The Cannes Film Festival is over. Here’s some key things that happened

By Canadian Press on May 24, 2025.

CANNES, France (AP) — This year’s Cannes Film Festival is over, ending in dramatic fashion with a power outage ahead of the closing ceremony that bestowed the Palme d’Or trophy to Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s film, “It Was Just an Accident.”

This year’s festival included a strong slate as Cannes has become increasingly important to the Oscars’ best picture hopefuls. As the festival drew to close Saturday, it was clear that filmmakers are reckoning with geopolitical doom, climate change and other calamities that closely resemble current events.

This year’s festival was an attention-grabbing affair since its start — from new rules for its red carpets, nerves about potential U.S. tariffs and the return of Tom Cruise.

Even in a normal year, Cannes is a lot to keep up with. Here’s a handy guide of what’s happened so far, what’s left and what it may mean.

An eventful last day

A power outage caused by arson affected southern France on Saturday, leaving Cannes without power. The closing ceremony was never threatened due to an alternate power source but it briefly brought another layer of uncertainty to the 12-day festival.

The awards ended with Panahi’s win for his revenge drama and a call to action by the director, who told The Associated Press earlier in the week he planned to return to Iran after the festival.

“Let us join forces,” said Panahi, who has been blocked from leaving Iran for 15 years. “No one should dare tell us what kind of clothes we should wear, what we should do or what we should not do. The cinema is a society. Nobody is entitled to tell what we should or refrain from doing.”

The Grand Prix, or second prize, was awarded to Joachim Trier’s Norwegian family drama “Sentimental Value,” his lauded follow-up to “The Worst Person in the World.” Some had expected “Sentimental Value” to win the Palme, but Trier — whose film reunites him with actor Renate Reinsve — still took a major prize.

Another big winner was Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Brazilian political thriller “The Secret Agent,” which took home awards for best director for Filho and best actor for Wagner Moura.

What’s happened during Cannes’ second week

Monday brought a pair of surprises thanks to Spike Lee’s latest film, “Highest 2 Lowest.” The first was an honorary Palme d’Or for Denzel Washington, who arrived for the premiere on a whirlwind trip on his only day off from starring in “Othello” on Broadway.

Another surprise came after the movie’s premiere, when Rihanna walked the red carpet with partner A$AP Rocky, who also stars in the film.

Lee explained to AP how “Highest 2 Lowest,” an homage to an Akira Kurosawa film made with Lee’s indelible stamp, relates to the original.

“I grew up with my mother taking me to musicals,” he says. “The Sound of Music” was one. “If you listen to that great song by Rogers and Hammerstein with Julie Andrews singing it. What did Coltrane do to it? That’s my analogy. What Coltrane did to ‘My Favorite Things,’ I think that’s what we did with this.”

One of the festival’s biggest positive receptions came Wednesday for Trier’s “Sentimental Value.”

The film stars Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning and is Trier’s follow-up to 2021’s “The Worst Person in the World.” While predicting what will win the Palme d’Or is notoriously difficult, a win for “Sentimental Value” would mark the first time a Norwegian film took the festival’s top honor.

Fresh off hosting “Saturday Night Live,” Scarlett Johansson premiered her directorial debut, “Eleanor the Great,” in the Un Certain Regard section. The movie is a funny and tender, character-driven, New York-set film starring June Squibb as a woman who coopts her late friend’s Holocaust survival story.

On Thursday evening, many of the stars in the area for Cannes attended the amfAR gala to raise money for AIDS research and prevention effort. Among the notable items up for auction this year: a walk-on role in Lee’s next movie and artwork by James Franco and Adrien Brody.

Some early standout moments from Cannes

Cannes opened last Tuesday with a starry tribute to Robert De Niro, 49 years after “Taxi Driver” won the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or. De Niro used his own honorary Palme to assail U.S. President Donald Trump, a frequent target of his criticism.

He also basked in the adoration of some of film’s elite, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Quentin Tarantino.

Cannes debuted a complex 4K restoration of “The Gold Rush,” one of Charlie Chaplin’s most beloved silent masterpieces, timed to the film’s 100th anniversary. “Our grandfather would be really proud to see this, a hundred years later, to see all you here and interested in seeing the film,” said Kiera Chaplin to a packed screening.

Tom Cruise took the spotlight on Day 2 with the latest “Mission: Impossible” installment, “Final Reckoning.” For such a high-flying franchise, Cruise kept his feet on the ground. That aligned with a recent trend — gone are the days of fighter jet flyovers, Jerry Seinfeld in a bee costume and other big stunts.

That Thursday, news broke that the festival had barred French actor Théo Navarro-Mussy from attending the premiere of the competition entry “Case 137” in what’s believed to be a first for the festival in the #MeToo era. Navarro-Mussy has been accused of rape in a case that remains on appeal.

The next day, Bono premiered his documentary, “Bono: Stories of Surrender.” In a wide-ranging interview, the rock superstar talked about the insights the project has given him (including a deeper appreciation for his late father), his concerns about the dismantling of USAID and his first impression of Pope Leo XIV.

Ari Aster also debuted his COVID-era film “Eddington” to mixed reviews.

Over the weekend, Richard Linklater’s latest, “Nouvelle Vague,” fared better with critics. So too did Jennifer Lawrence’s performance in Lynne Ramsay’s “Die, My Love,” already garnering Oscar buzz. Kristen Stewart, among a spate of actors unveiling their directorial debuts at Cannes this year, premiered “The Chronology of Water” in the festival’s Un Certain Regard section. With her film, Stewart is trying to destroy the myth that directing is for a select few.

“It’s such a fallacy that you need to have an unbelievable tool kit or some kind of credential,” she said. “It really is if you have something to say, then a movie can fall out of you very elegantly.”

“My Father’s Shadow” made history Sunday as the first Nigerian film to play as an official Cannes selection with its debut in the Un Certain Regard section.

“It means a lot to people back in Nigeria. It means we can exist on these platforms and our stories can exist in these spaces,” said director Akinola Davies Jr. “It’s a testament to talent that’s around in Nigeria. It’s a testament to the stories that are there. It’s a testament to the industry that’s flourishing.”

New red carpet rules, and how stars responded

One of the buzziest moves by Cannes this year so far has been its proclamation that nudity is banned by festivalgoers and so too are “voluminous” outfits, in particular those with a large train.

The move to ban nude looks comes amid the “naked dress” trend on red carpets, including Bianca Censori’s Grammys look and many of the outfits worn by Vanity Fair party attendees after the Oscars.

Cannes press officers said last week the festival “made explicit in its charter certain rules that have long been in effect.”

So how did stars at Cannes respond?

Halle Berry, who is on the festival jury headed by Juliette Binoche, told reporters she would abide by it and had changed her opening night look.

While risque looks have been in short supply, there have certainly been some “voluminous outfits,” including dresses worn by Heidi Klum, Chinese actor Wan QianHui and others. Berry stayed within the rules for the final night, but fellow jury member Alba Rohrwacher opted for an outfit with a large pink skirt that created some space between her and her colleagues.

What might Cannes call fowl on next?

People on the carpet in bird costumes, perhaps, as happened when someone dressed as a giant bird appeared at the premiere of “Die, My Love.”

At least it didn’t spread its wings for the cameras.

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For more coverage of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, visit https://apnews.com/hub/cannes-film-festival.

The Associated Press

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