The 15 Best Films From Cannes 2025
Hello! I'm Esther Zuckerman, a film critic for Pursuits, and I've just spent about two weeks at the Cannes Film Festival, which ends tonight. So what does that mean? Well, I saw more than 30 films in the lineup (including some pre-screenings back at home in New York), I drank a lot of rosé, I went to a bunch of beach parties, and I have a lot of opinions.
Cannes is a festival known for its impossible glamour. After all, the premieres are black-tie affairs with strict dress codes. (This year nudity and volume were banned.) Meanwhile, anywhere you look on the Croisette you might see a celebrity. I never caught sight of Charli XCX, but she was bouncing around and chronicling her opinions on Letterboxd. I did spot Jason Momoa walking down the street, and he was massive. But for all the silliness outside the venues, inside the movies are typically extreme and intense.
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Summer 2025 is coming. It needs a name.
We independently evaluate the products we review. When you buy via links on our site, we may receive compensation. Read more about how we vet products and deals. Summer 2024 was slime green — edgy, messy and ready to party long after clubs had closed. It was also self-aware, slightly depressed and anxious about the future. Charli xcx's culture-defining album Brat embraced 'bumpin' that,' playing 'club classics' and examining how 'the apple don't fall far from the tree.' Even Kamala Harris was brat. It was Brat Summer for a few fleeting months, then it was nothing. As the weather gets warmer, the days get longer and social media feeds flood with vacation photos, the pressure is on to pick a name for summer 2025. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Charli (@charli_xcx) Before Brat Summer, other years were dubbed Tomato Girl Summer (2023), Barbie Summer (also 2023), Rat Girl Summer (2023), White Boy Summer (2021, before it was co-opted by hate groups) and the Summer of Scam (2018). I remember Mamma Mia Summer in 2018 and Pokémon Go Summer in 2016. Depending on your social media algorithms, which have become more personalized over the years, you might have seen a different trend get anointed. But just as the seasons change, the summer branding must also. Charli xcx herself has declared the Brat era over — we are formally not allowed to revive it in 2025. At Coachella in April, she proposed 26 options for the season, based around musicians and filmmakers with forthcoming releases: Lorde Summer, Addison Rae Summer, Celine Song Summer and Joachim Trier Summer, to name a few. letterboxd member @charli_xcx has spoken 👀 what summer are you going to have?#Coachella — Letterboxd (@letterboxd) April 20, 2025 But why does summer need a name at all? Valerie Fridland, a linguistics professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, told Yahoo Entertainment that the trend is a 'quick and dirty callout to the season's cultural moment.' 'By naming or assigning a label to something, it fixes or sets that shared experience as something relatable and easily referenced by others,' she said. 'Language is all about expressing collective experience and shared ethos — and summer, with its long days, hanging out, fun in the sun, laid-back vibes, is something we've been enculturated to identify and feel good about since we were little.' Brat Summer was one of the last times since Hot Girl Summer in 2019 that one unifying summer name emerged over dozens of others. Alfred Goldberg, a brand strategist, told Yahoo Entertainment that the Megan Thee Stallion-inspired trend kicked off a new summer naming craze because it tapped into 'both personal branding and cultural zeitgeist.' 'That shift really came with the rise of social media and meme culture, where everyone can participate in shaping a seasonal narrative,' he said. Algorithms are partially to blame, but because the compulsion to name summer is tied to emotion and community, it can also be a personal exercise. What you are seeing on your own feed shapes your perception of culture and how you portray yourself in your own posts. Weirong Li, a Gen Z communications strategist and emotional intelligence coach, told Yahoo Entertainment that naming summer is a way for people — particularly younger generations — to engage in 'emotional self-branding.' 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'While Brat Summer and Hot Girl Summer are obviously marketing strategies, there is a level of comfort in being able to capture a collective mood and cultural rallying cry,' she said. 'Social media gives people the tools to remix a summer label into something personal: Goblin Mode Summer, Soft Girl Summer, Delulu Summer — each one tweaks the archetype, individualizing a person's experience, mood, values and humor.' So what will summer 2025 be named? Look to whatever is identified by a cultural tastemaker, amplified by algorithms and sustained by brands over the next few weeks. I'm partial to Joachim Trier Summer myself, coming off my trip to the Cannes Film Festival where the filmmaker declared 'tenderness is the new punk.' But I wouldn't mind Sardine Girl Summer, either.
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Exciting Aryna Sabalenka Announcement Made Amid French Open
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PHOTO COLLECTION: Best of French Open Tennis Fourth Round
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