The general consensus around the 2025 Cannes Film Festival was that this year’s lineup felt surprisingly muted. Despite the wealth of exciting names both behind and in front of the camera, the disappointment sparked by the bloated and repetitive Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning lingered throughout an edition that never quite caught fire. Still, no Cannes year is ever a wash, and 2025 delivered more than a few standout features that will likely dominate film discourse for the rest of the year.

In compiling a list of 10 titles from Cannes 2025 to watch out for (not ranked by quality), several films immediately rise to the top: Lynne Ramsay’s feverish Die My Love, Jafar Panahi’s sharply observant It Was Just an Accident, Kleber Mendonça Filho’s political thriller The Secret Agent, and Kelly Reichardt’s slow-burn procedural The Mastermind—each marked by a bold directorial voice and lasting impact.

Just outside the top tier, a few honorable mentions still made waves: Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, Sebastián Lelio’s feminist musical The Wave, Spike Lee’s Kurosawa remix Highest 2 Lowest, and Saeed Roustaee’s wrenching melodrama Woman and Child—flawed but fascinating works that sparked discussion both in and out of competition.

Here is our Top 10 from Cannes:
www.highonfilms.com/best-movies-cannes-2025/