Cannes Winners: Palms from Panahi to "Panda"
Sunday, May 25, 2025 at 3:33PM by Nathaniel R
Still from "Sentimental Value"
Herewith a list of all the films that won prizes at Cannes. Some of these will come to the US this year. Others will surely be held until 2026 (the whims and vagaries and troubles of distribution). A select few will probably compete for attention at the Oscars in one category (Best International Feature Film) or another (what's this year's Anatomy of a Fall?)
The winners, what the films are about, and possibilities for Oscar submissions are after the jump...
MAIN COMPETITION
Actress Juliette Binoche (France) presiding
PALME D'OR - It Was Just An Accident (Iran) -Jafar Panahi
A minor accident has escalating consequences. (105 minutes)
GRAND PRIX - Sentimental Value (Norway) - Joachim Trier
Norway's greatest director is back with a story about two sisters (Reinata Reinsve & Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) and their estranged father (Stellan Skarsgård) a film director. An American star (Elle Fanning) is dropped ino this family dynamic, too. Will we see Trier compete for the Oscar again? We think we will. In fact even prior to its premiere at Cannes it's in the still-in-progress April Fools Oscar prediction charts. Yes, it's late May. We'll get those up soon! (2 hrs and 15 minutes)
JURY PRIZE (tie) - Sound of Falling (Germany) - Mascha Schilinski
Four women in different time periods spend their youth on the same farm. (2 hrs and 29 minutes)
AND... - Sirât (Spain) - Oliver Laxe
Sergi López, star of both spanish and french-anguage cinema, headlines this unpredictable film about a father and his son trying to find their daighter/sister in southern Morocco. (2 hrs)
BEST DIRECTOR - The Secret Agent (Brazil) - Kleber Mendonça Filho
Set in 1977, this film is about a technology expert on the run during carnival week. Filho has had two of his features submitted to the Oscars by Brazil (Neighbouring Sounds and Pictures of Ghosts) but neither were nominated. His most famous feature here in the US is Aquarius (2016) which was widely tipped to be an Oscar contender but which Brazil famously snubbed due to political upheavals. Brazil won their very first Oscar in Best International Feature this past season (I'm Still Here). Will The Secret Agent be submitted as chaser? We shall see. (2 hrs and 38 minutes)
BEST SCREENPLAY - Young Mothers (Belgium) - Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne
The Dardennes surely hold some kind of record for how many different Cannes ceremonies they've won awards at. Their letest is about a shelter for young mothers. Four of the Dardenne brothers previous features have become Oscar submissions for Belgium (Rosetta, The Son, The Child, Two Days One Night) though the Academy doesn't share Cannes deep affection for their filmography as none were nominated. (104 minutes)
BEST ACTRESS - Nadia Melliti in The Last One (France)
A coming of age drama about a the youngest daughter from a French-Algerian family starting university in Paris. This film also won the Queer Palm. (106 minutes)
BEST ACTOR - Wagner Moura in The Secret Agent (Brazil)
Yay! We've loved this tri-lingual Brazilian actor since Futuro Beach (2014) and it's wonderful to see his career going to strong, internationally, ever since.
SPECIAL PRIZE - Resurrection (China) - Bi Gan
Set in a world where humans have lost the ability to dream. (2 hrs and 40 minutes)
UN CERTAIN REGARD
Writer/Director Molly Manning-Walker (UK) presiding...
UN CERTAIN REGARD - The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Chile) Diego Céspedes
Set in 1982, it involves a pre-teen trying to figure out the truth when a deadly disease begins to spread. (104 minutes)
JURY PRIZE - A Poet (Colombia) -Simón Mesa Soto
A poetry obsessed man mentors a teenage girl with a gift for poetry. (2 hours)
BEST DIRECTING - Tarzan Nasser and Arab Nasser for Once Upon a Time in Gaza (Palestine)
A student and a restaurant owner peddle drugs with falafel sandwiches. The Nasser brothers, who are identical twins, are best known for their previous feature, Gaza Mon Amour, which was an Oscar submission in its year. (90 minutes)
BEST ACTRESS - Cleo Diára for Laughter and the Knife (Portugal)
An engineer travelling to Guinea Bissau befriends two locals, all of them contending with how their identities are shaped by a globalized world. Directed by Pedro Pinho (3 hrs and 21 minutes)
BEST ACTOR -Frank Dillane for Urchin (UK)
A drama about a self-destructive unhoused man. Thirty-four year old Frank Dillane is most famous stateside for the TV series Fear of the Walking Dead and as the teenage Tom Riddle in Harry Potter and he's also the son of the great British actor Stephen Dillane. This is a feature directorial debut for the actor Harris Dickinson (Babygirl, Triangle of Sadness). (99 minutes)
BEST SCREENPLAY - Harry Lighton for Pillion (UK)
A drama about a BDSM relationship. Alexander Skarsgard plays a leathered up biker, and Harry Melling, who falls hard for him, is the protagonist. This is Lighton's feature directorial debut. (1 hr and 43 minutes)
CAMERA D'OR - Debut films
Writer/Director Alice Rohrwacher (Italy) presiding...
"The President's Cake"
CAMERA D'OR - The President's Cake (Iraq/Qatar) Hasan Hadi
A 9 year old girl is forced to bake a cake to celebrate Sadam Hussein's birthday. This feature played in Directors' Fortnight and is the first Iraqi feature to compete at Cannes! (102 minutes)
SPECIAL DISTINCTION - My Father's Shadow (UK, Nigeria) Akinola Davies Jr
A father and his two sons travel through the city of Lagos during an election crisis. This debut played in Un Certain Regard. (94 minutes)
LA CINEF - short films
Writer/Director Maren Ade (Germany) presiding...
1ST PRIZE - First Summer (South Korea) - Heo Gayoung
An older woman wants to attend her boyfriend's event rather than her granddaughter's wedding (30 minutes)
2ND PRIZE - 12 Moments Before the Flag-Raising Ceremony (China) - Qu Zhizheng
A flagbearer in a middle-school who wants to withdraw from the duty. (16 minutes)
3RD PRIZE (tie) - Ginger Boy (Japan) - Miki Tanaka
A bank employee moves in with a former highschooler friend after he is transferred to Tokyo for business. (48 minutes)
AND... Winter in March (Estonia) - Natalia Mirzoyan
Animated short about a young couple entering a surreal nightmare outside their home. (16 minutes)
QUEER PALM -LGBTQ+ films from any section
Writer/Director Christophe Honore (France) presiding...
QUEER PALM - The Last One (France) - Hafia Herzi
This freshman at university drama also won Best Actress in the main competition.
SHORT FILM - Bleat! (Malaysia) - Ananth Subramaniam
A Malaysian-Tamil couple discover that their male goat due for slaughter, is.... pregnant? This short played in Critics Week. (15 minutes)
The Queer Palm never gets enough press so for fun (and bookmarking purposes to find them later) the eligible feature films were as follows:
Competition: Alpha (Julia Ducournau), The History of Sound (Oliver Hermanus), The Last One (Hafsia Herzi); Un Certain Regard: Laughter and the Knife (Pedro Pinho), The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo (Diego Cespedes); Cannes Premieres: The Wave (Sebastian Lelio); Critics Week: Proofs of Love (Alice Douard), A Useful Ghost (Thailand); Directors Fortnight: Enzo (Laurent Cantet & Robin Campillo), Her Will Be Done (Julia Kowalski), Sorry Baby (Eva Victor), and ??? Drunken Noodles (Lucio Castro), Laurent in the Wind (Balekdjian, Courture, and Eustachon)
AND FINALLY...
PALM DOG
"The Love That Remains"
Palm Dog - Panda in The Love That Remains (Iceland) - Hylnur Palmason
Panda is a black and white sheepdog. The film was very much a family affair as Palmason cast his own children and Panda who plays "Panda" -- no name change -- is his real dog. The Love That Remains is about a family over the course of the year as the parents separate.
Palmason is easily one of Iceland's finest auteurs. His previous feature Godland played in Un Certain Regard and later was a finalist for the 2023 Oscar for Best International Feature Film (though it sadly missed the nomination). All four of his features have been well received: Winter Brothers (2017), A White White Day (2019), Godland (2022), and now The Love That Remains (2025). He has represented Iceland twice in the Oscar competition with his second and third features. Will Iceland submit him again for his fourth?
Reader Comments (7)
I hate to be a bother, but any word on the predications for the nominations for the 98th Academy Awards now that the 2025 Cannes Film Festival is over?
hmmm, doesn’t seem much of a stretch for panda
An article is calling! Panahi now in one of the directors who won the major prize at Cannes, Venice and Berlin.
I think SV will be a MAJOR player at next year's Oscars and am currently predicting Reinsve, Sarsgaard, Lilleaas, and Fanning to all receive acting nominations.
Will we get April Foolish Predictions or the rest of the FilmBitch Awards first? :)
Tony & Alex -- yes, both are coming soon. Some stuff written that isnt quite ready to post yet. I'm hoping before May ends!
The big question is how much English the presence of Elle Fanning brings to Trier's movie? Will it be enough to remove it from the International Film race?