The winner of the main prize of the 78th Cannes International Film Festival - the “Palme d'Or“ will be announced today.
The jury, headed by French actress Juliette Binoche, will have to make the final choice from two dozen films selected by the organizers from almost three thousand feature films watched.
On the last day of the film festival, all the competition films will be shown in several cinemas. The session, which will show the American western “Eddington“ (Eddington, 2025) by director Ari Aster, however, will end after the winner is announced. Last year, the main prize of the competition was awarded to the film “Anora“ (Anora, 2024) by American director Sean Baker.
The names of the favorites are kept secret until the awards ceremony. However, the French media have made their own guesses about the three leading films.
The first is “Sirat“ (Sirat, 2025) by French-Spanish director Olivier Lachet. The film represents the popular road movie genre. The film by Iranian director Jafar Panahi “A Simple Accident“ (Un simple accident, 2025), a large part of which also takes place on the road, was noted by critics for the political views of the author. The action of the "mainstream" Brazilian film, according to critics, directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, "The Secret Agent" (2025), is set in Recife, the "Venice of Brazil", during the era of the military dictatorship. The star of the film, Wagner Moura, is a favorite for the award for best actor. His rival for the award is Joaquin Phoenix, who stars in "Eddington", a modern western in the genre of black comedy, whose action takes place against the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Dardenne brothers' film "Young Mothers" will be screened on the last day of competition. Belgian director Jean-Pierre Dardenne and his younger brother Luc are participating in the Cannes Film Festival for the tenth time. They have already won the “Palme d“Or“ twice and are hoping not to miss out on a third prize. Critics praise the superb cast and the rhythm of the film, which follows the experiences of five young mothers after a major event in their lives. The brothers have once again found their way into the hearts of viewers, according to a reviewer from Elle magazine, who gave the film five stars.
The 78th Cannes Film Festival was marked by a project jointly presented on the sidelines of the festival by the festival's general director Thierry Fremaux and the mayor of the festival capital, David Lisnard. They proposed the creation of an International Museum of Cinema in the city, where extensive documentation of the film festival would be collected. The initiators propose that construction of the museum begin in 2029, when the 82nd edition of the festival is scheduled to take place.
The first Cannes International Film Festival was held on the French Riviera in 1946.