The 2025 Cannes Film Festival saw a flurry of splashy releases debut on the Croisette—some from beloved auteurs who have already scooped the prestigious Palme d’Or in previous years (Julia Ducournau, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne) and others from those hoping to take it home for the very first time. Then, there were also a number of headline-grabbing performances, from the likes of Die My Love’s Jennifer Lawrence, The History of Sound’s Paul Mescal, The Secret Agent’s Wagner Moura, and Sentimental Value’s Renate Reinsve, which were in contention for prizes, too—with wins here likely to give hopefuls a significant boost ahead of 2026’s awards season.
Considering that last year’s Palme d’Or winner, Anora, went on to collect the best-picture Oscar, as well as the fact that three 2024 prize winners (Sean Baker and Emilia Pérez’s Jacques Audiard and Zoe Saldaña) secured statuettes, and three others (Karla Sofía Gascón, The Seed of the Sacred Fig’s Mohammad Rasoulof, and The Substance’s Coralie Fargeat) received nominations, the stakes were very high indeed.
If that wasn’t enough, the final day of the 78th edition of the French Riviera showcase got off to a bumpy start, too, with a mass power outage across the region, which brought almost everything to a halt. Luckily, though, the lights stayed on inside Cannes’s Palais des Festivals thanks to a generator, which allowed screenings and press conferences to go ahead as planned, and electricity returned just in time for the closing ceremony.
Could its results match the chaos of everything that had come before it? To an extent, yes, with several big surprises.
Below, see all the winners from the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.
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 and 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