Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest Festival brings to Romania for the first time the films awarded at Cannes in 2025

As every year, Les Films de Cannes also arrives in the country, in Timișoara, Cluj, Iași and Arad, for a memorable meeting between award-winning films, connected to the pulse of the world we live in, and a curious film-loving audience. Previews of the newest Romanian productions are also a section of the festival this year, full of cinematic surprises. The festival’s agenda also includes meetings and debates with filmmakers, as well as events dedicated to the film industry, for actors, directors, screenwriters and producers.

Five cities, nine cinemas, approximately forty films, of which over twenty are premiering in Romania, and over a hundred screenings, this is what this year’s festival map shows.

The audience in Timișoara is expected at Cinema Timiș and Cinema Studio between October 23 and 26. In Cluj-Napoca, Cinema Victoria and Cinema Arta will host the festival between October 30 and November 2. In Iași, Cinema Ateneu will be the festival destination between November 7 and 9, and in Arad, the films will be screened between October 29 and 31, at Cinema Arta.

Winner of this year’s prestigious Palme d’Or trophy, It Was Just an Accident, directed by Iranian Jafar Panahi, will be screened in all the cities where the festival is held. International critics have highlighted the film’s discreet intensity and political charge and noted its moments of black humor and disturbing ending. It Was Just an Accident is a film in which a minor event triggers a series of unexpected events, bringing together three people who have nothing in common, questioning the chain of consequences of this seemingly insignificant fact. Juliette Binoche, president of the jury on the Croisette, praised the film for the way it combines humanity and politics, reflecting a sense of “resistance and survival” so needed today.

Sentimental Value, directed by Joachim Trier and starring Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning, is this year’s Grand Prix winner. The film explores a family’s complex relationship with the past, shared memories and art as a source of reconciliation. The story centers on a father, a director who is working on a film inspired by a personal drama related to the family home. His daughters are not very connected to this project, but the involvement of an American actress brings the past and family ties back to the surface, offering a gentle perspective on understanding love and the legacy we leave to our loved ones.

The audience will also have the chance to see the two films that won the Jury Prize. The first is Sound of Falling, a German film that follows the destinies of four women from four different generations connected to an isolated farm in Germany. Directed by Mascha Schilinski, the film leaves an almost palpable sensation of a century of personal video recordings, filmed as if by family ghosts, interconnecting four generations of young women in time as they live, die and imprint their memories on the walls of the house they live in. Sound of Falling, the German director’s second feature film, “floats through the decades like a lost idea hoping to find someone who will recognize it” (IndieWire), as the time cursor advances and returns without warning on the temporal axis.

The second film to win the Jury Prize is Sirāt, directed by Oliver Laxe, a film about a journey in search of a lost daughter, which subtly transforms into an incursion into the inner world of the characters, a meditation on loss and pain. Oliver Laxe prints the film’s title almost like a texture into the story (sirāt means road, direction), filming most of the route in the Sahara, in a fabulous landscape, isolated from the world, and in an almost surreal atmosphere.

The Secret Agent is a Brazilian political thriller directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho, starring Wagner Moura. The film won the Best Actor and Best Director awards at the Croisette. The Secret Agent is considered by critics to be a masterpiece, thanks to the subtle interpretation of the actor Wagner Moura, the authentic atmosphere of Recife in 1977 and the unique combination of thriller and comedy. The film, also premiering in Romania, follows the story of Marcelo, a university professor who tries to flee the military regime in Brazil in the late 1970s, assuming a new identity while hiding from the authorities.

La petite dernière, a French-German co-production directed by Hafsia Herzi, centers on 17-year-old Fatima. The youngest of the family cautiously finds her way in life, grappling with unexpected desires: her attraction to women and her loyalty to her caring family. Starting university in Paris, she dates, makes friends and explores a whole new world, all while facing an eternal and painful dilemma: how can one remain true to oneself when it seems impossible to reconcile different parts of one’s identity? Nadia Melitti, who plays Fatima, was rewarded for this role with the award for best actress.

Nouvelle Vague, directed by Richard Linklater, is a love letter to French cinema. Focusing on the recreation of Jean-Luc Godard’s masterpiece À bout de souffle, the film is a tribute to the revolutionary French film movement of the late 1950s and early 1960s, which was notable for its experimentation with new cinematic ideas, but also for its rebellion against the establishment. Nouvelle Vague shows the young Godard and his collaborators in 1959 Paris as they make a creative and innovative film.

For the 16th edition of Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest, the festival poster is inspired by Richard Linklater’s film, while maintaining its personal style, which has become recognizable over the years. The entire graphic composition marks a connection between the youthful spirit of the festival and the unique energy of the French New Wave, so influential in the world of film. At the same time, it is a tribute that the festival brings to the iconic couple played over 60 years ago by Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, and this year by Zoey Deutch and Aubry Dullin, in Nouvelle Vague.

The complete program of the 16th edition of Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest, additional information about films, related events and guests, will soon be available on the festival’s official website, filmedefestival.ro, and on the Facebook and Instagram pages. Tickets will go on sale through the Eventbook network in the first part of October.

Sentimental Value is distributed in Romania by Bad Unicorn, Sound of Falling by Voodoo Films, Nouvelle Vague and The Secret Agent are brought by Independența Film, and It Was Just an Accident, Sirāt and La petite dernière by Transilvania Film.

The Les Films de Cannes à Bucarest Festival is an event founded in 2010 by Cristian Mungiu with the support of the general delegate of the Cannes Film Festival, Thierry Frémaux, and is organized by the Cinemascop Association and Voodoo Films.

Presented by: UniCredit Bank

With the support of: Pepsi, Catena, Groupama, McDonald’s

Cultural project financed by: Ministry of Culture in partnership with Arcub, CNC, French Embassy and French Institute in Romania, SACD, Romanian Cultural Institute, Dacin Sara, Italian Institute of Culture, Goethe Institute, Portuguese Embassy and Portuguese Cultural Institute, Mercure Hotel, UNATC, Avanpost, Abator, Europa Cinemas, Romanian Peasant Museum, National Museum of Art of Romania, Cărturești, Ototo, Unika, Beans&Dots

Media partners: Pro TV, VOYO, Radio Guerrilla, Agerpres, Scena9, Biz, Days and Nights, Cinemap, Igloo, FILM, Cultura la dubă, Films in Frame, Observator Cultural, Filme Menu, LiterNet, CineGhid, CineFan, MovieNews, Munteanu, Like 5, Genștiri, GenRevista, Cinefilia, Cinemagie, Tonica Group

Partner cultural: Radio RFI Romania

Monitoring partner: mediaTRUST