Partir un Jour Opens Festival de Cannes 2025

Jury ©YesICannes.com

After a glamorous, star-studded Montée des Marches, the Opening Ceremony kicked off the 78th Festival de Cannes with the screening of Amélie Bonnin’s Partir un Jour.

Partir un jour team ©YesICannes.com

Partir un Jour: the opening Red Carpet of the 78th Cannes Film Festival unfurled to welcome the screening of the film Partir un Jour. This first feature film by director Amélie Bonnin is a moving comedy set against a backdrop of popular songs that immediately captivated festival-goers and set the tone for an edition rich in emotion and discovery.

More 1800 feature films presened

The Competition Jury, chaired by French actress Juliette Binoche, was welcomed to the stage of the Grand Théâtre Lumière in the Palais des Festivals by French actor Laurent Lafitte, the Master of Ceremonies who took over from Virginie Efira, Chiara Mastroianni and Camille Cottin last year. More than 1,800 feature films were entered in the Official Selection, with around twenty films competing in the Official Competition. The competition for the Caméra d’or includes feature films from the Official Selection, Critics’ Week and Directors’ Fortnight.

Left to right : Jeremy Strong © Paola Kudacki / Alba Rohrwacher © Stephanie Gengotti / Dieudo Hamadi © Gertrude / Leila Slimani © Francesca Mantovani – Gallimard / Juliette Binoche © Brigitte Lacombe / Halle Berry © Randy Holmes ABC / Carlos Reygadas © DR / Payal Kapadia © Ranabir Das / Hong Sangsoo © DR

An international jury

Assisting the President of the Jury in selecting the various prizes will be the American actress and filmmaker Halle Berry, the Indian director and screenwriter Payal Kapadia, the Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher, the Franco-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani, the Congolese director, documentary filmmaker and producer Dieudo Hamadi, the Korean director and screenwriter Hong Sangsoo, the Mexican director, screenwriter and producer Carlos Reygadas and the American actor Jeremy Strong. The Jury will have the onerous task of awarding the Palme d’Or to one of the 21 films in Competition, as well as the various prizes that make up the prize list, which will be unveiled on Saturday 24 May at 8.30pm during the Closing Ceremony, broadcast live by France Télévisions in France and by Brut. internationally.

Juliette Binoche ©YesICannes.com

Palme d’honneur for Robert de Niro

The legend of the 7th art was the guest of honour at the opening ceremony of the 78th Cannes Film Festival. After Jeanne Moreau, Marco Bellocchio, Catherine Deneuve, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Jane Fonda, Agnès Varda, Alain Delon, Jodie Foster, Forest Whitaker, Michael Douglas and Meryl Streep last year, Robert de Niro was honoured with a Palme d’Or for his career, presented by American star Leonardo DiCaprio. The two cinema giants shared the bill for Michael Caton-Jones‘ Secret Wounds in 1993 and Jerry Zaks‘ Simple Secrets in 1996, before being reunited on screen by Martin Scorsese in Killers of the Flower Moon, a film for which they walked up the Cannes red steps in 2023.

Robert de Niro ©YesICannes.com

Out of competition Partir un Jour opens the Festival

Amélie Bonnin’s first feature film, a work infused with the popular songs that have shaped France’s collective memory, benefited from the immersive Dolby Atmos sound technology now installed in the Grand Auditorium Lumière. Behind the camera, the director of Partir un Jour creates a work that is both intimate and universal. Her visual style, blending poetic aesthetics and realism, immerses the viewer in an atmosphere that enhances the emotional impact of the narrative, underscored by the music. This bold choice for the opening film reflects the Festival’s commitment to promoting original cinematic voices and promising talents. In the cast: Juliette Armanet, Bastien Bouillon, François Rollin, Tewfik Jallab, and Dominique Blanc. Cécile won Top Chef, but instead of realizing her dream of opening her restaurant, she has to return to her childhood village to support her father, who suffered a heart attack. She sees Raphaël again, her childhood sweetheart, her memories resurface, and her certainties waver.

©YesICannes.com

The ceremony in theaters

The screening of Partir un Jour marked the start of twelve days of intense cinema, exciting encounters and artistic discoveries. The Opening Ceremony was broadcast live on France 2 and internationally on Brut., as well as in many cinemas across France. Thousands of spectators were able to experience this exceptional evening – Opening Ceremony and film – broadcast live thanks to an operation initiated by the Festival de Cannes in partnership with France Télévisions, the Fédération Nationale des Cinémas Français and Brut. Every year, more and more cinemas and exhibitors take part in this initiative, designed to share the first evening of this great celebration of cinema with the French public.