2025 Venice Film Festival Lineup: ‘Bugonia,’ A House of Dynamite,’ ‘The Smashing Machine,’ ‘No Other Choice’ and More
Big stars and splashy fall titles are going to hit the Lido next month as Albert Barbera revealed the lineup for the 82nd Venice Film Festival early this morning. The 82nd edition of Venice will run August 27-September 6.
World premieres include Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine from A24, starring an Oscar hopeful Dwayne Johnson as two-time UFC heavyweight champ Mark Kerr and Emily Blunt as his wife Dawn; the latest collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone Bugonia (this time with Focus Features and not Searchlight Pictures as his last three films were), return to the fest after their 2023 entry Poor Things, which went on to win four Oscars including Best Actress for Stone.
Netflix is making a big splash with no less than three films in competition world premieres: Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein starring Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth; Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly starring George Clooney, Adam Sandler and Laura Dern; and Katheryn Bigelow’s return with A House of Dynamite, a White House thriller starring Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Greta Lee, Gabriel Basso and Jared Harris.
Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee, starring Amanda Seyfried as the titular founding leader of the Shaker Movement who was proclaimed as the female Christ by her followers, will also be in competition. The film, currently without distribution, was co-written by Fastvold and her partner Brady Corbet, who won Best Director at Venice last year with The Brutalist.
MUBI has the fest’s previously announced opener, Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, which once again re-teams the Italian director with The Great Beauty actor Toni Servillo. They’ll also have the new Jim Jarmusch film Father Mother Sister Brother, which stars Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Adam Driver and Charlotte Rampling as well as the highly anticipated new film from South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook’s, No Other Choice, his 12th film and 20 years since his Lady Vengeance debuted on the Lido.
Previously announced, Luca Guadagnino’s she said/he said drama After the Hunt starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri is in the lineup in an out-of-competition slot. To avoid any negative speculation, Barbera stated that it has been Guadagnino and Amazon MGM’s choice to premiere OOC and pointed out that that it will be the first time for Julia Roberts on the Venice red carpet. “We will be welcoming her with great pleasure,” he said.
Other high profile out of competition highlights include Julian Schnabel’s crime mystery In The Hand of Dante, with Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler and Martin Scorsese (playing Dante Alighieri’s mentor); Gus Van Sant’s hostage thriller Dead Man’s Wire with Bill Skarsgård, Colman Domingo and Al Pacino; Sofia Coppola’s documentary tribute to fashion designer Marc Jacobs Marc by Sophia; Werner Herzog’s doc Ghost Elephants, which follows a mysterious herd of elephants in the jungles of Angola; and Lucrezia Martel’s Nuestra Tierra, about the murder of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar.
Golden Lion winner Laura Poitras (All the Beauty and the Bloodshed) will return, this time out of competition, with her new film Cover-Up.
Two-time Oscar winner Alexander Payne (Sideways, The Holdovers) will preside over the main jury, which consists of Oscar-nominated Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres (I’m Still Here), Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig), Palme d’Or-winning Romanian director-writer-producer Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days), French director Stéphane Brizé (Out of Season), Italian director Maura Delpero (Vermiglio) and Chinese actor and producer Zhao Tao (Caught by the Tides).
COMPETITION
La Grazia, Paolo Sorrentino (opening film)
The Wizard of the Kremlin, Olivier Assayas
Jay Kelly, Noah Baumbach
The Voice of Hind Rajab, Kaouther Ben Hania
A House of Dynamite, Kathryn Bigelow
Ri Gua Zhong Tian (The Sun Rises on Us All), Cai Shangjun
Frankenstein, Guillermo del Toro
Elisa, Leonardo di Costanzo
À Pied d’Oeuvre, Valérie Donzelli
Silent Friend, Ildikó Enyedi
The Testament of Ann Lee, Mona Fastvold
Father Mother Sister Brother, Jim Jarmusch
Bugonia, Yorgos Lanthimos
Duse, Pietro Marcello
Un Film Fatto Per Bene, Franco Maresco
Orphan, László Nemes
L’Étranger, François Ozon
Eojjeol Suga Eopda (No Other Choice), Park Chan-wook
Sotto Le Nuvole, Gianfranco Rosi
The Smashing Machine, Benny Safdie
Nühai (Girl), Shu Qi
OUT OF COMPETITION — FICTION
Chien 51, Cédric Jimenez (closing film)
Boşluğa Xütbə (Sermon to the Void), Hilal Baydarov
L’Isola di Andrea, Antonio Capuano
Il Maestro, Andrea di Stefano
After the Hunt, Luca Guadagnino
Hateshinaki Scarlet, Mamoru Hosoda
Den Sidste Vikin” (The Last Viking), Anders Thomas Jensen
In the Hand of Dante, Julian Schnabel
La Valle Dei Sorrisi, Paolo Strippoli
Dead Man’s Wire, Gus Van Sant
OUT OF COMPETITION — SERIES
Portobello (Ep. 1-2), Marco Bellocchio
Un Prophète (Ep. 1-8), Enrico Maria Artale
Etty (Ep. 1-6), Hagai Levi
Il Mostro (Ep. 1-4), Stefano Sollima
OUT OF COMPETITION — NON-FICTION
Kabul, Between Prayers, Aboozar Amini
Ferdinando Scianna – Il Fotografo Dell’Ombra, Roberto Andò
Marc by Sofia, Sofia Coppola
I Diari di Angela – Noi Due Cineasti. Capitolo Terzo, Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi
Ghost Elephants, Werner Herzog
Baba Wa Al-Qadhafi (My Father and Qaddafi), Jihan K
The Tale of Sylian, Tamara Kotevska
Nuestra Tierra, Lucrecia Martel
Remake, Ross McElwee
Kim Novak’s Vertigo, Alexandre Philippe
Cover-Up, Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus
Broken English, Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth
Zapiski Nastoyashego Prestupnika (Notes of a True Criminal), Alexander Rodnyansky and Andriy Alferov
Director’s Diary, Aleksander Sokurov
OUT OF COMPETITION — FILM & MUSIC
Nino. 18 Giorni, Toni D’Angelo
Piero Pelù. Rumore Dentro, Francesco Fei
Newport and the Great Folk Dream, Robert Gordon and Joe Lauro
Francesco de Gregori Nevergreen, Stefano Pistolini
OUT OF COMPETITION — SHORTS
Origin, Yann Arthus-Bertrand
Boomerang Atomic, Rachid Bouchareb
How to Shoot a Ghost, Charlie Kaufman
HORIZONS
Mother, Teona Strugar Mitevska
Komedie Elahi (Divine Comedy), Ali Asgari
Hiedra, Ana Cristina Barragan
Il Rapimento di Arabella, Carolina Cavalli
Estrany Riu (Strange River), Jaume Claret Muxart
Hara Watan (Lost Land), Akio Fujimoto
Grand Ciel, Akihiro Hata
Rose of Nevada, Mark Jenkin
Late Fame, Kent Jones
Milk Teeth, Mihai Mincan
Pin de Fartie, Alejo Moguillansky
Otec (Father), Tereza Nvotova
En El Camino, David Pablos
Songs of Forgotten Trees, Anuparna Roy
Un Anno di Scuola, Laura Samani
The Souffleur, Gastón Solnicki
Barrio Triste, Stillz
Human Resource, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
Funeral Casino Blues, Roderick Warich
VENICE SPOTLIGHT
Hijra, Shahad Ameen
Un Cabo Suelto, Daniel Hendler
Made in EU, Stephan Komandarev
Motor City, Potsy Ponciroli
La Hija de la Española, Mariana Rondón and Marité Ugás
À Bras-Le-Corps, Marie-Elsa Sgualdo
Calle Malaga, Maryam Touzani
Ammazzare Stanca, Daniele Vicari
He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.
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