Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence’s 2025 Cannes Film Festival premiere got hijacked by a giant bird man; read
You’d think the weirdest part of a film called Die, My Love would be the movie itself, but no. At Cannes 2025, all eyes were on a man in a massive bird costume
Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence just dropped what may be the strangest and sexiest film of the year — Die, My Love — at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. But while their performances had critics buzzing, it wasn’t the movie that stole the spotlight. It was the premiere. And for some reason, it involved a giant bird.
Now, this was not the same as when Emma Stone walked the red carpet for the premiere of her new film Eddington alongside Austin Butler and Pedro Pascal. Her own run-in involved a very real bee. The 36-year-old actress kept her cool, but the moment clearly caught everyone off guard, with her co-stars quickly stepping in as makeshift pest control.
What no one expected after that mishap was a full-grown man dressed as a giant condor strutting up the carpet like he was about to snatch a Palme d’Or. Festival-goers and paparazzi alike were left wondering if the feathered intruder was part of Die, My Love’s cryptic marketing campaign — maybe an avant-garde metaphor for lost love or male fragility? But nope. Turns out, Birdman was from another movie entirely.
What the condor?
Cannes organisers later clarified to Variety that the man in costume was actually a character from I Love Peru, a documentary directed by French actor-turned-filmmaker Raphael Quenard, which screened in the Cannes Classics section. The synopsis for the film is: “Going through a difficult period, Raphael Quenard abandons everyone around him and, struck by a disturbing vision, flies to Peru. In this spiritual quest, he is accompanied by his friend Hugo David.”
Netizens react
Obviously, fans had a lot to say about this. “Quite the third wheel,” commented one user on X. One more comment claimed, “That’s wild, never seen that before...” Others seemed to agree with the sentiment, saying, “This bird has better PR than half of Hollywood right now.” One more comment claimed, “That turkey is the next mega star.”
For context, in Peruvian mythology, condors are seen as spiritual messengers — symbols of the bridge between heaven and earth. But at Cannes, the condor seemed to be a bridge between high art and high camp. The costume was elaborate, theatrical, and absolutely against the festival’s newly tightened red carpet rules.
In fact, just days before the 2025 edition kicked off, Cannes had issued a formal ban on “excessively voluminous” clothing — including long trains, massive skirts, and yes, anything that might be considered avian. Nudity was also explicitly banned, making the condor's arrival a bit of a head-scratcher. In a statement released May 12, organisers said the updated rules were “in accordance with the institutional framework of the Festival de Cannes and French law.”
And yet… there he was. Feathered. Fabulous. And flapping alongside Quenard and Hugo David like it was just another Tuesday.
