Cannes 2025: Diego Cespedes' ‘Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo’ wins Un Certain Regard award

‘The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo,’ the first feature by Chilean director Diego Cespedes, won the Cannes Film Festival's second-tier Un Certain Regard category on Friday evening.

The film set in the early 1980s centres around a queer family in Chile and the onset of the AIDS epidemic.

While accepting the prize, Cespedes said that the award celebrates existence “even when it makes others uncomfortable”.

“This award doesn't celebrate perfection. It celebrates that fear, that stubbornness to exist just as we are, even when it makes others uncomfortable,” he said.

‘Once Upon a Time in Gaza’

‘Once Upon a Time in Gaza’ earned a directing award for Palestinian twin filmmakers Arab and Tarzan Nasser. The film follows a low-level drug dealer and his underling in the coastal enclave the year the Islamist group Hamas took over.

To everyone in Gaza, “to every single Palestinian: your lives matter and your voice matters, and soon Palestine will be free,” said Tarzan Nasser, eliciting a standing ovation.

‘A Poet’

‘A Poet’ received the runner-up Jury Prize. Directed by Colombian director Simon Mesa Soto, this dark comedy explores the art world.

Cannes 2025: Un Certain Regard award: Best performance

Frank Dillane, who stars in Dickinson's well-received debut about a homeless man, ‘Urchin,’ took home best performance along with Cleo Diara, who stars in Portuguese director Pedro Pinho's exploration of neo-colonialism, ‘I Only Rest in the Storm’.

Cannes 2025: Un Certain Regard: Screenplay award

The screenplay award went to British director Harry Lighton and his Alexander Skarsgard-led kinky romance “Pillion.”

Cannes 2025: Un Certain Regard award

This year's Un Certain Regard section, which usually focuses on more arthouse fare, was particularly strong. It saw several promising directorial debuts from actors, including Scarlett Johansson, Harris Dickinson, and Kristen Stewart.

India marked its entry in the segment with director Neeraj Ghaywan's ‘Homebound’ starring Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa.

The official synopsis of ‘Homebound’ reads: "Two childhood friends from a small North Indian village chase a police job that promises them the dignity they've long been denied. But as they inch closer to their dream, mounting desperation threatens the bond that holds them together."