The curtain has fallen, the Palme d’Or has been awarded, and the French Riviera is quiet once more, but the echoes of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival will ripple through cinema for months to come.
After twelve days of premieres, politics, power outages, and Palme-worthy storytelling, the 78th edition of Cannes has officially come to a close, and with it, one of the most electric festival line-ups in recent memory. The spotlight was fierce, the jury uncompromising, and the red carpet thrummed with buzz about both seasoned auteurs and fearless first-timers.
This year’s top prize — the coveted Palme d’Or — went to Iranian master Jafar Panahi for It Was Just an Accident, a tense, emotionally raw drama that left critics shaken and audiences breathless. But that wasn’t the only story worth telling. From Nadia Melliti’s breakout performance in The Little Sister to Wagner Moura’s haunting turn in The Secret Agent, the festival was flush with fierce competition and unexpected wins.
French icon Juliette Binoche led a powerhouse jury, flanked by the likes of Halle Berry, Payal Kapadia, and Jeremy Strong, to decide among 22 In Competition films, while the Immersive and Un Certain Regard selections stretched the boundaries of what cinema can mean in 2025.
With career-defining performances, visionary debuts, and a few curveballs along the way, this year’s Cannes was anything but predictable. Whether you’re tracking future Oscar contenders or just catching up on who made waves in the South of France, we’ve got you covered.
See all the winners from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival below!
In Competition
Palme d’Or
Jafar Panahi for It Was Just an Accident
Grand Prix
Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value
Jury Prize
Oliver Laxe for Sirât
Mascha Schilinski for Sound of Falling
Best Director
Kleber Mendonça Filho for The Secret Agent
Best Screenplay
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne for Young Mothers
Best Actress
Nadia Melliti for The Little Sister
Best Actor
Wagner Moura for The Secret Agent
Prix Spécial Prize
Resurrection, dir: Bi Gan
Camera d’Or for Best First Film
The President’s Cake, dir: Hassan Hadi
– Special Mention: My Father’s Shadow by Akinola Davies Jr.
Palme d’Or for Best Short Film
I’m Glad You’re Dead Now, dir: Tawfeek Barhom
– Special Mention: Ali by Adnan Al Rajeev
Honorary Palme d’Or
Robert De Niro
Denzel Washington
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard Prize
La Misteriosa Mirada Del Flamenco (The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo) by Diego Céspedes
Jury Prize
Un Poeta (A Poet), Simón Mesa Soto
Best Director
Arab & Tarzan Nasser for Once Upon a Time in Gaza
Best Actor
Frank Dillane in Urchin, directed by Harris Dickinson
Best Actress
Cleo Diára in O Riso e a Faca (I Only Rest in the Storm), directed by Pedro Pinho
Best Screenplay
Pillion, Harry Lighton
Cinéfondation
First Prize
First Summer by Heo Gayoung (KAFA, South Korea)
Second Prize
12 Moments Before the Flag-Raising Ceremony by Qu Zhizheng (Beijing Film Academy, China)
Third Prize
Ginger Boy (Separated) by Miki Tanaka (ENBU Seminar, Japan)
Winter in March by Natalia Mirzoyan (Estonian Academy of Arts, Estonia)
Immersive Competition
From Dust by Michel van der Aa
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