Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas (left), Stellan Skarsgard and Renate Reinsve strike a pose as they leave the premiere of the film Sentimental Value at Cannes on May 21.Lewis Joly/The Associated Press
This year’s Cannes Film Festival opened with Robert De Niro basically burning U.S. President Donald Trump in effigy and closed with beloved Oslo auteur Joachim Trier stunning attendees with Sentimental Value, a multigenerational domestic drama starring Renate Reinsve and Stellan Skarsgard – in other words, the full circle of international cinema.
There were many moments over the course of Cannes in which it felt like the world of film – the economics, the politics of both geographical and sexual variety – was eclipsing the actual films on display. But the town‘s feverish energy confirmed that theatrical cinema isn‘t going anywhere. No matter how hard Netflix tries to convince us otherwise.
Barry Hertz: At Cannes, the global film industry contends with its very own impossible mission
Ahead of the festival’s big awards ceremony Sunday, during which the jury led by Juliette Binoche will hand out the prestigious Palme d’Or, The Globe and Mail presents the best, worst and most je-ne-sais-quoi moments of the 78th edition of Cannes.
Divide and conquer
Operating on the maxim that it would be dreadfully boring if everyone agreed on everything all the time, the Cannes programming team selected a number of highly polarizing titles this year. Perhaps the lineup was simply a reflection of where today’s filmmakers’ heads are at, existentially speaking.
But whatever might be in the auteur water, it was delightful fun to watch critics tear each other to pieces as they defended or pilloried a rash of divisive features: Ari Aster’s abrasive but bold pandemic satire Eddington, Julia Ducournau’s wonderfully ambitious AIDS crisis metaphor Alpha, Lynne Ramsay’s feral relationship drama Die, My Love, and Juno Mak’s byzantine noir Sons of the Neon Night (just kidding, no one liked that last one).
America on notice
The major Hollywood studios largely stayed away from Cannes this year – the big exception being Paramount, which made a pit stop during the global tour for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. But the American auteurs so beloved by Cannes who decided to show up did themselves no favours by bringing along thoroughly middling productions. Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, for example, is a huge step down from 2023’s Asteroid City.
Meanwhile, Richard Linklater’s Jean-Luc Godard fan-fiction comedy Nouvelle Vague was fun enough, but ultimately pointless. Christopher McQuarrie’s aforementioned Mission: Impossible sequel? That quickly self-destructed thanks to its hubristic and exhausting length. And then there’s the new Spike Lee joint …
Stars to the rescue
Speaking of which: Lee, who served on Cannes’ jury a few years ago, made his return to the French Riviera with Highest 2 Lowest, his first collaboration in more than two decades with his Malcolm X star Denzel Washington. And thank goodness Washington decided he was up for a reunion, as his thunderous performance as a music mogul caught in a family crisis saves Lee’s sometimes fierce but frequently silly melodrama.
Meanwhile, Jennifer Lawrence similarly rescued Ramsay’s Die, My Love from being an interminable nightmare. Playing a writer and new mother stuck in a crumbling rural house alongside her dirtbag husband (Robert Pattinson), Lawrence gives a genuinely feral performance as a woman and artist far over the edge.
Finally, Hollywood’s man of the moment Paul Mescal helped director Oliver Hermanus’s frequently dry and dusty queer romance The History of Sound from silencing itself. Mescal’s role as a gifted Southern musician forever chasing a lost love across decades is a truly powerful performance to behold, elevating the film all the way to its soulful, stirring finale.
Canada on the Croisette
Such Canadian habitués of Cannes as David Cronenberg, Atom Egoyan, Denis Villeneuve and one-time festival darling Xavier Dolan sat this festival out. Which only left room for emerging Canadians to take the spotlight. Anne Emond’s doom-tinged romantic comedy Amour Apocalypse is anchored by a tremendous lead performance from Quebec’s Patrick Hivon. Meanwhile, Canadian screenwriter Nick Lepard surprised everyone with his wild serial-killer-but-with-sharks thriller Dangerous Animals, which whipped up the late-night crowds.
But the greatest Canadian gem was easily Lloyd Lee Choi’s feature directorial debut Lucky Lu, which played the Directors’ Fortnight sidebar program. While technically not a Canadian production (it was shot in New York and funded with U.S. money), the ticking-clock drama is such a jittery, high-energy and deeply empathetic work that Canadians should claim it as ours all the same.
Hidden gems
Almost every film festival offers the same conundrum: too many movies, not enough time. Which is how I missed such warmly received titles as Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, Óliver Laxe’s Sirat, Trier’s Sentimental Value, and Bi Gan’s Resurrection – I very nearly caught a semi-secret screening of that one, until I was sadly informed that the digital print‘s subtitles were screwed up.
But every missed opportunity offers a hidden one in disguise, leaving me with enough time to catch such smaller but wonderful films as The President’s Cake (the first Iraqi film to ever screen at Cannes), the quietly affecting Japanese drama Brand New Landscape, and the century-spanning German drama Sound of Falling, which is a sleeper Palme d’Or contender.
The unusual suspects
A festival as large and multi-tiered as Cannes attracts all kinds of, let‘s politely say, “curious” side shows and distractions. One of these was the mid-fest appearance of Kevin Spacey, who showed up near the Palais to accept a dubiously awarded honour from an organization called the Better World Fund (your guess is as good as mine). The event had nothing to do with the film festival itself, with organizers merely taking advantage of the location, timing and heavy contingent of visiting press, some of whom were morbidly curious to see what the quote-unquote cancelled actor was up to. The answer: giving a rambling speech comparing himself to the blacklisted 1940s screenwriter Dalton Trumbo.
Barry Hertz’s Cannes Top Five
I saw 20.5 movies during the festival (sorry for bailing on you, Sons of the Neon Night, but it was 1:30 a.m. and you were only harming me by that point). Here are the five best, and when you can hope to catch them in Canadian theatres:
5. The Secret Agent (likely this fall)
4. Eddington (July 18)
3. The Sound of Falling (likely this fall or early 2026)
2. Lucky Lu (unknown, but let‘s make it happen soon)
1. Alpha (later this summer)
