Cannes Wish List: 33 Movies We Hope Make the Cut in 2025

“An Affair” (dir. Arnaud Desplechin)

There’s seemingly no tallying how many films French director Arnaud Desplechin has premiered at Cannes — all of them, perhaps? — including new classics such as “A Christmas Tale” (2008) and “My Golden Days” (2015), with “Oh Mercy!” (2019) and “Brother and Sister” (2022) among the films that followed. “An Affair” features handsome “Call My Agent!” actor François Civil as a virtuoso pianist back from Asia and now reconnecting with a lost love in his hometown of Lyon. Nadia Tereszkiewicz, Charlotte Rampling, and Hippolyte Girardot round out the cast for Desplechin’s original script. —RL

“Alpha” (dir. Julia Ducournau)

Starring Golshifteh Farahani and Tahar Rahim, and set in a fictional city modeled after the New York of the 1980s, Julia Ducournau’s “Alpha” tells the story of an 11-year-old girl who begins to reckon with life and death when one of her parents falls ill against the backdrop of the AIDS epidemic. Somehow, we suspect that things aren’t quite as grounded and straightforward as that premise makes them sound — not when it comes to a new movie from the madwoman responsible for “Raw” and “Titane.” Production on “Alpha” didn’t wrap until late last fall, so it’s possible that Ducournau might have to wait until Venice to show the world what she’s been cooking up, but after winning the Palme with a wonderfully transgressive stunner about a serial killer who gets impregnated by a car, it would be a shame for her not to be on the Croisette for a victory lap. —DE

“Amrum” (dir. Fatih Akin)

Turkish-German filmmaker Fatih Akin reunites with Diane Kruger, who won Best Actress at Cannes for his wounding revenge drama “In the Fade” in 2017, for the historical drama “Amrum.” Akin co-wrote the film with “Goodbye Berlin” screenwriter Hark Bohm. It’s a World War II-era coming-of-age tale, led by newcomer Jasper Billerbeck, set on the titular German island in 1945 in the last days of the war. Billerbeck plays a 12-year-old boy, inspired by the 85-year-old Bohm’s own childhood, who hunts seals to help his family. Bohm co-write the script for “In the Fade,” and Akin’s 12th feature could either drop in the main slate or out of competition. “Amrum” is ready for hte festival, with Warner Bros. releasing it in German theaters in the fall. Akin’s “The Edge of Heaven” won best screenplay at Cannes in 2007, but he’s best known for the 2004 Golden Bear-winning dissipated romance “Head-On.” —RL

“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” (dir. Kogonada)

First gaining notoriety for his enlightening video essays, South Korean filmmaker Kogonada introduced himself as a sensitive, yet confident force in cinema with his 2017 debut “Colombus” starring John Cho and Haley Lu Richardson. He followed this with “After Yang,” a poetic sci-fi mystery that features Colin Farrell and Jodie Turner-Smith and further highlighted Kogonada’s gift for creating a unique cinematic language that speaks to the intricate themes of his narrative. Now, Kogonada is getting the chance to play on his largest canvas to date with “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey.” Described as a romantic fantasy, the film stars Farrell and Margot Robbie as strangers brought together for a one-of-a-kind trip. Initially slated for early May, the film was moved by Sony Pictures Releasing to September, suggesting a possible awards play and now making it eligible to premiere at Cannes. —HR

“Calle Malaga” (dir. Maryam Touzani)

Moroccan filmmaker and actress Maryam Touzani follows up her beloved Oscar entry “The Blue Caftan” from 2022 with “Calle Malaga,” the tale of a 74-year-old Spanish woman resisting her daughter’s decision to sell her Tangier home. Pedro Almodóvar muse Carmen Maura stars as the lead, who sets out to reclaim her furniture and home while becoming reawakened to love and sexuality. IndieWire understands the movie is ready for Cannes, and with Maura in the Cast and this being bold director Touzani’s first Spanish-language feature, there’s plenty of international appeal here for the premiere to make sense. Touzani was on the main competition jury in 2023. —RL

“Chocobar” (dir. Lucrecia Martel)

Leave it to Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel to make a provocative cinematic stance. She was, after all, head of the Venice jury that gave “Joker” the Golden Lion in 2019. She’s appeared at Cannes before, with “The Holy Girl” and “The Headless Woman” both competing for the Palme d’Or, and she’s primed for a Croisette appearance for her long-gestating hybrid project “Chocobar.”

We’ve seen this one on these lists before: “Chocobar” is her first full-length nonfiction film, and it unpacks the murder of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar. Here, Martel threads together 500 years of colonial history to widen the scope on oppression in Latin American society. Chocobar was a member of the Chuschagasta indigenous community who was killed in 2009 over a land rights dispute. A trial wasn’t held until 2018, after which the convicted parties were freed due to court hold-ups on the ruling. Martel positions how Argentina’s colonial framework led to the events, incorporating historical archives dating back to the 16th century. —RL

“The Chronology of Water” (dir. Kristen Stewart)

Kristen Stewart has never been shy about her desire to create great cinema, and so — when the news broke (at Cannes in 2018!) that she would co-write and direct an adaptation of Lidia Luknavitch’s memoir “The Chronology of Water” — it hardly came as much of a surprise that she was stepping behind the camera. After years of waiting for the stars to align, Stewart finally rolled cameras last summer, with the great Imogen Poots playing Yuknavitch as she loses her swimming scholarship due to drugs and alcohol, meets “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” author Ken Kesey at the University of Oregon, and begins to experiment her way toward happiness. If, as widely expected, “The Chronology of Water” does earn a spot in one of the Cannes sidebars, it would be a full circle moment for an actress whose films have been a frequent highlight of the festival over the last decade. —DE

“Couture” (dir. Alice Winocour)

French filmmaker Alice Winocour is a Cannes regular with her features “Augustine” (2012), “Disorder” (2015), and “Revoir Paris” (2022) all premiering in various sections. She’s never cracked the main competition. Her new film “Couture,” starring Angelina Jolie and set amid Paris Fashion Week, was a hot title in the European Film Market at this year’s Berlinale, and it could pop at Cannes this year. Jolie plays an American film director who crosses paths with a South Sudanese model (Anyier Anei, herself a model and here making her film debut), and a French makeup artist (Ella Rumpf). —RL

“Die, My Love” (dir. Lynne Ramsay)

Scottish director Lynne Ramsay has premiered all her features at Cannes, dating back to her 1999 debut, the Un Certain Regard premiere “Ratcatcher.” Despite some stops and starts with other projects, Ramsay hasn’t completed a feature since 2017’s Cannes screenplay winner “You Were Never Really Here.” Her latest project “Die, My Love,” billed as a horror comedy, would bring the stars to Cannes, with Jennifer Lawrence playing a married woman spinning out in the countryside, and Robert Pattinson as her husband. LaKeith Stanfield, Sissy Spacek, and Nick Nolte are also in the cast. Ramsay adapts Ariana Harwicz’s novel, and as we know from films like “We Need to Talk About Kevin,” Ramsay takes the task of an adapted screenplay very loosely, reconfiguring source material to her own dark vision. Seamus McGarvey shot “Die, My Love” in 35mm with inspirations taken from Roman Polanski’s classics of female unraveling. —RL

“The Disappearance of Josef Mengele” (dir. Kirill Serebrennikov)

Another Cannes perennial is Kirill Serebrennikov, the Russian filmmaker whose epic tapestries of Russian life past and present have included “Petrov’s Flu,” “Tchaikovsky’s Wife,” “Leto,” and last year’s “Limonov: The Ballad,” which still doesn’t have a U.S. distributor despite a superb Ben Whishaw performance as the title dissident. Ready for Cannes is Serebrennikov’s next film, “The Disappearance of Josef Mengele,” starring August Diehl as the Nazi officer and doctor in the years of his life after World War II ended and he, like other SS members, fled to South America. It’s based on a historical fiction novel by Olivier Guez, published in French in 2017. Filming completed in Uruguay and Latvia by the end of 2024. —RL

“The Doctor Says, I’ll Be Alright but I’m Feelin’ Blue” (dir. Mascha Schilinski)

Little is known about Mascha Schilinski’s elaborately named “The Doctor Says I’ll Be Alright, but I’m Feeling Blue,” but word around the campfire is that the German filmmaker’s first feature since 2017’s “The Dark Blue Girl” is a major barnstormer that’s said to have taken Cannes’ selection committee by surprise. The multi-generational story of four girls (including Luise Heyer, pictured) growing up on the same farm at different times, Schilinski’s film may be riding a wave of hot whispers at the moment, but we’re still awaiting confirmation that it will be finished in time for the festival (and that it will be sticking with that wonderful title). Time will tell, but if it does indeed make the cut for the Competition line-up, be sure to keep an eye on it once the festival kicks off. —DE

“Eddington” (dir. Ari Aster)

Ari Aster hit the ground running as a filmmaker, combining indie pedigree with commercial horror to remarkable success with “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.” But his last film, “Beau Is Afraid,” signaled the beginning of a shift in his career. A visual representation of anxiety that was far more abstract than his previous fare, it made it clear that Aster’s work was now meant to be appreciated by festival audiences. His new film, “Eddington,” could very well mark his Cannes debut. Described as a politically-charged pandemic Western with horror elements, the film stars Joaquin Phoenix as a small town sheriff who squares off with the mayor played by Pedro Pascal. With a cast that also includes Emma Stone and Austin Butler, it’s already one of the most anticipated films of the year. —CZ

“Father Mother Sister Brother” (dir. Jim Jarmusch)

Jim Jarmusch has been in top form in recent years, making modern classics like “Only Lovers Left Alive” and “Patterson” in the 2010s. That ensures that expectations are high for his upcoming ensemble film “Father Mother Sister Brother,” an anthology film that boasts an all-star cast including Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Tom Waits, Vicky Krieps, and Mayim Bialik. Given that you can only count on a new Jarmusch film a couple times a decade, as the director famously pointed out in his “Bored to Death” cameo, a new one is always something to celebrate. —CZ

“Highest 2 Lowest” (dir. Spike Lee)

A reteaming between cinematic icons Denzel Washington and Spike Lee is more than enough reason for Cannes to roll out the red carpet, though, if we’re looking for symmetry, perhaps it would be more meaningful for “Highest 2 Lowest” to premiere at the Venice Film Festival in the fall. It was here in 1963 that Akira Kurosawa unveiled “High and Low,” the pulpy adaptation of “King’s Ransom” by Evan Hunter that serves as inspiration for Lee and Washington’s fifth collaboration and their first work together since 2006’s “Inside Man.” The cinematographer on that project, Matthew Libatique, also rejoins Lee’s posse, as well as his regular editor Barry Alexander Brown. Cast for the film includes rappers A$AP Rocky and Ice Spice, as well as Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera, and Michael Potts. Another collaboration to be recognized is between the film’s producers A24 and Apple Original Films, who formed a deal in 2018 to create work for theatrical distribution and streamer Apple TV+. Films such as “Boys State,” Sofia Coppola’s “On the Rocks,” Joel Coen’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” and the Jennifer Lawrence-led “Causeway” were previously made as part of this deal. —HR

“The History of Sound” (dir. Oliver Hermanus)

Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal in a gay musical romance at Cannes would just about break the internet, and hopefully our hearts. South African director Oliver Hermanus (“Living”) has been long in the works on this adaptation of Ben Shattuck’s short story, with the “Challengers” and “All of Us Strangers” stars (O’Connor and Mescal have both gone gay before!) playing traveling folk singers in early 1900s New England. Hermanus’ past queer films including “Moffie” have won festival prizes; in other words, he knows how to frame a gay love story filled with longing. The film shot last year, with MUBI holding North American distribution rights. O’Connor also has a potential Cannes double bill on his hands with the possible premiere of Kelly Reichardt’s “The Mastermind.” —RL

“I Want Your Sex” (dir. Gregg Araki)

A decade has passed since Gregg Araki’s last film, the underrated “White Bird in a Blizzard” — though he made the Netflix series “Now Apocalypse” in the meantime — but the indie legend is preparing to make a splashy return to the limelight. His new film “I Want Your Sex” promises to be a return to the youthful, sexy films he cut his teeth on. Cooper Hoffman stars as a young man who is hired to be the sexual muse for an eccentric celebrity (Olivia Wilde). With a cast that also includes Charli XCX, Daveed Diggs, and Johnny Knoxville, the kinky film could help introduce Araki to a new generation of cinephiles. —CZ

“The Last Day” (dir. Rachel Rose)

Visual artist Rachel Rose makes her feature debut with “The Last Day,” a production of Killer Films inspired by Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway.” Cannes mainstay Alicia Vikander stars as Julia, a writer and mother confronting people from her past, including another troubled mother, while re-examining her creative life. Wagner Moura, Victoria Pedretti, Marin Ireland, and Jihae also feature in the ensemble for the film, which shot in New York City in fall 2024. Rose’s first-time filmmaking credentials mean this is a likely Un Certain Regard title, though stranger things have happened in the competition as Thierry Fremaux looks for more female-directed films to add in a historically male-driven lineup. Last year, the festival took a chance on Agathe Riedinger’s “Wild Diamond,” putting the drama in the competition with an early slot. Cannes loves Vikander, and a pensive drama with a miserabilist Euro-centric sensibility, so don’t count this one out. —RL

“The Mastermind” (dir. Kelly Reichardt)

Known for low-key, ruminative cinema like “Certain Women,” “First Cow,” and her last feature, “Showing Up,” Kelly Reichardt is one of indie cinema’s lasting treasures. Not much of her work has managed to gain a great deal of mainstream success, but that may be changing with the release of her upcoming project, “The Mastermind.” Starring Reichardt regular John Magaro, as well as rising stars Josh O’Connor and Alana Haim, the period film is said to follow a group of art thieves planning a score amidst the Vietnam War. Looking to repeat the success they had with Oscar-nominee “The Substance,” MUBI financed the film and will handle distribution in select territories, including North America. Reichardt has previously premiered two films at Cannes, “Wendy and Lucy” and “Showing Up,” the latter of which was nominated for the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or. Additional cast includes Hope Davis, Bill Camp, Gaby Hoffmann, and Amanda Plummer. —HR

“Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” (dir. Christopher McQuarrie)

I will never forget the moment one afternoon at Cannes 2022 when I was grabbing a quick snack near the Palais when a screaming came across the sky as loud and sudden as the creation of the universe itself and I spilled espresso all over myself like an idiot — Tom Cruise (and “Top Gun: Maverick”) had arrived at the festival with the force of the movie gods. The film had already screened for critics by then, but it was an alarmingly physical reminder of the earth-shaking power that mega-stars can wield when they touch down on the Croisette. Ethan Hunt’s last(?) ride would be a major event no matter where it premiered, but debuting at Cannes would add an extra sense of occasion to both the film and the festival alike, even if I’m a little scared to see how Cruise might announce his presence this time. —DE

“No Other Choice” (dir. Park Chan-wook)

The first two episodes of “The Sympathizer” had their moments, but the gifts of a filmmaker as precise and symphonic as Park Chan-wook are wasted on television screens and production schedules, and so it’s glorious news that the “Decision to Leave” director has returned to his natural medium with the Donald Westlake adaptation “No Other Choice,” a characteristically bleak comedy about a long-unemployed man (“Squid Game” baddie Lee Byung-hun) who starts to murder the other contenders for the latest job he wants. The only bad news: Park didn’t wrap production until the end of January, which could make it difficult for such an exacting director to finish work on the project by the middle of May. The Competition line-up should be a corker either way, but it will be hard to ignore the gaping hole in the roster if Park has “No Other Choice” but to wait for the fall. —DE

“Nouvelle Vague” (dir. Richard Linklater)

Richard Linklater has always maintained firm ties to Austin, but has found great success making films set in Europe like the “Before” trilogy. His latest, “Nouvelle Vague,” takes him back to Paris for a look into the origins of the French New Wave. The film follows Jean-Luc Godard (Guillaume Marbeck) as he makes the transition from criticism to filmmaking with his debut feature “Breathless.” It’s hard to think of a more appropriate spot to premiere the film than Cannes, where French New Wave filmmakers made so much history, and the film has already been thrown out as a potential opening selection. —CZ

“Orphan” (dir. László Nemes)

Hungarian director László Nemes was the toast of Cannes and beyond in 2015 for his you-are-there Holocaust drama “Son of Saul,” which won the Grand Prix and the Academy Award for what was then called Best Foreign Language Film. Nemes’ drama “Orphan” filmed in Budapest last year and centers on a 12-year-old who comes to understand his own role in the 1956 Hungarian uprising against communism. Nemes’ last film “Sunset” premiered at Venice in 2018. The director again reunites with cinematographer Mátyás Erdély (“Son of Saul”), and Nemes made headlines last year for criticizing Jonathan Glazer’s viral “Zone of Interest” Oscar speech where Glazer condemned Israel’s actions in the war in Gaza. —RL

“The Phoenician Scheme” (dir. Wes Anderson)

Only two years since he unveiled “Asteroid City” on La Croisette and a year since his collections of short films “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Three More” dropped on Netflix, Wes Anderson is returning to the big screen this summer with a dark, 1940s-set tale of espionage featuring a typically-enormous ensemble cast of returning players and newcomers. “The Phoenician Scheme” follows the father-daughter dynamic between Benicio del Toro’s Zsa-zsa Korda (likely a reference to the Hungarian actress Zsa Zsa Gabor and Hungarian-born British filmmaker Alexander Korda), one of the wealthiest men in Europe, and Mia Threapleton’s Sister Liesl. Though Threapleton is Kate Winslet’s daughter, Winslet herself has never appeared in an Anderson film. The cast also includes Michael Cera, Riz Ahmed, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, Jeffrey Wright, Hope Davis, Richard Ayoade, and Rupert Friend. —HR

“Pillion” (dir. Harry Lighton)

A24 has already acquired British director Harry Lighton’s feature debut “Pillion,” and we understand it to be very kinky and very gay. Alexander Skarsgård stars as the handsome leader of a bike gang who takes wallflower Harry Melling (“The Queen’s Gambit”) under his wing and potentially into his bed. As Colin (Melling) becomes Ray’s (Skarsgård) submissive, he’s thrown into a queer, sexually liberated underworld that shatters his sense of self. 

Lighton, a BAFTA nominee for the 2017 short “Wren Boys,” wrote the script from an Adam Mars-Jones novel called “Box Hill.” “Pillion” popped on the Cannes market last year, and Un Certain Regard feels like a reasonable landing place for first-feature director Lighton.

“Resurrection” (dir. Bi Gan)

Hong Kong and Taiwan film icon Shu Qi channels Tarkovsky for Chinese director Bi Gan in his latest film, “Resurrection,” his first feature since 2018’s “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” wowed Un Certain Regard with a 59-minute single take in 3D. Bi, who has crafted monumentally ambitious work for someone who’s only 35, reteams with “Long Day’s” cinematographer Dong Jingsong for a sci-fi mystery about a woman whose consciousness slips into an eternal time zone during a surgery. There, she meets an android corpse and attempts to awaken it by telling stories. Jackson Yee (“Better Days”) also stars in the film, which has been in the works since 2023. —RL

“Rosebush Pruning” (dir. Karim Aïnouz)

Karim Aïnouz is a Cannes regular, with his lurid sex-filled “Motel Destino” premiering in competition last year and 2019’s “The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão” (Brazil’s Oscar submission for 2020) earning the Un Certain Regard prize. “Rosebush Pruning” is an English-language remake of Marco Bellocchio’s 1965 classic “Fists in the Pocket,” about an epileptic man who plots the killings of his own family. There’s been some musical casting chairs with this one, as Kristen Stewart and Josh O’Connor were originally set to star before those roles went to Riley Keough and Callum Turner. Jamie Bell, Lukas Gage, Tracy Letts, and Pamela Anderson are also in the ensemble, making for Aïnouz’s first English-speaking cast. The script comes from Yorgos Lanthimos’ friend and collaborator Efthimis Filippou, who wrote “Dogtooth,” “The Lobster,” “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” and “Kinds of Kindness.” Which means you should expect austerity and pained humor from the film, which shot in Spain last fall. and counts MUBI among its co-producers. No formal North American distribution has been set, though. —RL

“The Secret Agent” (dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho)

Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho has shared three films at Cannes, from the later-in-life portrait “Aquarius” with Sonia Braga to cult favorite “Bacurau” with Udo Kier and 2023’s arthouse theater documentary “Pictures of Ghosts,” nominated for the Golden Eye prize for nonfiction filmmaking. In his latest “The Secret Agent,” Filho directs Wagner Moura, the well-known Brazilian actor who broke out stateside in TV’s “Narcos” and the Alex Garland film “Civil War.” “The Secret Agent” also stars Kier and Gabriel Leone in a French/Brazilian co-production that follows a teacher entangled in the political turmoil of the final years of the Brazilian military dictatorship in the late 1970s. Filho shot the movie in his home country in 2024, and IndieWire hears this is ready and has been submitted to Cannes. —RL

“Sentimental Value” (dir. Joachim Trier)

Norway-based director Joachim Trier could return to the Cannes competition four years after his now-iconic “The Worst Person in the World” made Renate Reinsve an international star and won her Best Actress. The film went on to receive nominations for Best International Feature and Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars, so Cannes could do worse than slotting “Sentimental Value” in the main lineup. The secretive family drama centers on sisters mourning the loss of their mother, and welcoming back their estranged father, a screenwriter now offering a role to one of his daughters. “Worst Person” distributor Neon already has North American rights to the film, whose cast includes Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsgård. “Sentimental Value” shot in Oslo last year, and since then Reinsve has continued her reign as a rising global star. Her drama “Armand” repped Norway at the Oscars this year, making the shortlist, and she was recently seen as Jake Gyllenhaal’s colleague and eventually murdered mistress in Apple TV+’s “Presumed Innocent.” —RL

“Splitsville” (dir. Michael Angelo Covino)

Michael Angelo Covino brought the beloved buddy comedy “The Climb” to Cannes Un Certain Regard in 2019, before Sony Pictures Classics turned it into a word-of-mouth cult hit during the pandemic. Star/actor/co-writer Covino is back, and with a buzzy ensemble, for “Splitsville.” Co-writer Kyle Marvin also stars alongside “Hit Man” and “Blink Twice” breakout Adria Arjona, Dakota Johnson, Nicholas Braun, David Castañeda, and O-T Fagbenle. This comedy of divorce and open marriage between Arjona and Marvin’s characters was produced by Topic Studios and Neon, which also handles distributing the film in North America. We hear it’s ready for Cannes. —RL

“Two Prosecutors” (dir. Sergei Loznitsa)

It also wouldn’t be Cannes without Sergei Loznitsa dropping his latest film on the Croisette, one IndieWire understands is ready for the festival. The Ukrainian filmmaker has previously brought seven movies to Cannes, competing for the Palme for his early narrative features “My Joy” and “In the Fog” as well as 2017’s “A Gentle Creature” before moving to Un Certain Regard with 2018’s “Donbass” and premiering documentaries like last year’s “The Invasion” at the festival. “Two Prosecutors,” which shot in Latvia last year, is Loznitsa’s first narrative feature since “Donbass.” The adaptation of Georgy Demidov’s novel centers on a prosecutor who challenges the system during Stalin’s Great Terror in 1937. —RL

“The Way of the Wind” (dir. Terrence Malick)

It sometimes feels like there are more credible arguments for the existence of Santa Claus than a finished cut of Terence Malick’s “The Way of the Wind.” The auteur’s Biblical epic, which offers a reworked telling of scenes from the life of Jesus Christ, wrapped production in 2019. Malick has been in post-production ever since, and has appeared to be in no rush to work through the 3,000 hours of footage he reportedly shot. The film has been rumored to premiere at every Cannes and Venice edition for the past half decade, but buzz once again suggests that this could be the year Malick’s opus finally sees the light of day. Nobody would blame you if you’ve been burned too many times to get your hopes up this year. But when (if?) the day comes when “The Way of the Wind” finally premieres, it will be a monumental event in film history. Maybe this is the year we get lucky. —CZ

“The Young Mother’s Home” (dirs. Luc Dardenne, Jean-Pierre Dardenne)

Ready for Cannes, we hear, is the Dardennes’ “The Young Mother’s Home,” and it wouldn’t be Cannes without the brothers premiering their latest social-realist drama at the festival. The Belgian duo received unusual news attention earlier this year when French actress Émilie Dequenne, who starred in their Palme d’Or-winning breakout “Rosetta” in 1999, died at age 43. This year’s festival could be a unique opportunity to celebrate that film as well as the directors’ latest work, about five young mothers eking out a living in a housing shelter. While the brothers’ “Tori and Lokita” went under the radar in 2022, their films almost always win prizes, from Best Director for “Young Ahmed” (2019) to the Grand Jury Prize for “The Kid with a Bike” “(2011) and another Palme d’Or for “L’enfant” (2005). —RL

“Yes!” (dir. Nadav Lapid)

Fueled by combustible self-conflict, the work of Tel Aviv-born filmmaker Nadav Lapid has always been freighted with his ambivalence — and, increasingly, his anger — toward his nationality. “Synonyms” revisited the period in his 20s when a young Lapid fled to Paris and violently attempted to shake off the Hebrew language after convincing himself that he’d been born in the Middle East by mistake, while 2021 Palme d’Or contender “Ahed’s Knee” directly confronted the impotence Lapid felt as an artist railing against nationalist violence from inside the belly of the beast. 

In that light, one would imagine that anything Lapid made over the last two years would be incandescently furious, but to judge from what little we know about “Yes!,” it sounds like he’s returned with… a remake of “Yes Man”? Somehow, we imagine that the Nadav Lapid movie about a guy who says “yes” to everything will be a little different than the Jim Carrey movie based on the same premise. Or maybe that title is an allusion to the last line of “Ulysses.” All signs suggest that we’ll learn the answers to these questions and more in May. —DE