The 2025 Cannes film festival winners

One of the hottest anticipated events in the calendar of every movie lover, Cannes works slightly differently from other big film ceremonies like the Oscars. The awards are broken down into sections, each with its own categories. All films in a section are eligible for every category… make sense?

Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Many films are in the running, so we’ll give you a little more detail on the feature films and main prizes before getting to the 2025 Cannes Film Festival winners. Alternatively, you can just skip right to the winners!

Sisters Nora and Agnes reconnect with their estranged father Gustav, a former film director planning a comeback. When Gustav offers Nora a lead role and she declines, he casts a rising Hollywood actress instead.

Alpha is a 13-year-old living with her single mum. When she gets a tattoo on her arm, it triggers events neither of them is prepared for.

Intriguingly, the official synopsis for this movie is “love madness madness love.”

Stéphanie, an Internal Affairs officer, investigates a protest injury and learns that the victim is from her hometown.

George Fahmy, a celebrated Egyptian actor, agrees to star in a government-backed film and soon begins an affair with the general’s wife. This is the last installment of the Cairo trilogy.

In May 2020, tensions erupt in Eddington, New Mexico, when a stand-off between the town’s sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) turns neighbors against each other.

In 1980s Rome, writer Goliarda Sapienza is jailed for theft after her book is rejected. She forms a friendship with a woman named Roberta, a political activist, which continues on their release from prison.

Jessica, Perla, Julie, Ariane, and Naïma — five teens in a shelter for young mothers — are trying to build better futures for themselves and their babies.

In a world where no one can dream, a creature holds onto the visions nobody else can see. A woman appears who has the rare ability to see these visions, and she enters the monster’s dreamscape.

At 17, Fatima, the youngest of three daughters, starts university in Paris and explores her attraction to women. As she navigates her French-Algerian identity and family expectations, she faces the question of how to stay true to herself while balancing the parts of who she is.

This movie is about Godard’s filming of Breathless (À bout de souffle) in 1960, told in the same style.

On the run, Marcelo — a tech expert in his forties — arrives in Recife during carnival in Brazil 1977, hoping to see his son.

As her father battles a terminal illness and her mother juggles work and caregiving, 11-year-old Fuki retreats into a vivid fantasy world, becoming obsessed with telepathy and the power of her imagination.

Marina travels to Spain’s Atlantic coast to get a signature from paternal grandparents she’s never met so that she can get a scholarship.

A father and son search Moroccan mountain raves for their missing daughter and sister, Mar, who disappeared months before. One of the best sad movies in this edition of Cannes.

Alma, Erika, Angelika, and Lenka live on the same German farmstead across different eras spanning a century, and their lives start to echo each other.

Kentucky singer Lionel meets composer David at music school in 1917. After David’s war service, they collect folk songs in Maine to preserve them. Despite Lionel’s later European success, he’s haunted by their brief but meaningful connection.

In 1970s Massachusetts, unemployed carpenter JB Mooney attempts art theft, but the failed heist spirals his life into chaos.

A wealthy businessman names his daughter, a nun, as his heir, making them both targets of rival tycoons, terrorists, and hit men when he launches a new venture. A perfect showcase for the Wes Anderson aesthetic, filmed on Studio Babelsberg (one of the famous film locations in Germany).

In 1937 Soviet Union, prosecutor Alexander Kornev receives a rare surviving letter from a falsely accused prisoner. His investigation into NKVD corruption takes him to Moscow, revealing the brutal machinery of Stalin’s totalitarian regime.

“What begins as a minor accident sets a series of escalating consequences in motion.”

Widowed nurse Mahnaz has to deal with her son Aliyar’s behavior after he’s suspended from school, while starting a new relationship. After a betrothal ceremony, an accident forces her to search for justice.

Alright, you’ve seen the movie trailers, so let’s get down to business!

We’ve listed all the Cannes Film Festival winners in the most logical format possible. Feature and short film categories are pretty self-explanatory, and we’ll explain the others as we go along.

Introduced in 1978, this section presents unorthodox films and non-traditional stories looking to gain international recognition.

The “Golden Camera” is awarded for the best first feature film.

The Cinéfondation is awarded to the best short and medium-length films created in film schools all over the world.

Iranian director Jafar Panahi walked away with the coveted Palme d’Or for his movie It Was Just an Accident, a particularly special award given that the filmmaker has been banned from making films in his home country, and even imprisoned for it. It was his first appearance at Cannes in 15 years due to a travel ban.

Despite a little drama in the form of sabotage on the final day of Cannes, it was a resounding success, with much praise all around for this year’s selection and winners. One highlight has to be the 19-minute standing ovation given to Joachim Trier on Wednesday night for his new film, “Sentimental Value.”

We hope you enjoyed all the glitz and glam Cannes has to offer, and that you get a chance to see some of the outstanding movies that were in the running this year. Next year has a lot to live up to, but we’ll see you back here in 2026 to find out if it can!

FIN