I genuinely know nothing of Chie Hayakawa and Mascha Schilinski, but I obviously hope for the best. Schilinski's film has been hyped severely by the European film industry, and indeed Frémaux poached it from Berlin, not unlike a major breakout from another unknown a decade ago in Son on Saul. Not unlike Chie and Schilinski, Oliver Hermanus means nothing to me, but from afar it seems the sort of well-mounted period drama that suits the schema of Oscar Film. Hermanus directed an Ishiguro-penned British Ikiru remake, so the vibes I'm getting from this project is gayer Merchant-Ivory, which is good.

The reaction to the Ari Aster film should be fun, but unless Bi Gan comes through, I am rooting for Kelly Reichardt to take the Palme.

So long as there isn't a new Dardenne Brothers film on there... oh.

Interesting to see both Scarlett Johansson and Kristen Stewart having their first films as directors in the Un Certain Regard section. Although the most immediately tantalising film of the line up so far for me is in the "Midnight Screening" section where the director Genki Karamura (better known as a producer of a lot of anime titles such as Mamoru Hosoda's Wolf Children, The Boy and the Beast, Mirai and Belle; and Makoto Shinkai's Your Name, Weathering With You and Suzume. Plus in live action Hirokazu Kore-eda's Monster and the 2010 horror-drama Confession. And the two live action adaptations of the Parasyte manga) is going to show The Exit 8, which immediately rang a bell with its title and sure enough turns out to be a live action version of a 'spot the difference' game (yet another videogame that is proving just how influential P.T.'s looping structure has been over the last decade of games) that has become a viral hit with YouTube let's players. The same developer made a sequel game with Platform 8, though then they stopped because there was a run of other people jumping on the bandwagon and making their own 'Exit 8-a-likes' (the best of which is probably the legimitately scary and even with a bit of a story too, Shinkansen 0, which really runs with the concept) - I'm linking to the Japanese lets players on that one, since it seems more appropriate, but you can find the usual suspects like Markiplier and jacksepticeye having totally not over-egged screaming fits whilst playing through them too.

So I'm excited to see what the first feature film to tackle 'liminal space horror' might be like, in anticipation of any future Backrooms film to come!

I’m very, very curious about the adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s A Pale View of Hills

Wikipedia informs me that Juno Mak's Sons of the Neon Night will premiere out of competition some eight years after the commencement of principal photography. It stars Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Ka-fai, and Sean Lau. Anyone know anything about this film's director or why its release has been delayed?

Bi Gan's Resurrection has, after a lengthy period of uncertainty, been added to the Cannes competition slate

In a world where humanity has lost the ability to dream, one creature remains entranced by the fading illusions of the dreamworld. This monster, adrift in reverie, clings to visions no one else can see—until a woman appears. Gifted with the rare power to perceive these illusions for what they truly are, she chooses to enter the monster’s dreams, determined to uncover the truth that lies hidden within.

Never Cursed wrote: Mon Apr 28, 2025 8:06 pm Wikipedia informs me that Juno Mak's Sons of the Neon Night will premiere out of competition some eight years after the commencement of principal photography. It stars Takeshi Kaneshiro, Tony Leung Ka-fai, and Sean Lau. Anyone know anything about this film's director or why its release has been delayed?

Post Production was delayed because of COVID and other factors. A perfect encapsulation of "shit happens" snowballing into a perfect encapsulation of Murphy's Law.

I'll plump for the Loznitsa to win the Palme.

Pre-festival predictions:

This will be a vastly better edition than last year, which was essentially mediocrity after mediocrity until the festival's back-end.

Inevitably, given the harshness of critics, there will be several films that register in the middle range of grids that are perfectly fine plus masterful and at least worthy of being picked up by Janus Contemporaries.

Palme: Bi Gan, Resurrection
Grand Prix: Mascha Schilinski, The Sound of Falling
Director: Jafar Panahi, A Simple Accident
Screenplay: Wes Anderson, The Phoenician Scheme
Actor: Wagner Moura, The Secret Agent
Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Die, My Love
Jury: Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Young Mothers

I also see from the run-down of titles that Mamoru Oshii's amazing abstract fantasy animation from 1985, Angel's Egg, is getting a screening from a restored print at the festival. Hopefully that heralds a good Blu-ray release or even 4K!

The film did receive a Japanese Blu-ray edition about a decade ago, but unfortunately never made it to the West. Though we have had the compensation of Arrow's release of the American re-edit In The Aftermath: Angels Never Sleep. Which I like quite a lot as being quite poetically allusive in itself, but it is doing a very different thing with its story compared to the original film.

colinr0380 wrote: Thu May 15, 2025 7:30 am I also see from the run-down of titles that Mamoru Oshii's amazing abstract fantasy animation from 1985, Angel's Egg, is getting a screening from a restored print at the festival. Hopefully that heralds a good Blu-ray release or even 4K!

The film did receive a Japanese Blu-ray edition about a decade ago, but unfortunately never made it to the West. Though we have had the compensation of Arrow's release of the American re-edit In The Aftermath: Angels Never Sleep. Which I like quite a lot as being quite poetically allusive in itself, but it is doing a very different thing with its story compared to the original film.

GKids is giving Angel’s Egg theatrical and home video releases

Things are already looking fantastic at Cannes this year. Hopefully, it's not frontloaded.

A lot of the passion seems to be bound up between Mascha Schilinski and highbrow fave Oliver Laxe. Ari Aster seems to have lived up to the polarizing expectations. He honestly never screamed "Cannes Competition" to me, but he's a solid formalist and this looks like a lot of fun—I don't care how much on-the-nose this ends up being. Loznitsa is arguably receiving the best reviews, but I'm getting the sense that he's playing it relatively safe—something that can easily contribute to him having a +3 on the Screen Daily grid. French entries from Dominik Moll and Hafsia Herzi seem to have at least defied their expectations of being a shrug, festival-filler. It's early, but I've been reading shrug notices from the Japanese entry by Chie Hayakawa, which is perhaps inevitable given that the festival couldn't sustain its current heater.

Meanwhile, Petzold is receiving typical sterling notices in Fortnight. Good for him for declining Cannes Premiere, if he indeed was offered it.

Today: Hayakawa, Petzold, Linklater, Ramsay
Sunday: Pálmason, Wes Anderson, Mendonça Filho, Diaz
Monday: Ducornau, Spike Lee, Saleh
Tuesday: Panahi, Zlotowoski, Serebrinnikov, Martone
Wednesday: Trier, Simón, Hermanus
Thursday: Bi Gan, Lapid, Fukada, Roustaee
Friday: Reichardt, Dardennes, Coen

I'd heard the Ducournau was so bad Cannes almost didn't take it, and the reactions I've read are helping me to understand why.

Hoping Reichardt comes through because the Mendonca Filho film is the only competition entry so far that both interests me and has been well received.

Neon just bought North American rights to Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent, which they intend to put out this year. They already have Julia Ducorneau's Alpha and Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value, but surely their assumption is that Mendonça's film will win the Palme. Mubi also bought Lynne Ramsey's Die, My Love, so they clearly want another shot at the Best Actress Oscar

Janus/Sideshow alumnis Hlynur Pálmason and Jafar Panahi are here with very well received films; hopefully, they acquire them. (I imagine the Dardennes will at least deliver something on par with Tori and Lokita.)

Netflix doesn't seem to acquire at Cannes anymore unless they think the film has Oscar potential. (There was a time when their feud with Cannes was so hot that they acquired Lazzaro felice and Atlantics presumably betting that they'd win the Palme, and they'd therefore have Cannes "top" title.) The only remaining title that comes close to fitting that bill is Linklater's Nouvelle Vague, which of course is a comedy about the filming of Breathless. Maybe Janus/Sideshow can land that one with their Flow money? They picked up five films last year; I'd rather they just add Loznitsa or Schilinski. Maybe Laxe for Grasshopper?

If Bi Gan's film tomorrow lands like the epoch-defining film I'm hoping tomorrow, I really hope Well Go stays away.

Joachim Trier's Worst Person in the World follow-up is currently getting raved. Sentimental Value definitely seems like the sort of film we'll be hearing about for the next year ala Anora.

Never Cursed wrote: Wed May 21, 2025 7:36 pm Neon just bought North American rights to Kleber Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent, which they intend to put out this year. They already have Julia Ducorneau's Alpha and Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value, but surely their assumption is that Mendonça's film will win the Palme. Mubi also bought Lynne Ramsey's Die, My Love, so they clearly want another shot at the Best Actress Oscar

Now Neon has bought Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident. Are they trying to get the Palme by process of elimination?

Finch wrote: Tue May 20, 2025 3:48 pm I've not followed arthouse cinema for years, to be honest. I'd not heard of Oliver Laxe before this festival.

As well as the films mentioned above, his film Mimosas is also very good. He also acted in Ben Rivers' The Sky Trembles... in a semi-fictionalised performance - part of Rivers' film revolves around the making of Mimosas.

MUBI has bought Sound of Falling for the USA and UK.

Omensetter wrote: Wed May 21, 2025 9:03 pmIf Bi Gan's film tomorrow lands like the epoch-defining film I'm hoping tomorrow, I really hope Well Go stays away.

Barring a surprise tomorrow, this appears to have been the most polarizing film of the festival, with wild raves and contemptuous dismissals in basically equal amounts, as well as a number of walkouts in at least one of the showings (a far less common sight than in decades past). As per usual for Bi, there are several extended long takes, including a half-hour-long shot allegedly spanning an entire section of a city.

Yeah, Bi Gan as most polarizing seems accurate. I've been intermittently scanning for information on it over the last hour plus, and both Twitter and Letterboxd seem enthused, with the more negative reactions coming from LB. Whenever I click on a LB user bragging of walking out, their favorite film is usually my favorite film from when I was fourteen—films that aren't bad, but films that are reflective enough of that individual for me to dismiss their flippant thoughts on the film, as if anti-intellectually bragging of walking out of what was always going to be an enigmatic film isn't reason enough. Yet, its distribution on LB says rave. The highbrow grid Moiree doesn't seem impressed thus far, but they're generally parsimonious—I can see the seeming White Elephantness of the film turning them off.

I imagine more will be revealed when people wake up in Cannes tomorrow, but this is probably the ideal reaction.

If Reichardt delivers another deceptively low-key work that falls between great-to-masterpiece tomorrow, then give her the Palme if the jury's not in love with this enough for the Palme. She would be deserving, and it would also have the benefit of breaking up the Neonification of the Palme (if not the festival).