German-Iranian Debut — Football Club Loses Its Coach and Cannot Find Its Bearings — Grief as Suspended Time Head coach Dené dies. The film occupies the aftermath — not the succession crisis but the atmosphere: suspended time, restrained grief, latent downfall. Characters unnamed. Scenes unnstitched. The interim coach says through a translator: "I only know what I don't understand." The film moves in circles rather than lines. The title references Farid al-Din Attar's 12th-cen

Sorogoyen's First Cannes Main Competition Entry — 7-Minute Standing Ovation — Bardem's Best Performance Since Biutiful The Beloved follows the father-daughter relationship between acclaimed film director Esteban Martínez and middling actress Emilia, as they reunite on set after several years of estrangement, shooting a motion picture in Fuerteventura titled Desierto, set in 1930s Western Sahara. ➡️ He drinks mineral water now. He used to be an enfant terrible. The offer to ca

Gray's Sixth Cannes Competition Film — 10-Minute Standing Ovation — The Little Odessa Director Returns to Queens With His Most Autobiographical Crime Drama Since His Debut Queens, September 1986. Irwin Pearl (Miles Teller) and his wife Hester (Scarlett Johansson) are raising two boys and facing the usual money troubles when Irwin's brother Gary (Adam Driver), a former cop, approaches with a proposition: a Russian-connected oil company wants to develop a local waterway and Gar

A whimsical musical drama about artistic survival, friendship, and magical absurdity Art becomes an act of faith and survival. A Providência e a Guitarra follows traveling performers Leon and Elvira as they struggle through a world filled with rival artists, strange authority figures, and mischievous supernatural forces. As they move from place to place, they rely on music, friendship, and imagination to continue believing in their art. Rather than following a conventional dr

A psychologically layered mystery drama about voyeurism, fiction, and emotional manipulation Observation slowly becomes obsession. Parallel Tales follows Sylvie, a novelist who spies on her neighbors while searching for inspiration for her next book. As she becomes increasingly involved in the lives she observes, fiction and reality begin collapsing into one another. The arrival of young Adam further destabilizes her emotional and creative world, pushing the story into psycho

A quiet coming-of-age relationship drama about emotional distance, identity, and changing connection Youth slowly fades into emotional uncertainty. Segundo Amor follows a group of young friends during a summer shaped by emotional transition and shifting relationships. At the center are Saura and Filipe, whose once-intense bond begins to quietly dissolve as they struggle to understand what remains between them. The film explores how language, intimacy, and friendship evolve du

The 79th Cannes Opening Film — A Decade in the Making, Built From a Fictional Premise Salvadori Heard in Someone Else's Movie In 1928 Paris, Antoine, a painter who hasn't worked since his wife's death, stumbles drunk into the wrong carnival booth. Suzanne — Venus Electrificata, who delivers electric shocks through her lips for nine francs a week — improvises a séance. Antoine believes. He returns. He paints again. She falls in love with him. The film began when Salvadori, pla

A dark social thriller blending crime, satire, and digital-age desperation in a viral economy Desperation goes viral—and spirals out of control. Auru follows a financially struggling couple in Almaty who fabricate a terminal illness to launch a crowdfunding campaign for survival. What begins as a calculated attempt to escape economic hardship quickly escalates into a high-stakes situation as their story goes viral, attracting attention from both the public and the criminal un

Mexican Political Thriller That Refuses the Thriller's Tempo — the Dead Body Is Not the Point Lázaro is a mine worker navigating Mexican government bureaucracy to obtain an oxygen tank due to his poor health from years working in the local copper mines, who unexpectedly finds a dead body by the side of the road. His mother Tere tells him to say nothing. A radio piece confirms it is the third body in six months — implying a conspiracy by mysterious forces in the mine town's ad

A cerebral political drama dissecting power, perception, and the machinery behind modern authoritarianism Power is not held—it is constructed. The Wizard of the Kremlin is a layered political drama that explores the rise of Vladimir Putin through the lens of Vadim Baranov, a fictionalized political strategist who helps shape the narrative of power in post-Soviet Russia. Rather than presenting a conventional biopic, the film focuses on the invisible architecture of influence—m

A restrained psychological drama exploring desire, repression, and the fragility of identity within rigid social structures Secrets simmer beneath silence and expectation. Aurora is an intimate Estonian drama that explores the quiet tension between personal truth and imposed identity, following a young woman whose life begins to fracture after a secret affair. As the daughter of a religious leader, Aurora is shaped by a world governed by rules, appearances, and moral expectat

An Experimental Slow-Burn Unmasking the Violent Hierarchies of the Philippine Elite A bright facade hides dark connections Teenaged Isabel navigates the rigid social structures of an exclusive country club where her fixation on the wealthy Dr. Palanca spirals into a chilling discovery of systemic violence. The narrative stakes transition from a coming-of-age attraction to a gothic uncovering of a disturbing shared past. Set against the manicured lawns of the wealthy, the stor

A surreal, sensual exploration of desire and identity where escapism masks emotional fracture and intimacy becomes a form of rebellion Love blooms inside a fractured fantasy world In a dystopian landscape shaped by environmental collapse and emotional isolation, a drifting young woman discovers a hidden utopian refuge where survival gives way to illusion and reinvention. There, she meets a wealthy, pregnant woman living within a carefully constructed fantasy, and what begins

The Swedish Satirical Road Movie Where a Journalist Follows an Anti-Tech Cult Into the Countryside to Find a Button That Can Switch Off the Internet Johanna is a struggling journalist who stumbles onto a story: a renegade tech billionaire-turned-cult-leader has declared war on algorithm-driven digital society and claims he possesses a button that can shut down the internet entirely. She joins an improbable group — a burned-out influencer, a self-proclaimed shaman, two blasé a

A 20-year-old woman, a precarious job, an unplanned pregnancy — and the arithmetic that makes all three connected Lena is 20 in Athens — working a supermarket job, living in a cramped and tense family home, saving to move out. She gets fired. She finds out she is pregnant. The collision of these two facts is the film's entire engine: a realistic, anthropocentric portrait of a young woman surrounded by immature adults, navigating precarity without safety nets in contemporary G

A reflective drama where fashion, identity, and mortality intertwine Maxine, an American filmmaker, arrives in Paris during the intensity of Fashion Week — a world defined by beauty, precision, and relentless motion. Beneath the surface of this glamorous environment, however, she faces a deeply personal and life-altering reality that forces her to confront her own identity, purpose, and mortality. As she navigates the industry’s chaos, her internal journey becomes just as urg

A swim coach, a van, and everything a man refuses to let anyone see Gideon is a passionate swim coach and a devoted father to his daughter Faith — and he is secretly homeless, living out of his van in Saint John, New Brunswick. Set across two parallel timelines spanning the early COVID-19 lockdowns and their aftermath, the film follows his deepening isolation, his unlikely bond with Navleen who faces her own housing precarity, and the quiet battle to hold on to a version of h

Faith, chaos, and rebellion collide in a provocative ritual gone wrong An amateur village staging of the Passion of Christ begins as a traditional religious reenactment. As tensions rise and personalities clash, the performance spirals into something far more chaotic and transgressive. What starts as devotion turns into a surreal rave-like experience. Three contrasting characters become entangled in this escalating breakdown of structure and belief. The narrative blurs the li

A fighter’s fall becomes a journey toward healing and identity Rhiannon Mitchell, a determined MMA fighter, pushes herself through brutal underground fights in pursuit of success. Her physical resilience is tested when repeated concussions threaten to end her career. Forced into an unconventional equine therapy program, she initially resists the process. Gradually, through connection with horses and fellow participants, she begins to confront her emotional struggles. The jour

Afghanistan's first rom-com — and its most urgent love story Naru, the only camerawoman at Kabul's main TV station, is a single mother convinced no good men exist in Afghanistan — until she is thrown into the field with Qodrat, the station's star reporter, as the Taliban closes in and the city runs out of time. Why It Is Trending: Afghanistan's First Rom-Com Opens the Berlinale Berlinale Director Tricia Tuttle called Sadat one of the most exciting voices in world cinema, sayi