Harris Dickinson will make his directorial debut at Cannes 2025

Harris Dickinson will make his directorial debut at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. 

Cannes delegate general Thierry Frémaux and president Iris Knobloch confirmed that the Babygirl lead and Dazed cover star would be making his debut at Cannes during a press conference held in Paris on Thursday morning (April 10).

Dickinson’s debut feature film is titled Urchin and follows a drifter (Frank Dillane) on the streets of London. Speaking to Dazed late last year, Dickinson shed more light on the project. “It’s about the people that fall between the cracks,” he said. “It’s about mental health and about the ways in which the system fails people in certain ways.”

In his cover interview, Dickinson added that he has had directorial aspirations since childhood. “I like being in a team, but I also like having my own autonomy over things, and I think directing and writing gives me that,” he explained. “It lets me tell the stories I want to tell and dive into the worlds I want to get into [...] acting is a different beast.”

He clarified that he is not intending to pivot to directing completely and still hopes to continue acting. “I love [acting] for many reasons and sometimes I struggle with it. It’s a strange world. So it’s nice to have both, as a selfish option.” Notably, Dickinson was recently cast as John Lennon in Sam Mendes’ forthcoming Beatles biopic, currently scheduled for release in 2028.

Dickinson also told Dazed about his influences and how he has developed his own filmmaking style. “It’s so hard to be original now because so many things have been done and there are so many amazing people that came before us. It’s difficult to forge a new path, but I think there are so many distinct voices in cinema and the theatre,” he said. “Sean Baker, Justine Triet, Julia Ducournau, Rose Glass, Molly Manning Walker and Charlotte Wells. There are these incredible voices that have their distinct vision, and you can’t mess with that.”

Cannes 2025 will also see Scarlett Johansson make her own directorial debut with Eleanor the Great, which follows a 90-year-old Floridian woman who strikes up an unlikely friendship with a 19-year-old student in New York City.

The festival lineup also includes Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind, starring Josh O’Connor and John Magaro, set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, featuring Renate Reinsve, and Jafar Panahi’s drama A Simple Accident. Other features premiering this year include Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme, Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, and Ari Aster’s Eddington.