Festivals - Cannes 2025: Discover the exceptional members of the 78th Cannes Film Festival

By Mulder, 28 april 2025

Once again this year, the Cannes Film Festival, a veritable institution of the seventh art, is pulling out all the stops for its 78th edition. At the head of the Jury is French icon Juliette Binoche, a choice that is both obvious and fascinating. Throughout her diverse and dazzling career, Juliette Binoche has combined the rigor of the great European masters with the renewed energy of more experimental cinema, as evidenced by her repeated collaborations with Abbas Kiarostami and, more recently, Trần Anh Hùng. We still remember the standing ovation she received for Copie Conforme: a moment suspended in time, as only Cannes and Juliette Binoche know how to create. Her unique ability to navigate between cutting-edge auteur works and more popular offerings makes her a totally legitimate jury president, both unifying and demanding.

Alongside her, Halle Berry brings an electrifying and deeply symbolic touch. The first African-American woman to win the Oscar for Best Actress, Halle Berry is a force of nature, equally at home in intimate dramas and blockbuster blockbusters. Her dazzling performance in John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum recently reminded us how much she can still surprise and dominate the screen with her raw charisma. What many people don't know is that Halle Berry is also an attentive director, as she demonstrated with The Conjuring: The Devil Inside. This experience on the other side of the camera promises particularly rich jury debates, imbued with a deep understanding of acting and directing.

The Jury is also enriched by the unique voice of Payal Kapadia, a true revelation from India. Her Grand Prix in 2024 for All We Imagine as Light is not just an award: it is a renaissance for Indian cinema at Cannes. I remember the endless standing ovation after the screening, the tearful, amazed faces as people left the Debussy theater. Kapadia's view of the world is imbued with a delicate but terribly lucid poetry, and her arrival on this jury sounds like a promise of openness to world cinema that has been marginalized for too long.

It's also impossible not to be excited about the presence of Alba Rohrwacher, an actress whose magnetic subtlety never ceases to captivate. Her artistic complicity with her sister Alice Rohrwacher has given the Cannes Film Festival some of its greatest recent emotions, notably with Les Merveilles and La Chimère. With Alba Rohrwacher, every glance, every silence has weight. She embodies the Italian school of acting, with its restrained emotion, which has always had a special place at Cannes.

The Jury is enriched by the sharp pen and free spirit of Leïla Slimani. Her novel Chanson douce shook French literature with its clinical coldness and relentless efficiency, qualities that are invaluable to a member of the jury. Slimani also brings with her a keen awareness of contemporary social issues, rooted in her dual French-Moroccan heritage. She is an observer of the world, sensitive to social divisions, who could bring a particularly sharp eye to the works in competition.

Dieudo Hamadi, meanwhile, represents an essential part of contemporary African documentary cinema. By giving a voice to the invisible people of the Democratic Republic of Congo, he questions not only his country but also our global relationship with minority narratives. En route pour le milliard was a real shock when it was presented: a film of overwhelming humanity, carried by an unshakeably honest gaze. His presence on the Jury is a strong sign of the festival's openness to less conventional but oh-so-vital narrative forms.

Hong Sangsoo is a living legend for any self-respecting film lover and a discreet but constant pillar of the Cannes Film Festival. His art of repetition and his endless exploration of the micro-variations of everyday life may seem minimalist at first glance, but reveal a disconcerting emotional depth. It is fascinating to think that a director so attached to simplicity will be able to confront his gaze with films that are sometimes very demonstrative; his discreet demands will undoubtedly bring a welcome rigor to the deliberations.

Carlos Reygadas, for his part, embodies audacity and radicalism. We still remember the aesthetic shock of Post Tenebras Lux, a film that deeply divided audiences but never left anyone indifferent. Carlos Reygadas has always focused on sensory, raw, and disconcerting cinema, and it is certain that in a selection as eclectic as that of 
Cannes, his voice will fly high as the standard-bearer of uncompromising creativity.

Finally, Jeremy Strong is the prestigious touch of this Jury: acclaimed for his role as Kendall Roy in Succession, he has demonstrated absolute mastery of nuanced acting, both fragile and intense. His recent career, from The Apprentice to Broadway, confirms that he is at the top of his game, capable of rare emotional acuity. His ability to feel the subtleties of a performance or a script could well make him one of the most insightful jurors of this edition.

This Jury lineup reflects what Cannes aspires to become in 2025: a festival that does not choose between prestige and modernity, between auteur cinema and popular cinema, between the West and the rest of the world. With such strong and diverse personalities, we can expect passionate discussions, strong opinions, and a list of winners that will undoubtedly reflect these troubled but exciting times. May 24, 2025, is already shaping up to be a historic day for the Cannes Film Festival. Who will succeed Sean Baker and his moving Anora? The magic of the festival is precisely that it keeps us in this feverish and wonderful state of anticipation.

Credit for the official posters of the 78th Cannes Film Festival: © Les Films 13 – Un homme et une femme by Claude Lelouch (1966) / Graphic design © Hartland Villa

(Source: press release)