April 15, 2025
NEW DELHI – After years of drought when India went missing at the Cannes Film Festival, the nation of 2000-odd annual movie production (the largest anywhere in the world if you do not consider Nigeria, which of course makes more films but for television) seems to be determinedly worming its way into the French Riviera – in the south of France known for its rich playboys, opulent casinos, pulse-pounding motor racing and, of course the Queen of Movie Festivals.
This year, India’s Homebound by Neeraj Ghaywan will be part of the 12-day Festival’s Un Certain Regard – the second most prestigious category after Competition. This was announced in Paris on Thursday by the Festival’s Delegate-General Thierry Fremaux and President Iris Knobloch.
Ghaywan’s debut feature, Masaan, was also selected for the Un Certain Regard category in 2015, and It won the Special Prize.
Last year, Sanjay Suri’s Santosh was part of Un Certain Regard.
Also, last year saw, India’s Payal Kapadia arriving at the Croisette (Cannes’ beachfront with its Palace where the Festival takes place) with her story of two lonely nurses in Mumbai, All We Imagine As Light. It competed at the Festival and won the second-highest award after Palm d’Or – the Grand Prix. The Cannes Competition saw an Indian entry after three decades, the last to be seen being Shaji N Karun’s Swaham in 1994.
Some of the titles in this year’s competition are by legendary auteurs – like Kelly Reichardt (The Mastermind, a heist adventure unfolding during the Vietnam war), Norway’s Joachim Trier (Sentimental Value coming after his triumphant The Worst Person of the World), controversial Iranian director Jafar Panahi (A Simple Drama), two-time Palme d’Or clinchers Dardenne Brothers (The Young Mother’s Home about Belgium’s social realism), South African director Oliver Hermanus (The History of Sound, a World War I romance on the road) and France’s Dominik Moll (Dossier 137, a crime caper).
Some subjects this time seem like shockers. Julia Docournau, who walked away with the Palm in 2021 for her Titane (an explosive body horror), will this time present in competition Alpha – which follows an 11-year-old girl who is shunned by her classmates after she is rumoured to be carrying a new disease.
The Un Certain Regard category, which comprises the first and second films of promising directors, also includes Scarlett Johansson’s helming debut Eleanor the Great, Morad Mostafa’s Aisha Can’t Fly Away, Tarzan Nasser’s and Arab Nasser’s Once Upon A Time In Gaza, Harris Dickinson’s Urchin and Kei Ishikawa’s A Pale View of the Hills.
Also to be seen at Cannes will be Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, and Ari Aster’s Eddington.
Finally, Tom Cruise will be back at Cannes for the world premiere of Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.
Here is the full list of Cannes titles:
COMPETITION
Alpha, Julie Ducournau
Dossier 137, Dominik Moll
The Eagles of the Republic, Tarik Saleh
Eddington, Ari Aster
Fuori, Mario Martone
The History of Sound, Oliver Hermanus
La Petite Derniere, Hafsia Herzi
The Mastermind, Kelly Reichardt
Nouvelle Vague, Richard Linklater
The Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson
Renoir, Chie Hayakawa
Romeria, Carla Simone
The Secret Agent, Kleber Mendonça Filho
Sentimental Value, Joachim Trier
A Simple Accident, Jafar Panahi
Sirat, Oliver Laxe
Sound of Falling, Mascha Schilinksi
Two Prosecutors, Sergei Loznitsa
Young Mothers, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Aisha Can’t Fly Away, Morad Mostafa
Eleanor the Great, Scarlett Johansson
Heads or Tails?, Alessio Rigo de Righi, Matteo Zoppis
Homebound, Neeraj Ghaywan
Karavan, Zuzana Kirchnerová
L’inconnu de la Grande Arche, Stéphane Demoustier
The Last One for the Road, Francesco Sossai
Meteors, Hubert Charuel
My Father’s Shadow, Akinola Davies Jr
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo, Diego Céspedes
Once Upon A Time In Gaza, Tarzan Nasser and Arab Nasser
A Pale View of the Hills, Kei Ishikawa
Pillion, Harry Lighton
The Plague, Charlie Polinger
Promised Sky, Erige Sehiri
Urchin, Harris Dickinson
OUT OF COMPETITION
Colours of Time, Cedric Klapisch
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, Christopher McQuarrie
Partir un jour, Amélie Bonnin – opening film
The Richest Woman in the World, Thierry Klifa
Vie Privée, Rebecca Zlotowski
SPECIAL SCREENINGS
Bono: Stories of Surrender, Andrew Dominik
The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol, Sylvain Chomet
Tell Her I Love Her, Romane Bohringer
MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS
Dalloway, Yann Gozlan
Exit 8, Kawamura Genki
Songs of the Neon Night, Juno Mak
CANNES PREMIERE
Amrum, Fatih Akin
Connemara, Alex Lutz
The Disappearance of Josef Mengele, Kirill Serebrennikov
Orwell: 2+2 =5, Raoul Peck
Splitsville, Michael Angelo Covino
The Wave, Sebastián Lelio
(The writer is a senior movie critic and author)