Cannes 2025: Directors’ Fortnight line-up revealed

Posted On April 15, 2025April 15, 2025

The line-up for the Directors’ Fortnight at this year’s Cannes Film Festival has been revealed ahead of the event in May.

The independent sidebar runs alongside the main festival, bringing together established and emerging directorial talent in a celebration of singular cinema. Now in its 57th iteration, this year will open with the coming-of-age film Enzo.

The movie follows a defiant 16-year-old who refuses to bow to his family’s expectations in starting an apprenticeship, where he meets a Ukrainian boy. It was developed and written by late Palme d’Or winner Laurent Cantet prior to his death in April 2024 and then directorial duties were subsequently carried out by collaborator Robin Campillo.

Alongside Enzo, 18 other feature films were announced for the lineup by the French Director’s Guild on April 15th, including the closing picture Sorry, Baby. The movie follows an academic whose life is marred by the occurrence of a traumatic event. It is now backed by production house A24 after its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.

Elsewhere on the lineup, eight of the 18 selected movies come from first-time directors, including The Foxes Round by Valéry Carnoy and The Girl in the Snow by Louise Hémon, respectively.

There is also a concerted focus on showcasing work from those hailing from countries typically underrepresented in the film industry, including The President’s Cake by Iraqi director Hasan Hadi, which follows the story of a young girl forced into making a birthday cake with her friends in celebration of President Saddam Hussein’s birthday during his rule in the 1990s.

The Directors’ Fortnight runs at the Cannes Film Festival from May 14th to May 24th, 2025.

Cannes 2025: Directors’ Fortnight full line-up:

‘Feature Selection’

Enzo – Dirs. Laurent Cantet and Robin Campillo

Peak Everything– Dir. Anne Émond

Brand New Landscape – Dir. Yuiga Danzuka

Middle Class – Dir. Anthony Cordier

Dangerous Animals – Dir. Sean Byrne

The Foxes Round – Dir. Valéry Carnoy

The Girl in the Snow – Dir. Louise Hémon

The Girls We Want – Dir.  Prïncia Car

Girl on Edge – Dir. Jinghao Zhou

Indomptables – Dir. Thomas Ngijol

Kokuho – Dir. Lee Sang-il

Lucky Lu – Dir. Lloyd Lee Choi

Militantropos – Dir. Yelizaveta Smith, Alina Gorlova & Simon Mozgovyi

Miroirs n° 3 – Dir. Christian Petzold

Death Does Not Exist (La Mort N’Existe Pas) – Dir. Félix Dufour-Laperrière

The President’s Cake – Dir. Hasan Hadi

Que Ma Volonté Soit Faite – Dir. Julia Kowalski

Sorry, Baby – Dir. Eva Victor

‘Short and Medium Length Films’

+10K – Dir. Gala Hernández López

Before The Sea Forgets – Dir. Ngọc Duy Lê

The Body – Dir. Louris van de Geer

Bread Will Walk – Dir. Alex Boya

Blue Heart – Dir. Samuel Suffren

Karmash – Dir. Aleem Bukhari

Loynes – Dir. Dorian Jespers

Death of the Fish – Dir. Eva Lusbaronian

Nervous Energy – Dir. Eve Liu

When The Geese Flew – Dir. Arthur Gay