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 Emily Mortimer, 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, Julian Schnabel’s long-awaited The Hand of Dante, and Scarlet, the first anime feature in four years from Japanese master Mamoru Hosoda.
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, this year includes Mike Figgis’ Megadoc, a behind-the-scenes look at 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 (Italy) (In competition)
Closing Film
Dog 51, dir. Cedric Jimenez (France)
Competition
The Wizard of the Kremlin, dir. Olivier Assayas (France)
Jay Kelly, dir. Noah Baumbach (USA, UK, Italy)
The Voice of Hind Rajab, dir. Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia, France)
A House of Dynamite, dir. Kathryn Bigelow (USA)
Sun Rises on Us All, dir. Cai Shangjun (China)
Frankenstein, dir. Guillermo Del Toro (USA)
Elisa, dir. Leonardo Di Costanzo (Italy, Switzerland)
À pied d’œuvre, dir. Valérie Donzelli (France)
Silent Friend, dir. Ildikó Enyedi (Germany, France, Hungary)
The Testament of Ann Lee, dir. Mona Fastvold (UK)
Father Mother Sister Brother, dir. Jim Jarmusch (USA, Ireland, France)
Bugonia, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos (United Kingdom)
Duse, dir. Pietro Marcello (Italy)
Un film fatto per Bene, dir. Franco Maresco (Italy)
Orphan, dir. László Nemes (Hungary, United Kingdom, Germany, France)
The Stranger, dir. François Ozon (France)
No Other Choice, dir. Park Chan-wook (South Korea)
Sotto le nuvole, dir. Gianfranco Rosi (Italy)
The Smashing Machine, dir. Benny Safdie (Canada, USA, Japan)
Girl, dir. Shu Qi (Taipei)
La Grazia, dir. Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)
Out of Competition (Fiction)
Boşluğa xütbə (Sermon to the Void), dir. Hilal Baydarov (Azerbaijan, Mexico, Turkey)
L’isola di Andrea, dir. Antonio Capuano (Italy)
Il Maestro, dir. Andrea Di Stefano (Italy)
After the Hunt, dir. Luca Guadagnino (USA)
Hateshinaki Scarlet, dir. Mamoru Hosoda (Japan)
The Last Viking, dir. Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark, Sweden)
Chien 51, dir. Cédric Jimenez (France)
In the Hand of Dante, dir. Julian Schnabel (USA, Italy)
La valle dei sorrisi, dir. Paolo Strippoli (Italy, Slovenia)
Dead Man’s Wire, dir. Gus Van Sant (USA)
Orfeo, dir. Virgilio Villoresi (Italy)
Out of Competition (Non-Fiction)
Kabul, Between Prayers, dir. Aboozar Amini (The Netherlands, Belgium)
Ferdinando Scianna – Il fotografo dell’ombra, dir. Roberto Andò (Italy)
Marc by Sofia, dir. Sofia Coppola (USA)
I diari di Angela – Noi due cineasti. Capitolo terzo, dir. Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi (Italy)
Ghost Elephants, dir. Werner Herzog (USA)
My Father and Qaddafi, dir. Jihan K (USA, Libya)
The Tale of Sylian, dir. Tamara Kotevska (North Macedonia)
Nuestra Tierra, dir. Lucrecia Martel (Argentina, USA, Mexico, France, The Netherlands, Denmark)
Remake, dir. Ross McElwee (USA)
Kim Novak’s Vertigo, dir. Alexandre Philippe (USA)
Cover-up, dir. Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus (USA)
Broken English, dir. Jane Pollard, Iain Forsyth (United Kingdom)
Notes of a True Criminal, dir. Alexander Rodnyansky, Andriy Alferov (Ukraine, USA)
Director’s Diary, dir. Alexandr Sokurov (Russia, Italy)
Back Home, dir. Tsai Ming-liang (Taipei)
Out of Competition (Series)
Un prophète – La série, dir. Enrico Maria Artale (France)
Portobello, dir. Marco Bellocchio (Italy, France)
Etty, dir. Hagai Levi (France, Germany, The Netherlands)
Il mostro, dir. Stefano Sollima (Italy)
Out of Competition – Film & Music
Nino. 18 giorni, dir. Toni D’Angelo (Italy)
Piero Pelù. Rumore dentro, dir. Francesco Fei (Italy)
Newport and The Great Folk Dream, dir. Robert Gordon (USA)
Francesco De Gregori Nevergreen, dir. Stefano Pistolini (Italy)
Venice Spotlight
Hijra, dir. Shahad Ameen (Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Egypt, United Kingdom)
Un cabo suelto (A Loose End), dir. Daniel Hendler (Uruguay, Argentina, Spain)
Made in EU, dir. Stephan Komandarev (Bulgaria, Germany, Czech Republic)
Motor City, dir. Potsy Ponciroli (USA)
It Would Be Night in Caracas, dir. Mariana Rondón, Marité Ugás (Mexico, Venezuela)
Silent Rebellion, dir. Marie-Elsa Sgualdo (Switzerland, France, Belgium)
Calle Malaga, dir. Maryam Touzani (Morocco, France, Spain, Germany, Belgium)
Ammazzare stanca, dir. Daniele Vicari (Italy)
Horizons Competition
Divine Comedy, dir. Ali Asgari (Iran, Italy, France, Germany, Turkey)
Hiedra, dir. Ana Cristina Barragan (Ecuador, Mexico, France, Spain)
Il rapimento di Arabella, dir. Carolina Cavalli (Italy)
Strange River, dir. Jaume Claret Muxart (Spain, Germany)
Lost Land, dir. Akio Fujimoto (Japan, France, Malaysia, Germany)
Grand Ciel, dir. Akihiro Hata (France, Luxembourg)
Rose of Nevada, dir. Mark Jenkin (United Kingdom)
Late Fame, dir. Kent Jones (USA)
Milk Teeth, dir. Mihai Mincan (Romania, France, Denmark, Greece, Bulgaria)
Pin de Fartie, dir. Alejo Moguillansky (Argentina)
Father, dir. Tereza Nvotová (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland)
En el camino, dir. David Pablos (Mexico, France)
Songs of Forgotten Trees, dir. Anuparna Roy (India)
Un anno di scuola, dir. Laura Samani (Italy, France)
The Souffleur, dir. Gastón Solnicki (Austria, Argentina)
Barrio triste, dir. Stillz (Colombia, USA)
Mother, dir. Teona Strugar Mitevska (Belgium, North Macedonia, Sweden, Denmark, Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Human Resource, dir. Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit (Thailand)
Funeral Casino Blues, dir. Roderick Warich (Germany)