82nd Venice Film Festival Selection – Baumbach, Bigelow, Lanthimos
by Alex Billington
July 22, 2025
The Venice Film Festival, known officially in Italian as Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, has officially announced its selection of films playing at the historic film festival in 2025. Celebrating their 82nd year (the oldest fest in the world), Venezia returns with a fury featuring an exciting line-up with a boatload of great films. Venice 2025 runs from August 27th to September 6th in just a few months. The highlights: Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia (I remember how Poor Things rocked us all!), Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants, Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly with George Clooney. And, of course, many of other movies to discover when they premiere on the Lido in Venice in a few months. I’ll be back again as always for this fall festival to watch and report back on the new films. I’m already looking forward to diving into screenings all day, every day, to find the best of the best. Full Venice 2025 list below.
Here’s the complete selection of 2025 films directly from Venice, including the director for easy reference.
OPENING NIGHT FILM:
La Grazia – dir. Paolo Sorrentino
COMPETITION (VENEZIA 82):
The Wizard of the Kremlin – dir. Olivier Assayas
Jay Kelly – dir. Noah Baumbach
The Voice of Hind Rajab – dir. Kaouther Ben Hania
A House of Dynamite – dir. Kathryn Bigelow
The Sun Rises on Us All – dir. Cai Shangjun
Frankenstein – dir. Guillermo del Toro
Elisa – dir. Leonardo Di Costanzo
On the Job (À Pied d’Oeuvre) – dir. Valérie Donzelli
Silent Friend – dir. Ildikó Enyedi
The Testament of Ann Lee – dir. Mona Fastvold
Father Mother Sister Brother – dir. Jim Jarmusch
Bugonia – dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
Duse – dir. Pietro Marcello
Un Film Fatto Per Bene – dir. Franco Maresco
Orphan (Árva) – dir. László Nemes
The Stranger (L’Étranger) – dir. François Ozon
No Other Choice – dir. Park Chan-wook
Below The Clouds – dir. Gianfranco Rosi
The Smashing Machine – dir. Benny Safdie
Girl (Nühai) – dir. Shu Qi
OUT OF COMPETITION (FICTION):
After the Hunt – dir. Luca Guadagnino
Dog 51 (Chien 51) – dir. Cédric Jimenez
Sermon to the Void – dir. Hilal Baydarov
L’Isola di Andrea – dir. Antonio Capuano
Il Maestro – dir. Andrea Di Stefano
Scarlet (果てしなきスカーレット) – dir. Mamoru Hosoda
The Last Viking – dir. Anders Thomas Jensen
In the Hand of Dante – dir. Julian Schnabel
La Valle Dei Sorrisi – dir. Paolo Strippoli
Dead Man’s Wire – dir. Gus Van Sant
Orfeo – dir. Virgilio Villoresi
OUT OF COMPETITION (NON-FICTION):
Kabul, Between Prayers – dir. Aboozar Amini
Ferdinando Scianna – Il Fotografo Dell’ombra – dir. Roberto Andò
Marc by Sofia – dir. Sofia Coppola
I Diari di Angela — Noi Due Cineasti. Capitolo Terzo – dirs. Yervant GIanikian & Angela Ricci Lucchi
Ghost Elephants – dir. Werner Herzog
My Father and Qaddafi (Baba Wa Al-Qadhafi) – dir. Jihan K
The Tale of Silyan – dir. Tamara Kotevska
Nuestra Tierra – dir. Lucrecia Martel
Remake – dir. Ross McElwee
Kim Novak’s Vertigo – dir. Alexandre Philippe
Cover-Up – dirs. Laura Poitras & Mark Obenhaus
Broken English – dirs. Jane Pollard & Iain Forsyth
Notes of a True Criminal – dirs. Alexander Rodnyansky & Andriy Alferov
Director’s Diary – dir. Aleksandr Sokurov
Back Home (Hui Jia) – dir. Tsai Ming-liang
OUT OF COMPETITION (SPECIAL):
Nino. 18 Giorni – dir. Toni D’Angelo
Piero Pelù. Rumore Dentro – dir. Francesco Fei
Newport and the Great Folk Dream – dir. Robert Gordon
Francesco de Gregori – dir. Stefano Pistolini
HORIZONS (ORIZZONTI):
Mother – dir. Teona Strugar Mitevska
Divine Comedy (Komedie Elahi) – dir. Ali Asgari
Hiedra – dir. Ana Cristina Barragán
Il Rapimento di Arabella – dir. Carolina Cavalli
Strange River (Estrany Riu) – dir. Jaume Claret Muxart
Lost Land (Harà Watan) – dir. Akio Fujimoto
Grand Ciel – dir. Akihiro Hata
Rose of Nevada – dir. Mark Jenkin
Late Fame – dir. Kent Jones
Milk Teeth (Dinți de Lapte) – dir. Mihai Mincan
Pin de Fartie – dir. Alejo Moguillansky
Father (Otec) – dir. Tereza Nvotová
En el Camino – dir. David Pablos
Songs of Forgotten Trees – dir. Anuparna Roy
Un Anno di Scuola – dir. Laura Samani
The Souffleur – dir. Gastón Solnicki
Barrio Triste – dir. Stillz
Human Resource – dir. Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
Funeral Casino Blues – dir. Roderick Warich
VENICE SPOTLIGHT:
Hijra – dir. Shahad Ameen
Un Cabo Suelto – dir. Daniel Hendler
Made in EU – dir. Stephan Komandarev
Motor City – dir. Potsy Ponciroli
La Hija de La Española – dir. Mariana Rondón, Marité Ugas
À Bras-Le-Corps – dir. Marie-Elsa Sgualdo
Calle Malaga – dir. Maryam Touzani
Ammazzare Stanca – dir. Daniele Vicari
So that’s the line-up for Venice 2025, one of the best selections in years for this festival. The main comp section looks fully stacked – I want to watch almost every last one of these competition premieres! So many that sound like potential bangers. I’m sure many of them will be fantastic! There are a few others missing, most notably: Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet, Edward Berger’s Ballad of a Small Player, & Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another (though honestly I wasn’t expecting this one to show up in Venice anyway). TIFF also has programmed a number of world premieres that I wanted to see in Venice, including Rental Family with Brendan Fraser and Roofman from Derek Cianfrance. There are other surprises in this selection that I will be watching: Gus Van Sant’s back with Dead Man’s Wire about a hostage situation, plus Mark Jenkin’s Rose of Nevada, Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend about a tree, and Herzog’s new doc on elephants. I’m hopeful many of these will be worth the wait and live up to expectations. We’ll see…! I’m ready to return to Venice again and to start screening and discovering everything that’ll make us dance with happiness. Viva cinema!