It's not an Indian summer at Cannes 2025

The Hindu

22-05-2025

What the 78th Cannes Film Festival did not expect when it announced a stricter dress code (disallowing nudity and voluminous dresses) was that someone would turn up on the red carpet dressed like a giant bird. The incident occurred on Day 5 at the premiere of the Jennifer Lawrence-Robert Pattinson starrer Die, My Love, a psychodrama about a new mother's descent into mental instability.
A few days later, the no-selfie rule imposed by the festival (in 2018) didn't stop Mission Impossible star Tom Cruise and his team from taking selfies either, some of them with their tongues out in jest. It's quintessential Cannes — no amount of gatekeeping can take away from the glamour and showmanship at the most prestigious film festival in the world.
This year's edition of the festival, which opened on May 13, comes close on the heels of U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement to impose tariffs on movies produced outside the country. What this means for productions that bank on business in the U.S. market remains unclear, but there is palpable trepidation among film executives.
While industry reports suggest that deal makings are sluggish this year, it remains to be seen if the tariff drama is to blame. That said, several critically well-received movies (Brazilian thriller The Secret Agent, multi-generational German drama Sound of Falling, and Richard Linklater's Godard biopic New Wave, to name a few) are playing out alongside Hollywood premieres such as Spike Lee's Highest to Lowest, Ari Aster's Eddington and Kristen Stewart's The Chronology of Water — in and outside of the competition sections. European auteurs, including Joachim Trier, the Dardenne brothers and Julia Ducournau, and acclaimed Iranian directors Jafar Panahi and Saeed Roustaee, have also showcased their work at the festival.
Smaller Indian attendance
'India at Cannes' made headlines last year, with as many as eight films in participation, and Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine As Light winning the Grand Prix. The Indian presence this year is limited to director Neeraj Ghaywan's Homebound, starring Ishaan Khatter, Vishal Jethwa and Janhvi Kapoor. The film, about two childhood friends and their search for dignity via a job in the police force, premiered in the prestigious sidebar section, Un Certain Regard, where it received a 9-minute standing ovation.
Ghaywan is returning to Cannes a decade after his Masaan was screened at the festival and won the FIPRESCI Prize (awarded by the International Federation of Film Critics). Talking about Homebound before its premiere, the filmmaker said, 'I'm hoping to see how the humanity of the film resonates with the rest of the world. I hope people understand and relate with it. I just want people to like it because it took a lot for me to make it — I have taken 10 years for my second film.'
Martin Scorsese is an executive producer for the film, a process that involved Zoom calls, script consultations and elaborate notes, Ghaywan revealed.
Additionally, a newly restored version of Satyajit Ray's 1969 classic, Aranyer Din Ratri, a Walden-esque tale about a group of friends escaping the mundanity of their lives, was screened in the Cannes Classics section. Hollywood filmmaker Wes Anderson called Ray an 'inspiration' in his gushing 10-minute tribute to the filmmaker. He was joined by actors Sharmila Tagore and Simi Garewal, both of whom fondly remembered their work in the film.
Another Indian interaction that got some traction on social media was a video of actor Robert De Niro hugging his Silver Linings Playbook co-star Anupam Kher, ahead of the Cannes screening of the latter's musical drama, Tanvi the Great.
But perhaps the biggest splash this year was filmmaker Payal Kapadia's new role as a jury member — alongside French actor Juliette Binoche, American actors Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong and others. She was in full agreement that judging films competing for the Palme d'Or was a treat. 'I have never had an opportunity to watch all the festival competition films in the past because when you have a movie you are focused on your thing. So, to see this whole curation and discuss it with the jury team has been wonderful,' she told Hollywood Reporter.
Selective highlights?
At the Bharat Pavilion, it is business as usual, with trailer launches, round table discussions and networking sessions. Upcoming films — including the recent Berlinale hit Baksho Bondi, helmed by Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi with Tilottama Shome in the lead, Kher's Tanvi The Great, Neeraj Churi's queer film Sabar Bonda, and Biriyaani director Sajin Baabu's Theater: The Myth of Reality — were introduced at the venue.
While the Pavilion's schedule is packed, one sore point remains that the movies in competition never get enough notice here. An insider observed that the attention reserved for market films (the Marché du Film section) is rarely shared with festival section movies that have earned their entry. In other words, only establishment friendly films are promoted.
Marché du Film is also where producers pay to have private screening of their films for bragging rights, and as expected, hopeful Indian producers flit in and out of meetings to market their work. 'It has been back-breaking and intense but also a gorgeously invigorating festival,' said Smriti Kiran, founder and director of the newly launched production company Polka Dots LightBox.
'As a fairly new film producer and buyer, I spent my time doing meetings, pitching, attending workshops, conversation sessions, shadowing producers and throwing myself into sidebar events to understand the world of co-productions, film grants, distribution and acquisition avenues, script labs and film professional networks that exist across the world,' added Kiran.
Interestingly, any promotion of the only Indian film in competition, Homebound, is conspicuously absent from the festival schedule, though the Pavilion hosted an unplanned last-minute session with Ghaywan and producer Karan Johar, just before the film's premiere. 'The biggest change for India this year at the festival is that Payal Kapadia broke the glass ceiling, and she made it possible for Indian movies to be noticed,' Ghaywan observed.
For the film's lead actor, Ishaan Khatter, fresh from the publicity of his new Netflix series The Royals, Cannes is a 'full circle' moment. 'Cannes being the Mecca of film festivals, it was always a dream to go there with a film. It's everything and more I could have hoped for. The energy there was so beautiful, people genuinely care about cinema with a passion,' he said.
Another notable appearance at Cannes is by director Honey Trehan, to drum up support for his 2023 film, Punjab '95. Trehan's biopic of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra, starring Diljit Dosanjh, was announced as a line-up at the 2023 Toronto Film Festival, before being pulled out, and is yet to be released in India over censorship troubles.
Trehan said his urgent need is to not let the buzz around the film die and to clear a path for at least an international release. 'It's not just my film,' said the filmmaker. 'Movies like Santosh [which had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes last year, where it received positive reviews], have also not been released in India because the government feels the subject is controversial. Throttling artistic freedom in the name of censorship is detrimental to good art. Good cinema needs to reflect historical truths and lived realities of our people.'
Leading to the Oscar buzz
At Cannes, sometimes contenders that could win the prestigious Palme d'Or take their time to emerge during the two weeks of the festival. At the time of this article going to press, a Ukrainian film called Two Prosecutors, about life in the Soviet Union under Stalin's rule, was creating a buzz for the big prize, according to the critics jury grid by Screen magazine. The same could be said of Iranian auteur Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident, with the director himself travelling to Cannes, a rarity that attracted much attention.
This year, there are 22 films in the main competition section dominated by Hollywood and European movies, with two Iranian films, one Japanese film and one Brazilian film in the roster. Several festival goers, however, aren't fully convinced about the output. 'This is a festival about which I am very divided,' said Freddy Savalle, a legal executive with a French production company.
'The Japanese offered contemplative films that bored me considerably, but there has been a very good selection of French and even Belgian movies. What I regret, and it is often the case every year, is that the festival invites prestigious directors, who have nothing new to say, or who repeat themselves, like Wes Anderson, for example. They are invited only because they are big stars and because they have had success in the past,' said Savalle.
Anderson's film, an adventure caper in his typical idiosyncratic fashion, comes with gorgeous sets and excellent casting as expected, and a tiresomely familiar narrative. Critics are divided. According to BBC's Nicholas Barber, 'The good news is that The Phoenician Scheme is one of Anderson's funnier films, with a commitment to knockabout zaniness which lets you smile at the Anderson-ishness rather than simply roll your eyes at it.'
Whether the Cannes to Oscar pipeline will come to pass this year like last is too early to tell. There isn't an Anora or Emilia Perez yet, but among the promising films premiered is queer drama, The History of Sound, by Oliver Hermanus; Mastermind by American indie darling Kelly Reichardt; and Woman and Child by the Iranian director Saeed Roustaee.
Closer home, will Ghaywan's Homebound, for instance, replicate the success of his debut film, Masaan? 'It might sound like a cliché but I genuinely do not expect the film to win anything,' Ghaywan said. 'I don't want to put any pressures or expectations on it, I'm just very glad it's here because I think it deserves to be,' added Khatter. Even if Homebound doesn't win anything, Bollywood can be proud it produced these talents.
The writer is a Düsseldorf, Germany-based journalist.