The jury of the 78th Cannes Festival, chaired by Juliette Binoche, is made up of personalities from various cinematographic, cultural and geographic horizons. This jury, which will be responsible for awarding the Palme d’Or among the 21 films in competition, brings together exceptional talents from world cinema, including American actress and filmmaker Halle Berry, Indian director and screenwriter Payal Kapadia, Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher, Franco-Moroccan writer Leïla Slimani, the director, the director, Congolese Dieudo Hamadi, Korean director and screenwriter Hong Sangsoo, the director, screenwriter and Mexican producer Carlos Reygadas and the American actor Jeremy Strong.
This 78th Edition is part of the festival tradition, marked by a desire to highlight international cinematic excellence. The prize list will be revealed during the closing ceremony, on May 24, 2025, broadcast live by France Télévisions in France and by brut internationally.
Renowned French actress, Juliette Binoche embodies the quintessence of the Versatile and committed actress. Since its role in Appointment From André Téchiné (1985), she marked world cinema, multiplying collaborations with prestigious directors like Abbas Kiarostami, Olivier Assayas, or Michael Haneke. She was awarded the Palme d’Or of Honor in 2010 for her role in Compliant copy from Abbas Kiarostami and was also distinguished by an Oscar, a Bafta and several César. Currently, Juliette Binoche pursues a career that transcends the borders of cinema, by embarking on projects mixing theater, dance and music, especially in her collaborations with artists like Akram Khan or Alexandre Tharaud.
Halle Berry – Actress, filmmaker
Halle Berry, first African American to win the Oscar for best actress in 2002 for In the shade of hatred From Marc Forster, is one of the most respected figures in Hollywood cinema. She alternated between major independent productions and films, with significant roles in Jungle fever of Spike Lee, X-Men from Bryan Singer, and Cloud Atlas Wachowski sisters. In 2020, she made her first film, Bruisingand continues to play a producer role, by co -producing films like Mother Land of Alexandre Aja. Halle Berry represents a figure of diversity and talent, bringing a unique perspective to the Cannes jury.
Payal Kapadia – Director, screenwriter
Payal Kapadia, great winner of the Cannes Film Festival in 2024 with All we imagine as lightmakes a triumphant entry into the world of cinema with its first feature film. This film, which marked a turning point in the representation of Indian cinema, allowed India to make its comeback in competition at Cannes after three decades of absence. Trained in the film and Television Institute of India, Payal Kapadia first made itself known by its short films, before capturing the world of cinema with its singular look at Indian society and its cultural subtleties.
Alba Rohrwacher – Actress
Alba Rohrwacher, a world’s Italian actress recognized, is an essential figure in Italian cinema. Present several times in competition in Cannes, she was praised for her roles in films like The loneliness of prime numbers from Saverio Costanzo, Wonders of his sister Alice Rohrwacher, who won the Grand Prix in 2014, and The chimera From 2023. His collaborations with great international directors, such as Luca Guadagnino and Marco Bellocchio, allowed him to receive important distinctions, including the COPPA Volpi at the Venice Mostra. Alba Rohrwacher is an actress whose career is distinguished by her diversity and her wealth.
Leïla Slimani – writer
Leïla Slimani, a Franco-Moroccan writer, upset literature with her novels, especially Sweet songwhich earned him the Goncourt Prize in 2016. His works explore complex themes, ranging from human relations to the question of women’s rights. She also adapted her writings to the cinema, with Sweet song Brought to the screen in 2019. Leïla Slimani is an important voice in French -speaking literature, and her gaze on the world, nourished by her Moroccan origins, will undoubtedly enrich the debates of the Cannes jury.
Dieudo Hamadi – Director, Documentarist, producer
Dieudo Hamadi, Congolese director, has entered the history of the Cannes Film Festival with his film On the way to the billion In 2020. His works, which examined the political and social realities of the Democratic Republic of Congo, received many distinctions. Dieudo Hamadi is also a fervent defender of documentary cinema, offering poignant stories about the challenges encountered by the populations of his country. His work is an essential light on the realities of contemporary Africa.
Hong Sangsoo – Director, screenwriter
A prolific filmmaker recognized internationally, Hong Sangsoo is an essential figure in Korean cinema. He participated in many editions of the Cannes Film Festival, where he presented films in competition, such as The woman is the future of the man In 2004, In Another Country in 2012 and The day after in 2017, and in the a certain look section, as The Virgin exposed by her contenders in 2000 and Hahaha In 2010, which earned him the Un Certain Regard Prize. His unique, sleek and intimate style was hailed by criticism, and he remains a filmmaker whose influence largely exceeds the borders of South Korea. Hong Sangsoo continues to produce both personal and universal films, combining humor and introspection.
Carlos Reygadas – Director, screenwriter, producer
Carlos Reygadas, Mexican director, is a regular at the Cannes Film Festival, where he was rewarded by the Jury Prize for Silent light In 2007. His demanding cinema, both poetic and philosophical, was acclaimed for his ability to transcend cultural borders and to approach universal themes. Carlos Reygadas is also a recognized producer, and his work continues to influence many contemporary filmmakers.
Jeremy Strong – Actor
Jeremy Strong, an American actor, is a rising figure in cinema and television. He is notably known for his role as Kendall Roy in the series Successionfor which he won an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award. His exceptional talent was also greeted in films such as The seven of Chicago And Armageddon Time. In 2025, he will be seen in the biopic on Bruce Springsteen, Delive me from Nowhere.
Rods and parity in juries: a slow, uneven, but irreversible advance
At the dawn of its 78th edition, the Cannes Film Festival continues to embody the aspirations of a global changing cinema. If the attention is focused each year on the films in competition, the figures of the red carpet or the list, the composition of the juries remains a revealing prism of the developments and resistance of a system still marked by structural imbalances. In 2025, the appointment of Juliette Binoche at the head of the main jury was part of a slow but indisputable dynamic towards a better representation of women.
The parity displayed this year is a new step in a long-standing course, often against the tide. The historical observation is clear: since the creation of the festival in 1946, men have mainly dominated the juries. During the very first edition, the jury was entirely male, and this scheme was largely perpetuated for decades. Between 1946 and 2018, out of a total of 747 jury members, only 172 were women, barely 23 %. It was not until 1965 that the first woman was appointed to chair the jury: the American-British actress Olivia de Havilland.
To date, Juliette Binoche is the fourteenth to occupy the presidency of the main jury, succeeding Greta Gerwig who had assured this role in 2024. This recent continuity broke with the scarcity of female mandates in the previous decades.
It is truly from the end of the 2010s that things began to evolve in a more tangible way. The symbolic turn comes in 2018, under the presidency of Cate Blanchett, the year during which the festival signs the Charter for parity and diversity at film festivals. This signature initiates management to publish gender statistics, to make the composition of the selection committees public, and to work for an effective parity in decision -making bodies. The strong gesture of this edition remains the rise in the steps of 82 women from the world of cinema, hand in hand with Cate Blanchett, to demand real equality within the industry.
Since then, efforts in favor of parity have multiplied. Each year, with the exception of 2021 where Spike Lee was surrounded by five women, the juries were rigorously joint, made up of four men and four women. On the other hand, out of the last six editions, four have been chaired by men, against only two by women: it is at this level that progress remains to be made.
The dynamics towards more equality is not limited to the main jury. The juries of the other sections of the festival – A certain look,, The gold camera,, The cineefondation,, The short film or The golden eye – follow a similar trend, although their degree of parity varies depending on the year and the programming teams. These juries, while displaying an increasing desire for diversity, remain dependent on the selection made by committees with still heterogeneous practices. Mixity is not yet systematic, but recent advances suggest a depth transformation.
The question of parity cannot, however, be thinking about in isolation. It is combined with other dimensions of diversity: geographic, racial, social, or even in terms of LGBTQ+representations. In recent years have seen a salutary opening towards figures long marginalized in the Cannes space. We can cite, among other things, the presence of Indian actress Deepika Padukone in the 2022 jury, that of the Franco-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop in 2021, or that of the Congolese documentary maker Dieudo Hamadi in 2025. That same year, Indian director Payal Kapadia also sits within the main jury, consolidating an artistic and geographic representation wide.
The road to equality remains strewn with pitfalls, but the signals of engagement are multiplying. The vigilance of civil society, media, artists themselves, and international feminist movements, forced cultural institutions to review their selection and representation mechanisms. Cannes, as a global cinema showcase, cannot escape this requirement. The 2025 edition, by presenting a jury with a female majority and chaired by a figure like Juliette Binoche, is part of this logic of progressive emancipation.
Neïla Driss
