The Cannes Critics’ Week 2025 selection boasts Best Picture winner Sean Baker‘s latest project.
Baker collaborates once more with his “Take Out” co-director and co-writer Shih-Ching Tsou, who makes her directorial debut with “Left-Handed Girl.” Tsou also produced Baker’s “Tangerine” (which she starred in) and “The Florida Project,” and executive-produced “Starlet.” Now, “Left-Handed Girl” incorporates Baker’s social-realist approach with the Taipei-set tragicomedy “Left-Handed Girl,” which follows a single mother and her two daughters building a new life in the Taiwanese capital. Baker cowrites, edits, and produces the film.
“The film was edited by Sean. It’s true that there’s a connection, I’m not going to hide it, and I don’t think Shih-Ching Tsou will either,” Cannes Critics’ Week artistic director Ava Cahen told Deadline. “It’s a bit reminiscent of ‘Tangerine’ and ‘The Florida Project,’ for the way it captures reality, with a form of wonder, or at least a desire for the fabulous. The editing of the film is exceptional, the direction is very powerful, and above all, this film has a frenetic pace, a crazy pace.”
Baker recently won Best Editing, Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Director for “Anora.” The film additionally landed lead star Mikey Madison Best Actress.
“Left-Handed Girl” may be one of the buzziest films debuting during the Cannes Critics’ Week 2025, but the sidebar will open with Belgian director Laura Wandel’s (“Playground”) child custody drama “Adam’s Interest.” The Critics’ Week will later close with Japanese director Momoko Seto’s animated feature debut “Dandelion’s Odyssey”; this will be the first animated feature to screen in the section since Jérémy Clapin’s Grand Prize winner “I Lost My Body” in 2019.
More than 1,000 films were submitted for Cannes Critics’ Week 2025. The edition will run May 14-22. This year’s jury is presided over by Rodrigo Sorogoyen, alongside Oscar-winning British actor Daniel Kaluuya, Moroccan film critic Jihane Bougrine, French-Canadian cinematographer Josée Deshaies, and Indonesian producer Yulia Evina Bhara.
Check out the full list of films below.
Competition
“Sleepless City” (“Ciudad Sin Sueño”)
Dir. Guillermo Galoe
Spain, France
“Imago”
Dir. Déni Oumar Pitsaev
France, Belgium
“Kika”
Dir. Alexe Poukine
Belgium, France
“Left-Handed Girl”
Dir. Shih-Ching Tsou
Taiwan, France, U.S., U.K.
“Nino”
Dir. Pauline Loquès
France
“A Useful Ghost” (“Pee Chai Dai Ka”)
Dir. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
Thailand, France, Germany
“Reedland” (“Rietland)
Dir. Sven Bresser
Netherlands, Belgium
Special Screenings
“Adam’s Interest” (L’intérêt d’Adam) – OPENING FILM
Dir. Laura Wandel
Belgium, France
“Baise en ville”
Dir. Martin Jauvat
France
“Love Letters” (“Des preuves d’amour”)
Dir. Alice Douard
France
“Dandelion’s Odyssey” (“Planètes”) CLOSING FILM
Dir. Momoko Seto
France, Belgium
