Marine Atlan’s first feature La Gradiva He received the highest honor in the parallel section of the Critics’ Week at the Cannes Film Festival, and won the prestigious AMI Paris Grand Prix after impressing the jury headed by Indian director Payal Kapadia (Everything we imagine is like light).
The film follows a group of French teenagers on a school trip to Naples, where an encounter with the victims of Vesuvius preserved in Pompeii unleashes a torrent of pent-up emotions and longing among the students, who find themselves overwhelmed by ancient beauty and their own desires.
Check out the clip for La Gradiva less.
Kapadia, who has his own film Everything we imagine is like light He won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival two years ago, and chaired a jury that included Quebec actor Théodore Pellerin, musician Oklo, Ghanaian-British producer Ama Ampadu, and journalist and Bangkok World Film Festival director Dunsaron Kovitvanicha.
The Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award went to Spanish actress-turned-director Aina Clotet for her film FIFAher directorial debut. Set against a hot Catalan summer, this sarcastic and bittersweet comedy follows a woman who goes through a massive re-evaluation of her life and career in the wake of her breast cancer diagnosis.
Among the side awards is the award for Chinese director Zhou Jing An unknown girl It received the Gann Foundation Distribution Award, with Pyramide Distribution handling its French release. The film depicts the life of a young girl who is moved between three families – each giving her a new identity – as part of a broader reckoning with the mass abandonment of newborn girls under China’s one-child policy.
The SACD Award for Best Screenplay was shared by director Blerta Baccioli and co-writer Nicole Bourget for the film a prayera coming-of-age drama set in Kosovo on the eve of the late 1990s war.
In the short film categories, Romain F. Dubois received the Sony Discovery Award for his film Skinny shoeswhile Berthold Wagdi “Vaterland” or poly named Ianto It won the Canal+ award.
Now in its 65th edition, Critics’ Week — which focuses exclusively on first and second films by emerging filmmakers — showcases 11 films selected from more than 1,050 entries, along with ten short films. The section was opened with Phuong Mai Nguyen In waves And closed with Goodbye cruel mond.
Find the full list of 2025 Cannes Critics’ Week winners below.
AMI Paris Grand Prix
La GradivaDirector: Marin Atlan
Louis Roederer Foundation Rising Star Award
FIFADirector: Aina Clott
Gann Foundation Distribution Award
An unknown girlDirector: Zhou Jing
SACD award
a prayerDirected by: Blerta Baccioli
Sony Discovery Award for Short Film
Skinny shoesDirector: Romain F. Dubois
Canal+ Short Film Award
“Vaterland” or poly named IantoDirected by: Berthold Wajdi
