Ahead of the 2025 awards ceremony on Saturday, May 24, the festival has announced the winners for the Un Certain Regard section, with the top prize going to “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo.” A co-production between Chile, France, Belgium, Spain, and Germany, the 1980s-set drama marks the feature directorial debut of Chilean filmmaker Diego Céspedes.
The Best Screenplay award for the Un Certain Regard section went to Harry Lighton for his feature directorial debut, A24’s “Pillion,” starring Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård. In his Critic’s Pick review out of Cannes, IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio said of the film, “Dick-sucking, boot-licking, and ball-gagging are de rigueur for a movie like writer/director Harry Lighton’s wildly graphic and strangely moving BDSM romance, ‘Pillion.’ But for a British queer film that puts the particulars of a gay dominant-submissive affair (or arrangement, better yet) up front and up close, actors Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling find the sweet center of a story marked by clamps, cages, and assless unitards.”
Simón Mesa Soto’s “A Poet,” another IndieWire Critic’s Pick, went on to win the Jury Prize. Ben Croll wrote of the film, “Split into four chapters and filmed on grainy, 16mm stock that leaves a mask of schmutz around the corners of the frame, ‘A Poet’ loops around questions of art and commerce in an endearingly loopy tone. The film’s bawdy sense of humor plays off a non-professional star — himself a full-time teacher from a nearby school — that looks like he was drawn by Robert Crumb and acts the part just as well.”
“Urchin” star Frank Dillane shared the performance award with Cléo Diara for the Portuguese postcolonial drama “I Only Rest in the Storm.” Dillane, who stars in “Urchin” as a homeless London man succumbing to addiction, will end up in the fall awards conversation stateside if Harris Dickinson’s debut finds the right distributor. “I Only Rest in the Storm” is also looking for a buyer, as are “Flamingo,” “A Poet,” and Palestine’s well-reviewed “Once Upon a Time in Taza.”
Yet to be announced is the Camera d’Or, the overall prize for the best first feature, which encompasses films throughout the official selection including Un Certain Regard. Candidates for this award still include Dickinson for “Urchin” as well as Scarlett Johansson’s “Eleanor the Great” and Kristen Stewart’s “The Chronology of Water.” The Johansson and Stewart films didn’t win any Un Certain Regard awards on Friday, but that doesn’t eliminate them from potentially receiving the Camera d’Or on Saturday.
Read the full list of winners for the Un Certain Regard section below.
Prix Un Certain Regard: “The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo,” Diego Céspedes
Jury Prize: “A Poet,” Simón Mesa Soto
Best Screenplay: Harry Lighton, “Pillion”
Best Performance: Cléo Diara, “I Only Rest in the Storm” and Frank Dillane, “Urchin”
Best Director: Tarzan and Arab Nasser, “Once Upon a Time in Gaza”
Ryan Lattanzio contributed reporting.
