The 78th Festival de Cannes held from 13 to 24 May 2025 was nothing short of glamorous spectacle: from gathering famous figures from the film industry and rather strong presence of Hollywood – to complete electricity blackout on the day of the ceremony, a consequence of a “criminal act”, successfully resolved by the beginning of the award ceremony. However, the most important were the films selected for the main competition (22 in total) of which many are, in one way or another, predestined to be or have potential candidates to become the Oscar laureates.
Besides the Grand Jury led by Juliette Binoche, the Festival hosted several independent Juries – among which is the Ecumenical Jury.[1] INTERFILM and SIGNIS appointed an Ecumenical Jury of six members for the 52nd time who award the prize to a film in the international competition.[2]
Since 1974 the Ecumenical Jury has been contributing to the celebration of cinematic excellence ensuring that films with profound artistic and human qualities receive the attention they deserve.[3] The Ecumenical Jury, of which the author of this text was a member this year, has a distinguished history of honouring films and the auteurs that hold significant importance in the history of cinema such as Rainer Werner Fasbinder (1974), Werner Herzog (1975), Wim Wenders (1984), Andrzej Wajda (1981), Tengiz Abuladze (1987), Krzysztof Kieślowski (1991), Atom Egoyan (2008) and many others. Andrei Tarkovsky is the sole director to have secured the award on three occasions for his Stalker (1979) Nostalghia (1983) and The Sacrifice (1986). Samira Makhmalbaf was the first woman to receive the prize in 2003, followed by Naomi Kawase in 2017 and Nadine Labaki in 2018.
The decision-making process proved challenging, given the calibre and history of the festival, and the jury service itself. This year in less than two weeks the jury was confronted with a diverse and condensed selection of twenty-two films ranging from ‘family in crisis’ stories to open critiques of totalitarianism, political and ideological systems, corruption, pandemics, and terror – often blending these themes – offering a grim perspective on the world with an apocalyptic undertone, yet at the same time featuring stunning cinematography and sound as exemplified by Sirat (2025).
Let us begin in the dark rooms of cinema theatres (Bazin Theatre, Grand Theatre Lumière, Agnes Varda Theatre, Debussy Theatre) and the films of the 78th Cannes Film Festival, which I would like to review.
One of the masterpieces that certainly deserves more credit than it received is Two Prosecutors (Sergei Loznitsa). Based on the novel of Gulag survivor Georgy Demidov the film is set in the year 1937, the year of Stalin’s terror and political persecution of often falsely accused citizens by the NKVD.[4] A young and somewhat naïve prosecutor enters the impenetrable prison to examine the case of the tortured prisoner only to find himself in the bureaucratic maze of the communist party and finally imprisoned. Through slow camera movement, lack of sound, the dark tones and angled shots, the filmmaker creates claustrophobic atmosphere depicting the oppression of a totalitarian system through the haunting story and skilful cinematography. The silence of oppression is disrupted only in one scene when “Loznitsa puts a monologue from Nikolai Gogol’s Dead Souls into the mouth of a passenger in a suffocating compartment, with the intention of showing that terror does not change its vocabulary or form, only the victims constantly change.”[5] The resemblance to documentary form, as many noticed, is not because of his previous works (or documentarist style) but rather it is because of the convincingness of the story that is achieved through the power of cinematic expression, which uses cinematic language to create an atmosphere of fear and a Kafkaesque plot. Perhaps the real question is not whose totalitarian regime he explores but whether totalitarianism here is the heritage of 1917 which pulls all its protagonists into the never-ending circle?
It Was Just an Accident by the brilliant Jafar Panahi – who won the Palme D’Or this year – was another comeback of an auteur whose film is based on a personal encounter with political prisoners and their experiences as well as his own experience of oppression and imprisonment. The film is a strong critique of totalitarianism advocating for freedom of artists, and human dignity, frequently shifting from expected horror to dark comedy, strong storytelling and brilliant cinematography. Panahi filmed, as we learnt, without permission, almost as an act of revenge – only to surprise everyone by posing the most important questions at the end of his film: – what is the difference between victims and perpetrators? – is forgiveness possible? – is true repentance possible? – how can traumas be healed and how can an eternal conflict on a personal level (Cain-Abel) be resolved through acts of mercy?
Another awarded film The Secret Agent by Kleber Mendonça Filho is a story of brutality, fear, displacement and disappearances of the innocent during the dictatorship in Brazil in 1977. The film represents a surprise in the Cannes Festival, an unexpected film that through its multilayered narrative, the incorporation of Spielberg’s Jaws centralises fear of the corrupt and criminalised system in which ordinary people become prey. The director ties corruption and organised crime with the dictatorship signifying that nobody is safe: violence expressed through the surprisingly surreal scene of a ‘hairy leg’ (found in a shark) terrorizing the people gives a new dimension to the theme; the film moves from political thriller to noir and dark comedy.
Eagles of the Republic by Tarik Saleh, an Egyptian and Swedish-based filmmaker, is another take on dictatorship. It is a dark comedy about flamboyant Coptic actor – the Egyptian film star – whose life turns upside down once he is forced to take the role of the president Sissi in a new film. Saleh takes a critical view on Egypt and the corruption tied to political persecution centralising the question of freedom (artistic and individual) at the heart of the story. Yet, according to some critics, the film loses its strength in the moments when it should work differently in its criticism of oppression.
Eddington by Ari Aster – that also fell out of grace with some critics – is a form of a new-Western that blends the issues of contemporary United States realities: from the pandemic, over the political movements and unrest (‘Black lives matter’), conspiracy theories and big corporations to all-American family drama. Interwoven with increasing violence (purposely grotesquely glorified?) and dark humour, it erases the lines between classical good and evil, positive and negative protagonists (‘good cop-bad cop’) leaving the audience with the question of ‘what just happened’ thus sharing collectively Ari Aster’s personal experience of contemporary America.
An important film that questions the reality of Macron’s France is Dossier 137 by Dominik Moll. The leading character, a woman-inspector marvellously played by Léa Drucker, follows the story of police brutality during the yellow-vest protests, revealing the injustice, violence and corruption, marginalisation and an unbridgeable gap between the state and its citizens, the confusion about the protests and their own violence, and the innocents caught in-between stuck with the questions: “do I care for my neighbour and what would a good person do?” Although the film does not take political sides and stays with the innocent and injured, it is a highly controversial theme for France and certainly an honest take on what the society has become, caught in-between the opposing brutalities.
Finally, Sirat by Óliver Laxe completes the opus of the cinematic depictions of the world, and the Western civilization worn out by wars, violence and meaninglessness, which in Sirat turns into an apocalypse. The superb cinematography and sound which from the opening scene of the enormous speakers assembled in the desert reveal reverberations that feel as if the cliffs and canyons are producing them, introduces us to the story of the most unlikely characters who will unite in the unique journey upon the beginning of the war (unknown war in an unknown location and with an unknown army) that turns into a tragedy and literal blast of each of them. The survivors are left with the question “is this how the end of the world feels like?” embarking on another journey with refugees and displaced people in the quietness of the desert and the endless road. In terms of genre, the storyline, development of characters, cinematic endeavour and achievement, Sirat indeed represents something novel and unexpected.
Another surprising film, of completely different subject matter, that will certainly thrive with the audience is Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), the film about Cannes itself and the birth of the French New wave. As some called it – this film is “the love letter”[6] and an homage to Jean-Luc Godard, Truffaut, Rohmer, Rivette, Chabrol, Varda and the inspirational figure of Robert Bresson – whom the auteurs admired. The film focuses on the year 1959, without going beyond it, and Godard’s filming of the Breathless. Linklater reconstructs 1959 making it ‘our present’ and bringing us to the beginnings of low-budget film, hand-held camera, realism and the authenticity of cinematic language of an auteur. Linklater reminds us of what cinema is, what an act of creation is and why we fall in love with cinema after all. It integrates a unique look on the era, and its remarkable optimism for finding the new ways of telling the truth through art. It is a film about the creative process, creation and inspiration which Bresson encourages cinematically and spiritually.
Finally, before turning to the film awarded by the Ecumenical Jury it is only right to remind ourselves of films such as Renoir by Chie Hayakawa, with one of the most charismatic young actresses in the role of the child Fuki, a tender story of life and death, childhood and parenthood. Fuki is faced with the world of adults overburdened by work issues and strange characters, but the real drama is the child coming face to face with the illness and death of her father. It is not the usual ‘coming-of-age’ story, rather it is an impressionistic work, where Renoir’s painting is both a connecting motif and reflection of then-Japanese household fashion, while the mise-en-scène is in dialogue with the emotional state of the characters.
The Ecumenical Jury of the 78th Cannes Film Festival gave their award to the film Young Mothers / Jeunes mères by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne (Belgium / France 2025).
As Philip Mosely argued: “With two Palme d’Or awards at the international film festival in Cannes, France – one for Rosetta (1999), another for L’Enfant (The Child, 2005) – the Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne have joined an elite group (Emir Kusturica, Francis Ford Coppola, Shohei Imamura, Bille August) of two-time winners of the most prestigious prize in world cinema.”[7] This year they have been awarded with the Prix du Scénario for the film Jeunes mères and the major award by the Ecumenical Jury.
As officially stated by the Jury: “The Ecumenical jury gives its prize to a film about the troubles of teenage mothers in a dedicated motherhouse. It finds moral clarity not in grand gestures, but in quiet acts of care. It is a smoothly told story in the best tradition of its authors who once again are able to add new elements to their refined style. The film explores the first and utmost important relationship of every human life, which is motherhood. It touches a profound truth: love can endure even when family – this basic social structure – fails, when circumstances are unfair, when youth is burdened with adult responsibilities. The film proves that even small yet persistent acts of love and care of individuals and institutions can heal the deepest wounds.”[8]
The film is a story of several young mothers, their challenges and fight, the support and the lack of it, and ultimately a story of life against death. According to critics their film is deeply moving but never manipulative, and Young Mothers amounts to the Brothers’ best film in more than a decade.[9] While some critics approach the Dardenne brothers’ work as almost “a documentary”[10], Mosely speaks about the cinema of the Dardenne Brothers as “responsible realism.”[11] The Dardenne Brothers are realists who are “focusing on individuals struggling to survive with a measure of dignity.”[12] Perhaps ‘the secret’ of the Dardenne Brothers is best described in recognising their cinematic “vision” to “empower their protagonists” in order “to liberate them from economic circumstances, personal relationships and mental states that oppress, restrict and destabilise them in one way or another.”[13] A clear connection between film, philosophy and/of ethics[14] in the opus of the Dardenne Brothers is visible not only through themes and protagonists but their unique approach to cinema where film language, camera, editing, mise-en-scène work to create a unique cinematic space[15] which is liberating not just on-screen but also off-screen – for the audience. This is the art that the Ecumenical Jury recognised this year, proving as a vital continuation of its historical role at the Cannes Film Festival.
[1] Lukas Jirsa, President (Czech Republic); Anne-Cécile Antoni (France); Arielle Domon (France); Thomas D. Fisher (Germany); Roland Wicher (Germany) and the author of this text Dr. Milja Radovic (University of Vienna).
[2] https://www.inter-film.org/festivals/festival-de-cannes/78th-festival-de-cannes
[3] https://www.signis.world/news/18-05-2023/the-ecumenical-jury-celebrating-artistic-excellence-and-human-values-at-the-cannes-film-festival/
[4] Народный комиссариат внутренних дел / The People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs, preceded by OGPU (1923-1934), GPU (1922-1923), and Cheka (1917-1922) respectively.
[5] https://radar.nova.rs/kultura-radar/kanski-festival-2025/ My translation.
[6] https://deadline.com/2025/05/nouvelle-vague-review-richard-linklater-cannes-1236402145/
[7] Mosley, Philip. The Cinema of the Dardenne Brothers: Responsible Realism, New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2013.
[8] https://www.inter-film.org/auszeichnungen/25252525/prize-ecumenical-jury-cannes-2025; https://www.signis.world/headline/24-05-2025/dardenne-brothers-win-ecumenical-prize-at-cannes-2025-for-young-mothers/
[9] https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/young-mothers-review-jeune-meres-1236407593/
[10] https://variety.com/2025/film/reviews/young-mothers-review-jeune-meres-1236407593/
[11] Mosley, Philip. The Cinema of the Dardenne Brothers: Responsible Realism, New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2013.
[12] While the brothers are undoubtedly exemplary realist filmmakers, their relation to cinematic realism is as nuanced and complex as the notion itself. Mosley, Philip. The Cinema of the Dardenne Brothers: Responsible Realism, New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2013.
[13] Mosley, Philip. The Cinema of the Dardenne Brothers: Responsible Realism, New York Chichester, West Sussex: Columbia University Press, 2013.
[14] The Dardennes read Levinas’s philosophy in relation to art in a more positive way than does the philosopher himself, and their films articulate a relation between his ethics and cinema that Levinas himself never envisaged. Sarah Cooper. Mortal Ethics: Reading Levinas with the Dardenne Brothers in Film-Philosophy, 11.2 August 2007. King’s College London.
[15] Camera positions of extreme proximity is precisely the creation of a space of responsibility. Sarah Cooper. Mortal Ethics: Reading Levinas with the Dardenne Brothers in Film-Philosophy, 11.2 August 2007. King’s College London.
Photocredits: Robert Rivoira
RaT-Blog Nr. 12/2025