Spike Lee has said his film Highest 2 Lowest starring Denzel Washington will premiere out of competition in Cannes — but the director’s film was not included in a Thursday morning event to unveil the lineup.
The series of titles debuting on the Croisette this May was announced by Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch at a press conference in Paris on Thursday morning.
It includes Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, and Ari Aster’s Eddington.
Lee now has said his feature has been invited, too. He broke the news a mere hour after the Cannes lineup unveiling livestream ended: “Bon Jour. Good Morning. Whaddup❓Da New SPIKE LEE JOINT-HIGHEST 2 LOWEST Starring My Brother DENZEL WASHINGTON Has Been Invited To Da 2025 CANNES INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL (In The Out Of Competition Category),” Lee wrote on Instagram with an embroidered article that reads “Highest 2 Lowest 2 Cannes.”
Lee’s film is an English-language reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 Japanese film High and Low, itself loosely based on the 1959 novel King’s Ransom. The feature stars Denzel Washington, Ilfenesh Hadera, Jeffrey Wright, Ice Spice, and ASAP Rocky and is set to get a theatrical release with A24 before it airs Apple TV+.
It is often the case with Cannes that more titles are announced after the initial lineup, and Frémaux did note that he had forgotten a title…
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Cannes Film Fest for comment.
The 2025 competition lineup is packed with auteur heavyweights, including Kelly Reichardt, who returns to Cannes competition with The Mastermind, an art-heist drama starring Josh O’Connor and John Magaro, set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War; Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier, who returns to the Croisette after his 2021 triumph (with The Worst Person of the World) with Sentimental Value, also featuring Renate Reinsve; and dissident Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who will be back in Cannes competition with his latest drama, A Simple Accident.
Scarlett Johansson and Harris Dickinson are also set to make their directorial debuts at this year’s fest. Frémaux screened 2,909 features in its selection process, an all-time record. See the full lineup for the 2025 Cannes Film Festival here.