Cannes 2025 Film Festival Sparks Change in Female Directors
- Callee Fair
- Apr 14
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 15
After weeks of anticipation for the glamorous event, the line-up for this year’s Cannes Film Festival was unveiled bright and early at 5 am EST on April 10th. Festival Director Thierry Frémaux and President Iris Knobloch announced in Paris a list of surprises and wildcards for Cannes’s 78th edition.
Last year was more than successful, to say the least, with 2,909 feature screenings for selection. There were a total of 31 Oscar nominations that stemmed from the festival, and 9 winners taking home an Academy Award. With Wes Anderson’s “The Phoenician Scheme”, Oliver Hermanus’s “The History of Sound”, and Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind”, this year looks just as promising for witnessing great, cinematic art.
One thing to notice here is that there is a lot more diversity in terms of gender than the film festival is used to. Perhaps with the success of “Anatomy of the Fall” and “The Substance”, the game is starting to change for female directors to be competing at the same level as male directors who dominate the field. Cannes has infamously undermined women in the directing space by refusing to give recognition, or even a spotlight, to screen their films at this festival. Up until 2011, there were no screenings of female directed movies, and still, the following year they slouched right back into this shocking refusal even after hitting a ground-breaking milestone.
However, the spotlight on female directors is not just placed on one, but six women, which is a celebration of accomplishment and a beginning of change within the festival. The selected female directors are: Kelly Reichardt (“The Mastermind”), Julia Ducournau (“Alpha”), Mascha Schilinski (“Sound of Falling”), Hafsia Herzi (“La Petite Dernière”), Chie Hayakawa (“Renoir”), and Carla Simón (“Romeria”).
Director Thierry Frémaux promised to release more films in the next following days. The most recognition in the competition in Cannes Film Festival history is 7 female directors. Depending on what the next few released names are, this year’s festival could be record breaking for women filmmakers.
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
Un 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
OUT OF COMPETITION
Colours of Time, Cedric Klapisch
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
Highest to Lowest, Spike Lee
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
Dalloway, Yann Gozlan
Exit 8, Kawamura Genki
Sons 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
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Bono: Stories of Surrender, Andrew Dominik
Tell Her That I Love Her, Romane Bohringer
A Magnificent Life, Sylvain Chomet
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