U.S. Actress and filmmaker Berry was the first Black woman to win the Best Actress Oscar for her performance in Marc Forster’s Monster’s Ball (2002).

In 2020, she directed her first film, Bruised. She co-produces some of the films she stars in, most recently Alexandre Aja’s Never Let Go (2024).

Indian director and writer Kapadia won the Grand Prix in Cannes last year for her first film All We Imagine As Light. She worked on the Mumbai-set ode to friendship during her stay at the festival’s La Cinéfondation in 2019. The film brought India back to the Cannes Competition after 30-year absence.

Italian actress Rohrwacher is a Cannes regular whose credits include Luca Guadagnino’s I am Love, Saverio Costanzo’s The Solitude of Prime Numbers, Marco Bellocchio’s Dormant Beauty and Laura Bispuri’s Sworn Virgin.

Moroccan writer Slimani is known in cinema circles for second novel Lullaby, which won the Prix Goncourt 2016, and was adapted for the screen in 2019, starring Karin Viard and Leïla Bekhti.

Congolese Director and producer Hamadi screened his documentary Downstream to Kinshasa in the Official Selection 2020. He is working on the series Milimo, les âmes errantes de Kinshasa which he is producing and directing for Canal +, and on his next feature La Vie est un chemin de fer.

Mexican Director, screenwriter and producer Reygadas won Caméra d’Or Special for his first film Japon, entered the Competition with his second feature, Battle in Heaven, returning to festival in 2007 with Silent Light, winning the Jury Prize (ex-aequo). He then won Best Director with Post Tenebras Lux in 2014.

U.S actor Jeremy Strong was in Cannes last year in the role of Roy Cohn in The Apprentice, which went on to earn him Oscar, BAFTA nominations. That same year, he returned to Broadway in An Enemy Of The People, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Actor.

His previous film credits include Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, Adam McKay’s The Big Short, James Gray’s Armageddon Time, Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, and Spielberg’s Lincoln. For his iconic portrayal of Kendall Roy in HBO’s hit series Succession, Jeremy Strong won the Emmy, Golden Globe, and Critics Choice Award. Upcoming, he stars in Scott Cooper’s Bruce Springsteen biopic, Deliver Me From Nowhere in 2025.