All the Asian Movies Selected for the 79th Cannes Film Festival

From May 12 to May 23, the 79th Cannes Film Festival returns with a global lineup of filmmakers shaping the current cinematic landscape. With Park Chan-wook serving as jury president and a strong wave of Asian cinema in the mix, this year’s festival is one to watch. Here are the Asian titles we’re most excited to see premiere on the world stage. 

Parallel Tales

• Competing in: In Competition
• Director: Asghar Farhadi
• Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney, Adam Bessa, Catherine Deneuve, India Hair
• Country: Iran

Following his Grand Prix win at the 74th Cannes Film Festival for A Hero (2021), Asghar Farhadi returns with Parallel Tales. Set in France, the film reimagines Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog VI (1989), following Sylvie (Isabelle Huppert), a novelist who spies on her neighbors for inspiration. Her life shifts when she hires a mysterious young man, Adam (Adam Bessa), leading to a dangerous obsession.

A 2024 interview revealed that Farhadi no longer plans to make films in Iran, describing that decision as an act of resistance against the country’s repressive regime. Parallel Tales marks a continuation of that shift, following The Past (2013), his only previous film made outside Iran.

Sheep in the Box

• Competing in: In Competition
• Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
• Cast: Daigo Yamamoto, Haruka Ayase, Rimu Kuwaki
• Country: Japan

This year, Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with another sci-fi film for the first time since Air Doll (2009). At the center of the film is a grieving couple, played by Daigo Yamamoto and Haruka Ayase, who welcomes an infant humanoid robot (Rimu Kuwaki). In a recent interview with Deadline, Kore-eda shares that the idea stemmed from the growing presence of technological resurrection in Japanese television programs. This film explores the conflicting nature between technological progress and human values. Its title draws inspiration from the French children’s novel The Little Prince. 

Hope

• Competing in: In Competition
• Director: Na Hong-jin
• Cast: Hwang Jung-min, Zo In-sung, Jung Ho-yeon, Alicia Vikander, Michael Fassbender, Taylor Russell, Cameron Britton
• Country: South Korea

Set in a small seaside village, Hope reunites acclaimed director Na Hong-jin with The Wailing (2016) star Hwang Jung-min for the first time in a decade. The sci-fi action thriller takes place in the remote village of Hope Harbor, near Korea’s heavily fortified Demilitarized Zone, where a suspected tiger sighting draws local chief Bum-seok into a situation that throws the community into chaos. 

The cast brings together Zo In-sung (Moving) and Jung Ho-yeon (Squid Game) alongside Michael Fassbender, Alicia Vikander, and Cameron Britton, who portray the mysterious beings at the center of the story. Reported as Na’s most ambitious project to date, the film is said to have grown from a single image that came to him while dining in Seoul in 2017. 

All of a Sudden 

• Competing in: In Competition
• Director: Ryusuke Hamaguchi
• Cast: Virgine Efira, Tao Okamoto, Kyōzō Nagatsuka, Kodai Kurosaki
• Country: Japan

All of a Sudden centers Marie-Lou Fontaine (Virginie Efira), a nursing home director in suburban Paris. She challenges convention by adopting the Humanitude method, placing dignity and human connection at the core of care despite resistance from her team. Her perspective shifts after meeting Mari Morisaki (Tao Okamoto), a terminally ill playwright, forming an unlikely bond that gradually turns the facility into an act of resistance against the system. 

The film was loosely inspired from When Life Suddenly Takes a Turn: Twenty Letters Between a Philosopher with Terminal Cancer and a Medical Anthropologist, a collection of real-life letters that reflect on illness, care, and humanity by Makiko Miyano and Maho Isono. Its cross-cultural theme is reminiscent of Hamguchi’s works, whose films have received strong recognition at Cannes, including Drive My Car (2021) that won Best Screenplay at the 74th Cannes Film Festival. 

Nagi Notes 

• Competing in: In Competition
• Director: Kôji Fukada
• Cast: Takako Matsu, Kenichi Matsuyama, Shizuka Ishibashi, Kawaguchi Waku, Kiyora Fujiwara
• Country: Japan

Yoriko (Takako Matsu) is a sculptor living in the quiet town of Nagi, who continues to create while holding onto a past love. Her routine is interrupted when Yuri (Shizuka Ishibashi), a Tokyo-based architect and former sister-in-law, comes to stay after a recent separation. Still unsettled, Yuri struggles to figure out what her life looks like outside of marriage and work. What starts as a brief escape from the city quickly turns into a confrontation of the things they have long avoided. This film is directed by the Cannes-winning Japanese auteur Kôji Fukada, whose film Harmonium (2016) received the Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard. 

Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep

• Competing in: Un Certain Regard
• Director: Rakan Mayasi
• Cast: Jawaher Mawlah, Reem Mawlah, Yasser Mawlah
• Country: Palestine, Lebanon, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Qatar

Independent Palestinian filmmaker Rakan Mayasi continues his exploration of intimate human tensions within politically charged landscapes in his first feature, Yesterday the Eye Didn’t Sleep. The film was shot without a traditional script and worked entirely with non-professional actors.

Set against the backdrop of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, the film unfolds within a tightly knit community shaped by tradition and unspoken codes. It follows two sisters, Jawaher and Reem, who are pushed into a sacrificial role after a violent incident throws everything off balance. As tensions build and the search for a missing girl intensifies, the story leans into themes of sacrifice, gender dynamics, and responsibility.

Elephants in the Fog

• Competing in: Un Certain Regard
• Director: Abinash Bikram Shah
• Cast: Pushpa Thing Lama, Deepika Yadav, Jasmin Bishwokarma, Aliz Ghimire
• Country: Nepal, Germany

Based on real-life events, this thriller film begins in a small Nepalese village deep within a forest populated by wild elephants. At its center is Pirati (Pushpa Thing Lama), the matriarch of a family of transgender women. She longs for a quiet life with the Drum Master, but their relationship is forbidden by the rules of their Kinnair community. When one of her daughters disappears while patrolling to keep the elephants away, Pirati is forced to choose between personal desire and her responsibility to the group.

Elephants in the Fog marks the debut feature of emerging director Abinash Bikram Shah, whose short Lori received a Special Mention at the Cannes’ Short Film competition in 2022. Alongside Lama, this film stars an up-and-coming cast including Deepika Yadav, Jasmine Bishwokarma, and Aliz Ghimire. 

All the Lovers in the Night

• Competing in: Un Certain Regard
• Director: Yukiko Sode
• Cast: Yukino Kishii, Tadanobu Asano, Misato Morita, Mai Fukagawa, Akihisa Shiono
• Country: Japan

Five years after her last feature film, Yukiko Sode returns with an adaptation of Mieko Kawakami’s novel. This marks the first time one of Kawakami’s full-length novels has been brought to the silver screens. The literary sensation tells a love story centered on Fuyuko Irie (Yukino Kishii), a 34-year-old freelance proofreader who prefers living quietly in solitude. Her routine begins to shift when she meets Mitsuka (Tadanobu Asano), an older physics teacher. As they gradually form a deeper bond, Fuyuko is pushed to confront her own emotions and question the life she has built around isolation. 

The Samurai and the Prisoner

• Cannes Premiere
• Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
• Cast: Masahiro Motoki, Masaki Suda, Yuriko Yoshitaka, Munetaka Aoki, Ryota Miyadate, Tasuku Emoto, Joe Odagiri, Yusuke Santamaria
• Country: Japan

A castle under siege becomes the setting for paranoia and power struggles in this adaptation of Honobu Yonezawa’s award-winning 2021 novel Kokurojo. Set in 16th-century Japan, the story follows Lord Murashige Araki (Masahiro Motoki), who turns against the tyrannical Oda Nobunaga and finds himself trapped within his own fortress. As isolation deepens, a series of mysterious crimes unfolds, pulling the castle into a spiral of fear and suspicion. The film marks a new direction for Kiyoshi Kurosawa, best known for Wife of a Spy (2020), which earned him the Silver Lion for Best Director at the 77th Venice Film Festival.

Colony

• Midnight Screenings
• Director: Yeon Sang-ho
• Cast: Gianna Jun, Koo Kyo-hwan, Ji Chang-wook, Shin Hyun-been, Kim Shin-rock, Go Soo, Kim Hyeong-mook, Lee Jung-ok
• Country: South Korea

From the director of Train to Busan, Gianna Jun and Ji Chang-wook team up in a zombie action thriller. The film follows a group of survivors trapped inside a building as a rapidly mutating virus turns the infected into unpredictable, ever-evolving threats. This film marks Yeon Sang-ho’s fourth return to Cannes, following The King of Pigs (2011), Train to Busan (2016), and Peninsula (2020). It also reunites him with the Midnight Screening section, where Train to Busan first drew widespread acclaim. 

This year is shaping up to be a great one for Asian cinema at the Cannes Film Festival, with new stories spanning genres, regions, and perspectives!

Looking for recommendations to watch while waiting for Cannes? Check out our recommendation of five Studio Ghibli films to watch this spring!