Throughout the past few years, Cannes discussions about Covid have largely been confined to industry s — debates about box office recovery, streaming versus theatrical, and whether cinema could survive at all. But this year seemed like a turning point, where the pandemic felt much more like an artistic subject for filmmakers than a debate topic. What emerged was a festival where our collective experiences became creative fuel, resulting in some of the most compelling work we've seen on the Croisette in years. Here are some (though not all) of the films our team liked the most.

Eddington tackles the pandemic most directly and heads-on. Set during the early days of lockdown in May 2020, Ari Aster's western follows a small-town standoff between a sheriff (Joaquin Phoenix) and mayor (Pedro Pascal) that begins with mask mandates and spirals into something far more existential. It’s clear Aster ties many of today’s issues of our polarized world back to habits we formed during the pandemic; and it’s only fitting a movie about divisiveness of our time would be so divisive itself, polarizing not just our team but the wider festival itself. Audiences will be able to form their own opinion when the film releases this July.

Julia Ducournau returns to Cannes four years after her Palme d'Or triumph with Alpha, which draws from AIDS-era anxieties but filters them through our fresh Covid trauma to create an entirely new strain of body horror. Set in an alternate-timeline where a mysterious disease slowly transforms the infected into marble statues, the film follows a 13-year-old girl confronting the possibility of infection. It's Ducourneau at her most emotionally raw—less concerned with shocking imagery than with the psychological terror of watching loved ones slip away. The 11.5-minute standing ovation, punctuated by the director's visible tears, suggests she's struck a nerve.

Then there's Sirât, Oliver Laxe's hypnotic competition debut set in a near-future where the world is ending and illegal raves pulse through the Moroccan desert like a final heartbeat. Following a father's search for his missing daughter, it's a film that understands how music becomes both escape and communion when everything else falls apart—then delivers a series of gut-wrenching twists that are even more impossible to shake than its pounding house soundtrack.

One intriguing thread running through this year's competition is how some films are considering the very idea of what home means to us. After years of being trapped in our own four walls, is it a coincidence that so many stories explore what happens when houses hold more than just inhabitants—when they become repositories of memory, trauma, and hope?

Sound of Falling marks a global breakthrough for Mascha Schilinski, whose second film has turned heads from critics to A-listers (Nicole Kidman even gave her a public shoutout). Unfolding across a century within a single Altmark farmhouse, the film follows four girls from different eras whose lives echo and overlap in mysterious ways. It's a haunting meditation on how trauma travels across time and generations and the historical weight a place can carry, told with incredible visual poetry.

Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value treats its Oslo home as a living character, right from the opening scene. The latest from the director of THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD reunites him with Renate Reinsve for a meditation on art, family, and the stories we tell ourselves about both. When an aging filmmaker (Stellan Skarsgård) attempts to reconcile with his estranged daughters through the only language he knows—cinema itself—Trier asks whether art can truly heal us. The film's extraordinary 19-minute ovation has gone in Cannes history books already.

Meanwhile, Lynne Ramsay's Die My Love transforms the family home into psychological battlefield. Finally reuniting the stars of the TWILIGHT (Pattinson) and HUNGER GAMES (Lawrence) franchises, the film delivers Jennifer Lawrence's most fearless performance as a new mother consumed by postpartum depression. It's the kind of uncompromising character study that reminds you why we fell in love with both actors in the first place.

Memory and Resistance are also recurring themes in two further memorable films of this year's competition. Then there's Iranian master Jafar Panahi's A Simple Accident, which arrived at Cannes as one of the festival's most anticipated titles. Panahi, who previously won the Camera d'Or and Best Screenplay prize here, delivers a bruising portrait of Iranian dissidents—tough and dark but laced with the kind of humor that emerges from impossible circumstances.

The Secret Agent, set during the height of Brazil's military dictatorship in 1977, follows Wagner Moura as a man who escapes to northern Brazil hoping to reunite with his son, only to find refuge within a makeshift resistance movement. It's a remarkably different beast from this year's Oscar winner I'm Still Here, but equally haunting—the kind of film that burrows under your skin and refuses to leave.

Capturing memories and documenting history emerges as a key thread connecting several films, from The Secret Agent's old-school audio cassettes to The History of Sound, where internet boyfriends Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal embark on a romantic road trip through 1920s America with the mission of preserving folk songs on primitive recording equipment. There's something deeply moving about watching these characters not just struggle with their feelings for each other, but also aiming to save voices that might otherwise be lost forever.

As we await Saturday's Palme d'Or announcement, one thing feels certain: this year's Cannes proved that cinema has finally found the courage to examine our emotional wreckage after years of living through "interesting times." Whether through pandemic allegories, intimate family dramas, or apocalyptic fever dreams, these films don't just ask us to reflect on what we've endured — they demand we empathize with the pain carried by those both near and far from us, and maybe, just maybe even discover some unexpected beauty, even when the world feels at its darkest.

The 78th Cannes Film Festival runs from May 13-24, 2025, with winners being announced this Saturday. Keep watching our programming announcements as these essential films make their way to Berlin.