Cannes parallel section ACID, run by France’s Association for the Diffusion of Independent Cinema (l’ACID), has unveiled its 2025 line-up.
The section will open with French actress and director Sophie Letourneur’s L’aventura set against a family road trip to Sardinia told by the 11-year-old daughter.
Letourneur co-stars as the mother opposite Philippe Katerine, who gained international fame over the summer when he appeared nearly naked and painted blue as Dionysus in the Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
The section will showcase nine features – eight of them world premieres – selected by a committee of directors from 600 submissions and aimed at showcasing “original and audacious” works.
International films include U.S.-based Argentinian director Lucio Castro’s Drunken Noodles. Loosely inspired by the life of embroidery artist Sal Salandra, it follows a young artist as he arrives in New York and tries to break into the gallery scene.
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From Finland, Lauri-Matti Parppei’s A Light That Never Goes Out stars Samuel Kujala as a classical flutist with a perfectionist streak who returns to his small hometown to recover from a breakdown where he meets a chaotic experimental music composer.
The selection features three documentaries including Iranian-French director Sepideh Farsi’s Put Your Soul On Your Hand And Walk capturing life in Gaza under the Israeli military campaign through her video call exchanges with a young woman living under the bombs.
The other documentaries are Life After Siham by Namir Abdel Messeeh (The Virgin, the Copts and Me) in which delves into his family’s history between Egypt and France, and Sylvain George’s Nuit Obscure – Ain’t I A Child, about Moroccan teenagers living on the streets of Paris, which recently premiered at Visions du Reel in Nyons.
Launched in 1992, ACID has previously championed the first features of Oscar winner Justine Triet (Age of Panic) and Oscar-nominated director Kaouther Ben Hania (Challet Tunes) as well as award winning filmmakers Radu Jude, Guy Maddin and Robert Guediguian.
More recent highlights include animated feature Chicken for Linda!, which played in the section in 2023 and went to win best film at Annecy and a César the following year, while Martin Jauvat, who won Acid’s Grand Prix in 2022 for Grand Paris, is in Cannes Critics’ Week with this second film this year.
ACID’s support does not stop after Cannes. Its helped finance 150 international screenings for films in its 2024 selection, and organized another 400 events in its 250 partner cinemas in France.
2025 Line-up
L’aventuraDir. Sophie LetourneurFr
The Black Snake (La Couleuvre Noire)Dir. Aurélien Vernhes -LermusiauxFr-Col-Br
Drunken NoodlesDir. Lucio CastroU.S.-Arg
Nuit Obscure – Ain’t I A Child?Dir. Sylvain GeorgeFr-Switz-Pt
Put Your Soul On Your Hand And WalkDir. Sepideh FarsiFr-Pal-Ir
Life After SihamDir. Namir Abdel MesseehFr-Egy
EntroncamentoDir. Pedro CabeleiraPt-Fr
Laurent Dans Le VentDirs: Anton Balekdjian, Léo Couture, Mattéo EustachonFr
A Light That Never Goes OutDir. Lauri-Matti ParppeiFin-Nor
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