Oscar season starts here.
With its 2025 line-up, announced Tuesday, the Venice Film Festival has (again) taken the award season pole position, with a program packed with a frankly absurd number of must-see movies.
Among the hot awards titles heading to the Lido are Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, from A24, featuring Dwayne Johnson as two‑time UFC heavyweight champion Mark Kerr and Emily Blunt as his wife Dawn; Luca Guadagnino’s #MeToo–inspired thriller After the Hunt, for Amazon MGM Studios, starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri, will premiere out of competition; and Guillermo del Toro’s dark reimagining of Frankenstein, featuring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth, a Netflix production.
This will mark the Venice festival debut for both Roberts and Johnson.
Netflix, which sat out Vence last year, is back in force for 2025. Alongside Frankenstein, the streamer has Noah Baumbach’s comedy‑drama Jay Kelly, co-written with wife Greta Gerwig, and headlined by George Clooney, premiering in competition, and Kathryn Bigelow’s ticking bomb geopolitical thriller A House of Dynamite, starring Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Greta Lee, Gabriel Basso and Jared Harris.
The Venice line-up is an embarrassment of riches, for award-watchers and regular film fans alike, with the competition selection including the latest from A-list auteurs Park Chan-wook (No Other Choice), François Ozon (L’Etranger), and Laszlo Nemes (Orphan). A year after Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist launched in Venice, en route to three Oscar wins, the film’s co-writer (and producer) Mona Fastvold arrives in competition with The Testament of Ann Lee, a historical drama musical film she co-wrote with Corbet.
Yorgos Lanthimos, a Venice Golden Lion winner for Poor Things, returns in competition with Bugonia, an adaptation of Jang Joon-Hwan’s 2003 South Korean sci-fi film Save the Green Planet!, featuring his frequent collaborator Emma Stone. Focus Features will release the film stateside, with Universal Pictures handling internationally outside of Korea, where CJ ENM will release.
And iconic indie director Jim Jarmusch, a Cannes regular, will make his Lido debut with Mubi’s Father Mother Sister Brother, a triptych starring Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver.
The 82nd Venice competition line-up also includes the latest from A-list auteurs Park Chan-wook (No Other Choice), François Ozon (L’Etranger), and Laszlo Nemes (Orphan)
Italian Oscar-winning Paolo Sorrentino (The Great Beauty) will open this year’s festival with La Grazia (Grace), a love story starring his long-time collaborator Toni Servillo. La Grazia, co-starring Diamonds actor Anna Ferzetti, will premiere in competition on Aug. 27. Mubi picked up the film ahead of its Venice bow.
Dog 51, a new action-packed French sci-fi thriller from Bac Nord director Cedric Jimenez will close the festival, out of competition.
Gus Van Sant’s return to feature films, Dead Man’s Wire, starring Bill Skarsgard, will also screen out of competition. Other out of competition highlights include Anders Thomas Jensen’s Danish dark comedy The Last Viking starring Mads Mikkelsen, and Julian Schnabel’s long-awaited The Hand of Dante.
This year’s Golden Lion career achievement honorees are legendary German director Werner Herzog (Fitzcarraldo, Grizzly Man) and Vertigo star Kim Novak.
Venice’s Classic sidebar, which includes a selection on documentaries about cinema, will this year include Mike Figgis’ Megadoc, a behind-the-scene look at the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-in-the-making Megalopolis.
Two-time Oscar-winner Alexander Payne heads up this year’s competition jury as president, and together with international film talents including Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, French director Stéphane Brizé, Italian director Maura Delpero, Chinese actress Zhao Tao, and Romanian director Cristian Mungiu, will pick the 2025 Golden Lion winner.
The 2025 Venice film festival runs Aug. 27 to Sept. 9.
Opening Film
La Grazia, dir. Paolo Sorrentino (in competition)
Closing Film
Dog 51, dir. Cedric Jimenez (France)
In Competition
The Wizard of the Kremlin, dir. Olivier Assayas (France, U.S., U.K.)
Jay Kelly, dir. Noah Baumbach (U.S.)
The Voice of Hind Rajab, Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia)
A House of Dynamite, dir. Kathryn Bigelow (U.S.)
The Sun Rises On Us All, dir. Cai Shangjun (China)
Frankenstein, dir. Guillermo del Toro (U.S.)
Elisa, dir. Leonardo di Costanzo (Italy)
A Pied d’Oeuvre, dir. Valerie Donzelli (France)
Silent Friend, dir. Ildiko Enyedi (Germany, France, Hungary)
The Testament of Ann Lee, dir. Mona Fastvold (U.S.)
Father Mother Sister Brother, dir. Jim Jarmusch (U.S.)
Bugonia, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos (U.S.)
Duse, Pietro Marcello (Italy)
Un Film Fatto Per Bene, dir. Franco Maresco (Italy)
Orphan, dir. Laszlo Nemes (Hungary)
L’Etranger, dir. Francois Ozon (France)
No Other Choice, dir. Park Chan-wook (South Korea)
Sotto Le Nuvole, dir. Gianfranco Rosi (Italy)
Girl, dir. Shu Qi (China)
Out of Competition (Fiction)
Sermon to the Void, dir. Hilal Baydarov (Azerbaijan)
L’Isola di Andrea, dir. Antonio Capuano (Italy)
Il Maestro, dir Andrea di Stefano (Italy)
After the Hunt, dir. Luca Guadagino (U.S.)
Hateshinaki Scarlet, dir. Mamoru Hosoda (Japan)
The Last Viking, dir. Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark)
In the Hand of Dante, dir. Julian Schnabel (U.K., Italy, Chile, U.S.)
La Valle dei Sorrisi, dir. Paolo Strippoli (Italy)
Dead Man’s Wire, dir. Gus Van Sant (U.S.)
Orfeo, dir. Virgilio Villoresi (Italy)
Out of Competition (Non-Fiction)
Kabul, Between Prayers, dir. Aboozar Amini (Netherlands)
Ferdinando Scianna – Il Fotografo Dell’Ombra, dir. Roberto Ando (Italy)
Marc by Sofia, dir. Sofia Coppola (U.S.)
I Diari di Angela – Noi Due Cineasti. Capitolo Terzo, dirs. Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi (Italy)
Ghost Elephants, dir. Werner Herzog (U.S.)
My Father and Qaddafi, dir. Jihan K
The Tale of Sylian, dir. Tamara Kotevska (Macedonia)
Nuestra Tierra, dir. Lucrecia Martel (Argentina)
Remake, dir. Ross McElwee (U.S.)
Kim Novak’s Vertigo, dir. Alexandre Philippe (U.S.)
Cover-Up, dir. Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus (U.S.)
Broken English, dirs. Jane Pollard, Iain Forsyth (U.K.)
Notes of a True Criminal, dirs. Alexander Rodnyansky, Andriy Alferov (Ukraine)
Director’s Diary, dir. Aleksander Sokurov (Russia)
Back Home, dir. Tsai Ming-liang (Malaysia)
Out of Competition (Series)
Portobello, dir. Marco Bellocchio (Italy)
Un Prophete, dir. Enrico Maria Artale (France)
Etty, dir. Hagai Levi (Germany)
Il Mostro, dir. Stefano Sollima (Italy)
Out of Competition (Special Screenings)
Venice Spotlight
Calle Malaga, dir. Maryam Touzani
Hijra, dir. Shahad Ameen
Un Cabo Suelto, dir. Daniel Hendler
Ammazzare Stanca, dir. Daniele Vicari
Motor City, dir. Potsy Ponciroli
La Hija De la Espanola, dir. Mariana Rondon, Marite Ugas
A Bras-Le-Corps, dir. Marie-Elsa Sgualdo (France)
Out of Competition – Film & Music
Out of Nino. 18 Giorni, dir. Toni D’Angelo (Italy)
Piero Pulu. Rumore Dentro, dir. Francesco Fei (Italy)
Newport and the Great Folk Dream, dir. Robert Gordon (U.S.)
Francesco de Gregori Nevergreen, dir. Stefano Pistolini (Italy)
Horizons Competition
Mother, dir. Teona Strugar Mietevska
Divine Comedy, dir. Ali Asgari
Strange River, dir. Jaume Claret Muxart
Il Rapimento di Arabella, dir. Carolina Cavalli
Lost Land, dir. Akio Fujimoto (Japan)
Rose of Nevada, dir. Mark Jenkin (U.K.)
Late Fame, dir. Kent Jones (U.S.)
Milk Teeth, dir. Mihai Mincan
Pin de Fartie, dir. Alejo Moguillansky (Argentina)
Father, dir. Tereza Nvotova
En El Camino, dir. David Pablos (Mexico)
Songs of Forgotten Trees, dir. Anuparna Roy (India)
Un Anno di Scuola, dir. Laura Samani (Italy)
The Souffleur, dir. Gaston Solnicki
Barrio Triste, dir. Stillz (Columbia)
Human Resource, dir. Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (Thailand)
Funeral Casino Blues, dir. Roderick Warich
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