2025 Cannes: Critics’ Week Lineup Includes Sean Baker-Written Feature and a Dialogue-Free, Post-Apocalyptic Animated Film
Cannes Critics’ Week, the festival sidebar spotlighting first and second features, has revealed the 11 competition and special screenings titles for its 64th edition running May 14-22, including a new film written by recent four-time Academy Award Sean Baker (Anora).
Shih-Ching Tsou, who co-directed 2004’s Take Out with Baker, has co-written her debut fiction feature Left-Handed Girl with the Oscar winner, who is also the film’s editor. Tsou also produced and cast the film, which tells the story of a single mother and her two daughters return to Taipei after several years of living in the countryside to open a stand at a buzzing night market.
The sidebar will open with Belgian filmmaker Laura Wandel’s second feature Adam’s Interest, set in a hospital paediatric ward about a distraught mother, her malnourished son and the nurse who looks after them. It stars Léa Drucker and Anamaria Vartolomei.
Critics’ Week will close with Japanese director Momoko Seto’s animated feature Dandelion’s Odyssey about the journey of four dandelions who survive a nuclear explosion and search for a place to replant. Reminiscent of last year’s Flow, the film is also dialogue-free and one to watch out for.
Seven films will compete for in competition awards, presided by a jury headed up by Spanish filmmaker Rodrigo Sorogoyen. Five of those are first films that will compete for the Camera d’Or. Six films in the lineup are directed by women.
Here is the complete lineup and film descriptions of the 64th Critics’ Week section of the Cannes Film Festival.
Competition
A Useful Ghost/Pee Chai Dai Ka (Thai-Fr-Sing-Ger)*
Dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
March is mourning his wife Nat who has recently passed away due to dust pollution. He discovers her spirit has returned by possessing the vacuum cleaner. Being disturbed by a ghost that appeared after a worker’s death shut down their factory, his family reject the unconventional human-ghost relationship. Trying to convince them of their love, Nat offers to cleanse the factory. To become a useful ghost, she must first get rid of the useless ones.
Kika (Belg-Fr)
Dir. Alexe Poukine
While pregnant with her second child, Kika faces the sudden death of her partner. Totally heartbroken, and broke, she sets her priorities straight : 1. make money fast 2. stay strong. Dirty underwear, dildos and neurotic parents will unexpectedly help.
Sleepless City/Ciudad Sin Sueño (Sp-Fr)*
Dir. Guillermo Galoe
Toni, a 15-year-old Roma boy, lives in the largest illegal slum in Europe, on the outskirts of Madrid. Proud to belong to his family of scrap dealers, he follows his grandfather everywhere. But when demolition companies start closing in on their land, the family is divided: while some decide to move to the city, his grandfather refuses to abandon their land. Night after night, Toni must make a choice: leap into an uncertain future, or hang on to the world of his childhood.
Nino (Fr)*
Dir. Pauline Loquès
In three days, Nino will face a major challenge. But first, his doctors have assigned him two vital tasks. Two missions that will lead the young man on a journey through Paris, compelling him to reconnect with the world – and himself.
Reedland/Rietland (Neth-Belg)*
Dir. Sven Bresser
Upon discovering the lifeless body of a young girl on his land, Johan – a reclusive farmer – is overcome by a strange feeling. As he is taking care of his granddaughter, he sets off on a quest for truth, determined to uncover the key to this tragedy. But evil sometimes lurks behind the most ordinary forms…
Imago (Fr-Belg)
Dir. Déni Oumar Pitsaev
I received a letter from Pankissi, Georgia, a valley at the foot of the Caucasus, right by the Chechnyan border, where I was born. In exile, I am thinking of building a house in this remote place, inhabited by descendants of my Chechen clan. But how could I possibly live in such a place?
Left-Handed Girl (Taiwan-Fr-US-UK)
Dir. Shih-Ching Tsou
A single mother and her two daughters return to Taipei after several years of living in the countryside to open a stand at a buzzing night market. Each in their own way, will have to adapt to this new environment to make ends meet and succeed in maintaining the family unity. Three generations of family secrets begin to unravel after the youngest daughter who’s left-handed is told by her traditional grandfather to never use her “devil hand”.
Special screenings
Adam’s Interest/L’intérêt d’Adam (Belg-Fr) – Opening Film
Dir. Laura Wandel
Following a court ruling, four-year-old Adam is hospitalized for malnutrition. Lucy, he head nurse, allows Adam’s mother to stay past the court-mandated visiting hours. Complications ensue when the mother, once again, refuses to leave her son’s bedside. For the sake of the child, Lucy will do anything to help this mother in distress.
Baise-en-Ville (Fr)
Dir. Martin Jauvat
Sprite, 25, is desperate to find a job. To work, he needs a driver’s licence; and to pay for his driver’s licence, he needs a job. He is hired by a startup that cleans villas after parties; but how can he possibly commute late at night in suburbs with insufficient public transportation? On the advice of Marie-Charlotte, his driving instructor, he signs up for a dating app to charm young women living close to the houses he has to clean. One small problem: Sprite is not really one to seduce.
Love Letters/Des preuves d’amour (Fr)*
Dir. Alice Douard
Céline is expecting her firstborn. But she’s not the one who’s pregnant. In three months, her wife Nadia will give birth to their daughter. Under the gaze of her friends, her mother, and the law, Céline looks for her place and sense of legitimacy.
Dandelion’s Odyssey/Planètes (Fr-Belg) – Closing Film*
Dir. Momoko Seto
Dendelion, Baraban, Léonto and Taraxa – four dandelion achenes that survive from a series of nuclear explosions destroying Earth – are propelled into the cosmos. After crash-landing on an unknown planet, they set out in search of soil where their species might survive. However, they must face countless obstacles: the elements, fauna, flora, the climate.
*first film
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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