Cannes’ Critics Week Unveils 2025 Lineup

Cannes’ Critics Week has unveiled the lineup of its sixty fourth version, which can be dominated by French and Belgian films, kicking off with Laura Wandel’s tense social drama “Adam’s Curiosity.”

“Adam’s Curiosity” marks Wandel’s comply with as much as “Playground,” which gained a Cannes’ Un Sure Regard prize in 2021. The movie takes place within the pediatric unit of hospital and follows a distraught mom, her son and the nurse who take care of them. “Adam’s Curiosity” stars two of France’s greatest stars, Léa Drucker (“Custody”) and Anamaria Vartolomei (“Taking place”).

Curated by inventive director Ava Cahen and her choice committee, the lineup spans 11 characteristic movies, six of that are directed by girls. As many as 1,000 movies from 102 international locations had been submitted to this yr’s Critics’ Week. The choice is devoted to first and second options, operating alongside the Cannes Movie Competition.

A few of the most anticipated movies within the lineup embody “Left-Handed Lady,” the primary feature-length solo movie by Taiwanese director Shih-Ching Tsou, who co-wrote the movie with Sean Baker (who can be producing).

Cahen stated the movie was a “fast-paced city melodrama,” following the journey of a single mom and her two daughters who’ve not too long ago arrived in Taipei and are struggling to make ends meet. The “tragicomedy progressively metamorphoses into a rare odyssey, filled with twists and turns and feelings that pound the asphalt,” Cahen continued.

One other bold Asian movie slated to compete at Critics’ Week, “A Helpful Ghost” marks the characteristic debut of Thai director Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke. Cahen stated the movie was “an extravagant fiction through which ghosts protest towards being forgotten by reincarnating as family home equipment to draw the eye of the residing and agitate all their particles.” Headlined by Mai Davika Hoorne, the rising star of Thai cinema, “A Helpful Ghost” is each a “social satire and romantic comedy,” says Cahen.

Additionally competing is “Sleepless Metropolis,” the characteristic debut of Spanish director Guillermo Galoe, whose 2023 quick “Aunque es de noche” competed at Cannes and gained a Goya Award. The buddy film filmed in Canada Actual and revolves round two inseparable mates who must say goodbye as a result of considered one of them is transferring away.

Critics’ Week will flip the highlight on rising French filmmakers in particular screenings, notably Alice Douard with “Love Letters,” a drama-comedy about motherhood starring Ella Rumpf and Monia Chokri as a married lesbian couple who’re anticipating their first little one. “One is pregnant, the opposite should take steps to undertake the kid that can be born. All types of adventures ensue, giving rise to a pleasant solid of characters,” stated Cahen, including that movie is “filled with humour and tenderness.”

Cahen and her committee additionally chosen “Baise en ville” for particular screenings. The movie is an offbeat working class comedy directed by Martin Jauvat who additionally stars as a younger unemployed stroller who decides to get his driving licence. As he seems to be for a job to pay for his driving classes, his salvation comes from an unconventional temp company
like no different. The solid is accomplished by two well-liked actors, William Lebghil and Emmanuelle Bercot.

After premiering the Golden Eye-winning documentary “The Nile Women” in 2024, Critics’ Week will this yr showcase “Imago,” directed Chechen director Déni Oumar Pitsaev in competitors. Cahen described it as an “autobiographical documentary filmed with a handheld digital camera and in direct contact with actuality.”

“Imago” follows the director as he units off to construct a futuristic home close to the border of Chechnya, breaking away from traditions. His endeavor sparks a debate inside the household, rekindling previous traumas in his neighborhood.

The sidebar will shut with “Dandelion’s Odyssey,” an anticipated animated characteristic directed by Japanese filmmaker Momoko Seto. Critics’ Week beforehand screened Jeremy Clapin’s Oscar-nominated “I Misplaced My Physique” in 2019.

As beforehand introduced, the jury can be presided over by Rodrigo Sorogoyen and can comprise of Oscar-winning British actor Daniel Kaluuya, Moroccan journalist and songwriter Jihane Bougrine, French-Canadian cinematographer Josée Deshaies, and Indonesian producer Yulia Evina Bhara.

Competitors

“Ciudad Sin Sueño” (“Sleepless Metropolis”), Guillermo Galoe

“Imago,” Déni Oumar Pitsaev

“Kika,” Alexe Poukine

“Left-Handed Lady,” Shih-Ching Tsou

“Nino,” Pauline Loquès

“Pee Chai Dai Ka” (“A Helpful Ghost”), Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke

“Rietland” (“Reedland”), Sven Bresser

Particular Screenings

“Adam’s Curiosity”, Laura Wandel (Opening Movie)

“Baise en ville,” Martin Jauvat

“Love Letters,” Alice Douard