Cannes Film Festival is the ultimate destination for chic red carpet stars, as well as directors and actors looking for their next big break and story to tell. And 2025's festival is no exception.
So what are the best titles at Cannes this year? Well, it's a big year for Hollywood women behind the camera, as the line-up features both Kristen Stewart and Scarlett Johansson's directorial debuts, The Chronology of Water and Eleanor the Great respectively. Both quite rightly centre female-led stories, one drawing on writer and swimmer Lidia Yuknavitch's memoir and one focusing on an elderly woman's quest for connection in New York City.
As part of GLAMOUR's Sound of the Summer issue, we've curated an essential listening list.
Others to note include BDSM romantic drama Pillion, Elle Fanning's turn in The Worst Person In The World director Joachim Trier's latest title Sentimental Value and Wes Anderson's latest offering The Phoenician Scheme, starring many Hollywood names including Mia Threapleton.
Here's GLAMOUR's round up of the very best films to look out for from Cannes Film Festival 2025.
Sentimental Value
Starring: Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning, Cory Michael Smith, Renate Reinsve
Plot: From the director of The Worst Person In The World, Joachim Trier, we follow the story of two sisters, Nora and Agnes, who reunite with their estranged once-renowned director father. Nora is offered a role in his comeback film, and when she turns it down he gives it to a young Hollywood star, Rachel, played by Elle Fanning. The two sisters must navigate their tricky relationship with their father, with Rachel dropped bang in the middle of the complexity.
Pillion
Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Harry Melling
Plot: Harry Potter's Harry Melling plays a lost young man who finds himself the submissive of a handsome biker, played by Alexander Skarsgård. As he gets deeper into the BDSM dynamic and the core of the biker community, he begins to question what kind of adventure he has embarked on.
Eleanor the Great
Starring: June Squibb, Erin Kellyman, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Plot: Scarlett Johansson's directorial debut (!) follows a friendship formed by Eleanor (Squibb) and a 19-year-old student after she moves to New York after spending seventy years with her best friend. We will see her navigate this new chapter in her life, in the face of loss and the need for transition.
Die, My Love
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Robert Pattinson, Sissy Spacek
Plot: J-Law plays a mother suffering from post-partum psychosis and a marriage breakdown in a remote farm house in Montana. The poignant story is based on the 2017 novel by Argentine author Ariana Harwicz.
Alpha
Starring: Mélissa Boros, Emma Mackey, Tahar Rahim, Golshifteh Farahani
Plot: Set between the 1980s and 1990s, Alpha has been interpreted by critics as an allegoric story of the impact of the AIDS epidemic. Its protagonist Alpha is a troubled teen who returns home with a tattoo on her arm, which causes her mum to fear that she has contracted a new bloodborne disease that turns its victims to marble.
Highest 2 Lowest
Starring: Denzel Washington, A$AP Rocky, Jeffrey Wright, Ilfenesh Hadera
Plot: Spike Lee's reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa's crime thriller film High And Low, set in modern day New York. Denzel Washington plays a music industry mogul named David King who gets caught up in a ransom plot and a life-and-death moral dilemma.
The Chronology of Water
Starring: Imogen Poots, Thora Birch
Plot: Kristen Stewart's directorial debut is based on the memoir of the same name by Lidia Yuknavitch, who wrote about her experiences of abuse during childhood, her ambitions to become a writer and swimmer, as well as her work alongside One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest author Ken Kesey on a collaborative novel.
The Mastermind
Starring: Josh O'Connor, Alana Haim, Gaby Hoffmann, Bill Camp, John Magaro, Hope Davis
Plot: Challengers star Josh O'Connor plays unemployed carpenter JB Mooney, who sets out to steal four paintings, his first big heist. Of course, things don't go to plan.
The Phoenician Scheme
Starring: Mia Threapleton, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Michael Cera, Bill Murray, Riz Ahmed, Bryan Cranston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Benicio del Toro
Plot: Wes Anderson's latest offering sees Benicio del Toro and Buccaneers star Mia Threapleton play father and daughter, with Threapleton's Sister Liesl becoming the sole heir of her family estate. Things go awry when the duo become targets of terrorists and assassins.
The History of Sound
Starring: Paul Mescal, Josh O'Connor
Plot: Based on the novel by Ben Shattuck, historical romantic drama The History of Sound sees Mescal and O'Connor play two men who become determined to document the lives of American countrymen during WW1.
Eddington
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Pedro Pascal, Emma Stone, Austin Butler
Plot: In this psychological Western, Phoenix and Pascal play a small-town sheriff and mayor respectively who end up in a standoff that takes place in May 2020 in New Mexico amidst pandemic-related tensions.
Young Mothers
Starring: Lucie Laruelle, Babette Verbeek, Elsa Houben, Janaïna Halloy Fokan, Samia Hilmi
Plot: Young Mothers (or Jeunes Mères) sees five young teenage mothers – Jessica, Perla, Julie, Naïma and Ariane – fight for a better life for their children from within a shelter.
Urchin
Starring: Frank Dillane, Murat Erkek, Moe Hashim
Plot: Babygirl star Harris Dickinson's directorial debut has been described by the man himself as being about “the people who fall between the cracks” as well as the ways the system can fail people. It follows homeless person Mike, played by Frank Dillane, as he tries to break a cycle of self destruction.
