It was moving to watch Denzel Washington lope up to the Lumière stage at Cannes and tear up as he accepted his Honorary Palme d’Or from Cannes veteran Spike Lee Monday night at the “Highest 2 Lowest” premiere. It was a surprise to the actor, as he watched a clip reel that ranged from his four prior roles with Lee (“Mo’ Better Blues,” “He Got Game,” “Malcolm X,” and “Inside Man”) to “Philadelphia,” “Flight,” “The Book of Eli,” “The Hurricane,” “The Tragedy of Macbeth,” “Fences,” and more.
Festival director Thierry Frémaux knows how to make the most of a Hollywood movie star, who flew into France and out again on his one day off from doing eight sold-out shows a week as Shakespeare’s “Othello” on Broadway. If the man looked weary, it’s understandable. At 70, he’s at the peak of his powers, and if the Oscar gods are smiling, he’ll land his third Oscar (after “Training Day” and “Glory”) for his bravura performance as a record mogul struggling with legacy, morality, and family in “Highest 2 Lowest” (A24/Apple TV+), Lee’s assured reimagining of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 classic “High and Low.”
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Lee is in top form directing one of the most entertaining movies at Cannes; the director makes the most of the glossy New York settings and a heart-stopping subway ride to the Bronx, cut against an Eddie Palmieri concert at Yankee Stadium. Cinematographer Matthew Libatique and editor Barry Alexander Brown could be in the Oscar race along with Washington, Lee, and supporting actor Jeffrey Wright; the movie opens wide August 22 and plays for two weeks before hitting Apple TV+. Rapper A$AP Rocky, onscreen elsewhere in A24’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” this year, also gets a great scene in the last third of the film as a musician in fraught pursuit of Washington’s character.
The 2025 Cannes Film Festival has so far brought a panoply of movies for critics, audiences, and potential buyers to check out. Lately, Cannes has launched a number of Oscar contenders, especially from Neon, after a series of Palme d’Or winners: “Parasite,” “Titane,” “Triangle of Sadness,” “Anatomy of a Fall,” and “Anora.” That film became the second Neon title to win both the Palme and the Best Picture Oscar after “Parasite.” But last year also launched Oscar-winners “Flow” and Netflix’s “Emilia Pérez” out of Cannes.
Which movies at Cannes 2025 will wind up in Oscar contention? Neon CEO Tom Quinn, who joined IndieWire’s “Screen Talk” podcast live at the American Pavilion on Tuesday (more to come on that), said that the nine-member Cannes jury is a useful sample of some 9,000 Oscar voters, including international actors and directors. Their taste, along with the critics in the constantly updating Screen International jury grid, play a role in distributors’ plans. That’s why winning Cannes prizes means a lot for a future Oscar campaign.
The highest-profile Oscar contenders at this date also include Lynne Ramsay’s “Die My Love,” which MUBI acquired for $23 million. Neon was in the bidding at a reasonable price, said Quinn, who described MUBI’s buy as a “press release.” The likeliest Oscar contender is Jennifer Lawrence, who plays a young mother living in an isolated country house with her partner (Robert Pattinson), who falls into a deep post-partum depression and goes quite mad. It will be catnip for the Oscar actors branch.
Another magnetic turn comes from nonagenarian June Squibb (who was Best Supporting Actress-nominated for Cannes entry “Nebraska” in 2014) in “Eleanor the Great” (Sony Pictures Classics), which was directed by rookie Scarlett Johansson.
Of course, a lot depends on what happens at the Cannes awards this coming weekend, as well as which distributor comes through for the likes of actor-turned-director Harris Dickinson’s “Urchin,” which boasts a breakout performance from Frank Dillane as an unhoused Londoner.
A number of foreign-language films will wind up submitted by their country of origin, and Cannes awards will help tip the balance toward, say, Germany’s critics’ favorite “Sound of Falling” from Mascha Schilinski vs. out-of-competition period World War II drama “Amrum,” from director Fatih Akin.
As festival attendees debate the merits of polarizing films such as Julia Ducournau’s sci-fi drug drama “Alpha” (Neon), Wes Anderson’s too-familiar “The Phoenician Scheme” (Focus), and Ari Aster’s modern western “Eddington” (A24), the likelihood of their winding up in the Oscar race seem slim.
