For three decades now,Acid has been programming a parallel section at the Cannes Film Festival , highlightingcinematographies other than the official selections - screened in competition at the Palais des Festivals, the Quinzaine des Cinéastes and the Semaine de la Critique - and unveiling even sassier, stranger and more astonishing works.
A veritable laboratory for daring films, Acid is original in that it is the only Cannes section whose films are selected by filmmakers alone. Once again this year, some fifteen filmmaker-programmers spent months viewing several hundred films before selecting ten or so. Hence the name, an acronym for 'Association du cinéma indépendant pour sa diffusion'. This year, they watched over 650 feature films.
Drum roll: the Acid selection for the Cannes Film Festival 2025 has just been unveiled and, as usual, pays particular attention to films without French distributors. Among them are 5 first and second features, 6 fiction films and 3 documentaries.
Acid sets the tone: "From the French Alps to the Finnish coast, in the depths of New York or Portuguese nights, encounters and the sharing of desires and stories enable lonely souls to rediscover meaning and rekindle flames. Lying nonchalantly under the Italian sun or beating the Parisian cobblestones in uncertain wanderings, children from here and elsewhere incessantly narrate, fabricating the past to reinvent the present. A woman's face appears on a telephone screen, thanks to the dialogue created by another woman on the other side of the world, opening a precarious window on the atrocities of the war in Gaza. From the Colombian desert to the Boulogne cemetery, sons in search of traces learn to live with the absence of mothers and the fragile presence of fathers. This is what the films in this program offer us, each of them, thanks to the singularity of their viewpoints and the inventiveness of their filmmakers, thanks to the intensity of the everyday heroes and heroines who run through them, reminding us that, in the face of the brutality of reality, we can still create sparks."
Discover the 9 selected films !
Sophie Letourneur's L'Aventura, opening film at Acid 2025
Sophie Letourneur is delighted to open Acid 2025 with her new film, L'Aventura. [Read more]
La Couleuvre Noire by Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux, shortlisted at Acid 2025: Our verdict
And that's two for Aurélien Vernhes-Lermusiaux, who unveiled his 'Black Snake' at Acid 2025. Read our review. [Read more]
Drunken Noodles by Lucio Castro, selected at Acid 2025: Our review
A festival regular, director Lucio Castro took advantage of Acid 2025 to unveil his film Drunken Noodles. Find out what we think. [Read more]
Entroncamento by Pedro Cabeleira, selected at Acid 2025: Our verdict
Pedro Cabeleira's second film, Entroncamento, was part of Acid's 2025 selection at the Cannes Film Festival. Read our review. [Read more]
Laurent dans le vent by Anton Balekdjian, Léo Couture and Mattéo Eustachon, selected at Acid 2025
The trio of Anton Balekdjian, Léo Couture and Mattéo Eustachon return with their second film, Laurent dans le vent, presented at Acid 2025. [Read more]
A Light that never goes out by Lauri-Matti Parppei, selected at Acid 2025
A Light that never goes out is Lauri-Matti Parppei's first film, and will be presented at Acid 2025. [Read more]
Nuit Obscure - Ain't I a Child? by Sylvain George, selected at Acid 2025
Sylvain George's new documentary 'Nuit Obscure - Ain't I a Child?' has been selected for Acid 2025. [Read more]
Put your Soul on your Hand and Walk by Sepideh Farsi, selected at Acid 2025: Our review
Sepideh Farsi's documentary Put your Soul on your Hand and Walk was unveiled at Acid, Cannes Film Festival 2025. Read our review. [Read more]
La Vie après Siham by Namir Abdel Messeeh, selected at Acid 2025
French-Egyptian director Namir Abdel Messeeh's documentary La Vie après Siham will be unveiled as a selection at Acid 2025. [Read more]
The poster for the 33rd edition of Acid, scheduled from May 14 to 23, was designed by artist Alex Besikian.
"This year's visual is by Alex Besikian. Using clean lines and raw forms, the artist evokes a cinema of gestures both familiar and elusive. Fragments of images harmonize to conjure up the movement of a wave against the fixity of a dial, sweeping away our inhibitions to better liberate the imagination and herald a 2025 program of films determined to make history!" explains the association.
A year rich in discoveries!
Dates and Opening Time
From May 14, 2025 to May 23, 2025
Official website
www.lacid.org
