Today, sixteen titles were dubbed the additions to the Cannes Selection 2025, two of which will be in the Competition. The eagerly awaited Lynne Ramsay film Die, My Love was finally confirmed after some time of speculation. All four of the director’s films have been presented at Cannes. The latest was the masterful You Were Never Really Here in 2017, which won the Best Screenplay award and the Best Actor award to Joaquin Phoenix. The new work stars Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. The other addition to the competition is Saeed Roustay’s Mother & Child. The director’s latest film in Cannes was the overrated Leila’s Brothers in 2022.
Other additions to the Cannes Selection
There are four additions in Un Certain Regard. The most interesting is I Only Rest in the Storm by Pedro Pinho. It is co-produced by the reliable Still Moving, which brought us the brilliant Tiger Stripes two years ago. The three other additions are Love Me Tender by Anna Cazenave Cambet, Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water, and Un poeta by Mesa Soto. The Cannes Premiere section, which started in 2021 and has since then mostly functioned as a thinly veiled ruse to stop other festivals from screening films, added three more works. Hylmur Palmason’s The Love That Remains, Magalhaes by Lav Diaz, and Renai saiban by Kōji Fukada.
Ethan Cohen’s Honey Don’t and Le roi soleil by Vincent Maël Cardona complete the Midnight Screenings strand. Lastly, four first features were added as Special Screenings for some reason. They are called Mama, Arco, Qui brille au combat, and Amélie et la métaphysique des tubes.
If this is the finalised edition (there are still rumours about Bi Gan’s Resurrection being added next week), it is a selection that is even weaker than the last two years. Something that I wouldn’t have thought possible. Of all the great names that have been mentioned, only Ramsay made it to this year’s Cannes. The programme is filled to the brim with all the boring usual suspects. The only thankful omission is Jim Jarmusch’s Father, Mother, Sister, and Brother, but that is a slight relief when the competition contains names like Wes Anderson, the Dardennes, Martone, Moll, Trier, Ducournau, and Cannes debutant Ari Aster.
It remains to be seen what kind of surprises this year’s edition has to offer. At the moment, it does not look promising at all. On the other hand, Venice might have an extraordinary edition if the films rejected by Frémaux and his crew end up there.