Cannes opens the curtain on the Oscars and welcomes the new wave of Spanish cinema.

A Romanian named Catalin Mitulescu wins the Palme d'Or at Cannes with his short film Trafic , and a new wave is born; the new wave of Romanian cinema that would go on to win the other Palme d'Or—the big one, the one for feature films—in 2007 with Four Months, Three Weeks and Two Days. Its director, Cristian Mungiu, was just the first on a list that would include usual suspects like Cristi Puiu, Radu Muntean, and Corneliu Porumboiu. All Romanian, all validated, so to speak, by the rising tides of the French Riviera. Cannes gives and takes reasons, inaugurates new eras, and, although it hurts, issues quality certificates. Fresh from the announcement of the 2025 official section lineup, Variety magazine's American critic Peter Debruge launched into a blistering analysis of the selected titles. After noting the overabundance of American titles and the growing influence of the French festival in Hollywood, he admitted that there were only two authors he knew nothing about. Namely, Carla Simón and Oliver Laxe. Both Spanish.

It's not clear that Romería and Sirat , the films by both authors, respectively, that appear in the competition that starts on Tuesday and about which a good portion of international critics know nothing (and all this despite the fact that their authors have accumulated international awards both in Berlin and in the parallel sections at Cannes itself), are going to inaugurate a new era. But they are there. With the new era. When Pedro Almodóvar and Isabel Coixet coincided on the honor list in 2009, in truth, each arrived from a different place riding their own wave with their careers perfectly established. Even the last Variety intern knew who those two Spaniards were back then. That's not the case, as has become clear, this time. And, in all likelihood, when the chronicles are written, more than a few will strive to point out similarities and describe common attitudes.

Whether it's a refined taste for verisimilitude in the roughness of the image, an almost suicidal tendency toward introspection, an employment of the rules of the genre in a manner as peculiar as it is exaggeratedly personal, an open investigation of the wounds of memory, or cinema as a lived experience... Laxe declared not so long ago that he felt like he was from the same tribe as Carla, and Carla responded that she recognized in her colleague the same collaborative and non-hierarchical way of understanding the profession and cinema itself. Let's leave it, therefore, as Nueva Ola, a new wave, by the way, very Galician (Laxe is Galician and Simón's film takes place in Galicia).

For the rest, the Cannes that is now beginning kicks off with the obvious memory of Anora as a reference and example not so much to beat as to emulate. Sean Baker's film that won the last Palme d'Or managed to win the Oscar for Best Picture months later. It was the second time in six years—and only the fourth in its 78-year history—that something similar had happened. But the truth is that in the last three years, the films nominated for the Hollywood Academy Awards have come from the Cannes catalogue. Triangle of Sadness (2022) and Anatomy of a Fall (2023) are two of the most notable examples of a trend that, following the success of Parasite in 2019, culminates in Anora 's four statuettes and the nominations for Emilia Pérez, The Substance, The Apprentice , and Flow ; a peak reached in 2024. "Cannes, like the Oscars, are now global; neither one is French nor American," Thierry Frémaux commented on Monday at the presentation, in order to close and even celebrate the circle.

Consequently, one would say that this year's selection seems designed, beyond the Spanish and their waves, to ensure that neither the trend nor the party stops. Both the festival itself and international distributors have shifted their preference from Venice or Toronto to the Croisette as a launching pad. Thus, at the event that kicks off, among the most notable titles that seem to respond to this dynamic, closely dependent on the visibility afforded by increasingly international and diverse Oscars, are Wes Anderson's new work , The Phoenician Scheme, a thriller about spies and unscrupulous millionaires starring Benicio del Toro and Mia Threapleton (Kate Winslet's daughter) ; or Ari Aster's Eddington , with Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal as the main attractions of a project that is by definition indefinable; or, why not, Nouvelle Vague, by the hyperactive Richard Linklater, in what is his second film of the year after Blue Moon, seen at the Berlinale. And who knows if Spike Lee's latest work, Highest 2 Lowest , a version of Akira Kurosawa's The Inferno , does not obey the same Oscar-winning concern.

Not far from this same way of reasoning between Hollywood's prestige and global audiences, but on the European side, could be Die, My Love, by Lynne Ramsay, starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson; or Alpha , by Titane director Julia Ducournau, starring Emma Mackey and Tahar Rahim; or The History of Sound , a romantic drama set during the First World War by Oliver Hermanus with current stars Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal. All in an event that will see the directorial debuts of Kristen Stewart (The Chronology of Water) and Scarlett Johansson (Eleanor the Great). All with the same goal: to do what Anora .

And without losing sight of the new film by the Japanese director of the sad and surprising Plan 75, Chie Hayakawa, who returns with Renoir , nor of the Brazilian Kleber Mendonça Filho (Doña Clara), who now presents Secret Agent , nor of the author of The Worst Person in the World, Joachim Trier, who returns with Sentimental Value . And at their side, two all-time classics: Jafar Panahi and the Dardenne brothers, who respectively release It Was Just an Accident and Young Mothers.

And then, of course, there's Mission: Impossible: Final Judgment, the conclusion to probably the most joyful and action-packed saga that the capacity for wonder itself has ever been capable of. And that's not so much a wave as a genuine tsunami. And so on.