The 2025 Cannes Film Festival Announces Its Lineup!
One of cinema’s most prestigious events, the Cannes International Film Festival, celebrates its 78th edition this May, and the full festival lineup was just announced!
The line-up for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival was announced, and it’s another year of acclaimed filmmakers, big stars and lots of surprises to come!
The film festival attracts the world’s press, and often shines the light on a movie that will go on to worldwide success and in the cast of this film, the Academy Award for Best Picture of the year!
Last May, “Anora” won the Palme d’Or, awarded to the best film of the festival…it went on to win Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards….
My wife Alex and I attended the festival 12 times when we worked at E! Yes, that was the E! T-short one year and I chose to wear it! It was an experience of a lifetime and I will share some of the highlights in a moment, but here’s a tease:
Yep, that’s Prince Albert of Monaco behind me…I will tell you all about it but first, let’s look at who will be in attendance this year!
The 78th Annual Cannes Film Festival will open on May 13th, 2025 – here are all of the films selected to be show over the two weeks of the festival:
COMPETITION
Alpha, Julie Ducournau
Dossier 137, Dominik Moll
The Eagles of the Republic, Tarik Saleh
Eddington, Ari Aster
Fuori, Mario Martone
The History of Sound, Oliver Hermanus
La Petite Derniere, Hafsia Herzi
The Mastermind, Kelly Reichardt
Nouvelle Vague, Richard Linklater
The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson
Renoir, Chie Hayakawa
Romeria, Carla Simone
The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho
Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier
A Simple Accident, Jafar Panahi
Sirat, Oliver Laxe
Sound of Falling, Mascha Schilinksi
Two Prosecutors, Sergei Loznitsa
Young Mothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Aisha Can’t Fly Away, Morad Mostafa
Eleanor the Great, Scarlett Johansson
Heads or Tails?, Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis
Homebound, Neeraj Ghaywan
Karavan, Zuzana Kirchnerová
L’inconnu de la Grande Arche, Stéphane Demoustier
The Last One for the Road, Francesco Sossai
Meteors, Hubert Charuel
My Father’s Shadow, Akinola Davies Jr
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, Diego Céspedes
Once Upon A Time In Gaza, Tarzan Nasser and Arab Nasser
A Pale View of the Hills, Kei Ishikawa
Pillion, Harry Lighton
The Plague, Charlie Polinger
Promised Sky, Erige Sehiri
Urchin, Harris Dickinson
Tom Cruise will walk up the red carpet steps when he world premieres that final “Mission: Impossible” film…I hung out with Cruise twice at the festival in the past…a consummate professional: gracious, engaging and articulate…
OUT OF COMPETITION
These films are not competing for awards, but using the festival to premiere to the world:
Colours of Time, Cedric Klapisch
Highest 2 Lowest, Spike Lee
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Christopher McQuarrie
Partir un jour, Amélie Bonnin – opening film
The Richest Woman in the World, Thierry Klifa
Vie Privée, Rebecca Zlotowski
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Bono: Stories of Surrender, Andrew Dominik
The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol, Sylvain Chomet
Tell Her I Love Her, Romane Bohringer
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
Dalloway, Yann Gozlan
Exit 8, Kawamura Genki
Songs of the Neon Night, Juno Mak
CANNES PREMIERE
Amrum, Fatih Akin
Connemara, Alex Lutz
The Disappearance of Josef Mengele, Kirill Serebrennikov
Orwell: 2+2 =5, Raoul Peck
Splitsville, Michael Angelo Covino
The Wave, Sebastián Lelio
The world’s press shows up to capture all of the stars who show up – and it’s a two week party…here’s what you come across while walking down the city’s famed Croisette, located along the French Riviera:
Yes, these beachside bars will be packed all day and night…here are a few more inside stories of the festival:
I have been lucky to hang with some of the world’s biggest stars:
Yes, that’s me in the salmon colored shirt watching my Host Michael Castner interviewing Arnold Schwarzenegger – oh, and I was right off camera as Michael had a hilarious sit-down on the beach with Jim Carrey:
Jim was on the cusp of super stardom…see what we did back in 1994 in Cannes by clicking on my story here:
I didn’t just interview stars who were in Cannes, I brought some along with me as well!
Alex and I flew Joan and Melissa Rivers over to do the first ever “Cannes Fashion Review! That led to moments like this:
That’s my friend and Producer Nikki Kemezis overseeing Joan as she tries on fake boobs…well, it WAS Joan Rivers! See more of our hijinx here:
OK, now back to the photo below…yes, that is Prince Albert of Monaco, who Alex and I met and chatted with a bit in Cannes before he sat at a table filled with Hawaiian Tropics Models….
Yes, he did – it was one of our first times in Cannes and what a blast we had! Here’s a look at the festival’s history and how we ended up hanging with a Prince!
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Categories: Art, Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Exotic Travel, Film Fight Club, Great Films, Hollywood, Memoirs, Movies, Pop Culture, Talent/Celebrities, Travel, Travel Adventures, Travel Memoir
johnrieber 
Really exciting! And you’ve been there 12 times. Wow!
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Yes it was really something! Thanks for the comment!
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You’re welcome!
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A great post, John. So nice to see these photos from your working days.
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Thanks Robbie!
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My pleasure
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your experiences there must have been the trips of a lifetime. you and prince al, hanging out in the same room…. I still have yet to see anora but will for sure. ooh, a new Wes Anderson too! I’m sure there. are many treasures there –
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Thanks heaps for the very interesting list divided into the various categories – not that I am lucky enough to know anything about any of them, but should I hear the names I can say ‘ah, yes . . . ‘! Lovely photos and lovely memories for Alex and yourself 🙂 !
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I find it so hard to keep up, I still haven’t seen any of the 2024 prizewinners! Thanks for keeping me in the loop with what’s happening in the world of cinema, John.
Best wishes, Pete.
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