Venice82, Italy and Hollywood take centre stage.The programme for the 82nd Venice Film Festival (27 August – 6 September 2025) has been unveiled, showcasing a significant Italian presence with five films in competition: La Grazia by Paolo Sorrentino, chosen as the opening film; Duse by Pietro Marcello, portraying theatre diva Eleonora Duse; Sotto le nuvole by Gianfranco Rosi, offering a black-and-white perspective on Naples; Un film fatto per bene by Franco Maresco, celebrating Carmelo Bene; and Elisa by Leonardo Di Costanzo. Alongside the line-up of Italian films, the festival will feature a host of renowned Hollywood filmmakers and stars. Those in competition include Noah Baumbach, Kathryn Bigelow, Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos, and Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro, both prominent figures in Hollywood. Among the celebrities expected to attend are Julia Roberts, who will be making her first appearance at the Lido, along with Andrew Garfield, George Clooney, Jude Law, Amanda Seyfried, Emily Blunt and Rebecca Ferguson.
Barbera: “Cinema does not provide solutions; it raises questions.”
“The films featured at this year’s Venice Film Festival don’t claim to solve problems so complex that they evade easy solutions. Instead, they invite viewers to discover new perspectives, offering multifaceted — and occasionally contradictory — insights while drawing attention to the unfathomable wealth of human experience and the opaque reality of our individual, social, and political circumstances”, said the festival’s artistic director, Alberto Barbera, during his presentation of the program for the 82nd Venice Film Festival (Venice82). “Unlike most types of media,” Barbera emphasized, “cinema does not propose solutions, nor does it provide answers or seek to simplify our lives. In the words of Borges, cinema offers perplexity, sows doubt, and fosters questions.” The president of the Venice Biennale, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, shares this sentiment. “Every year, the Venice Film Festival reminds us that dreams can come true. The thirsty are quenched by this passionate art. Art restores consciousness to all of us ‘ostriches’ with our heads buried in the sand of indifference.”
21 films vying for the Golden Lion award
Alongside the five Italian films, Venice82 will feature sixteen international titles. In the spotlight: Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s return with her new film A House of Dynamite, starring Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson; and Noah Baumbach’s new film Jay and Silent Bob Reboot, part of which was shot in Italy, starring George Clooney, Greta Gerwig, Adam Sandler, and Laura Dern. Golden Lion winner Yorgos Lanthimos will also compete with “Bugonia,” starring his muse Emma Stone. Another highly anticipated film is Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” a Netflix production starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi (also a Golden Lion winner). Olivier Assayas will return to the Venice Film Festival with The Wizard of the Kremlin, a film adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli’s novel starring Paul Dano and Jude Law. Jim Jarmusch’s “Father, Mother, Sister, Brother” stars Adam Driver and Cate Blanchett. Hungarian director László Nemes presents “Orphan, ” a historical drama about Hungary based on his father’s recollections. François Ozon presents a film adaptation of Albert Camus’ The Stranger, starring Benjamin Voisin. Mona Fastvold presents the musical The Testament of Ann Lee, featuring Amanda Seyfried. Finally, Benny Safdie presents The Smashing Machine, starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt.
Out of Competition and TV Series
Several titles in the out-of-competition lineup are sure to attract critics and audiences alike. Headlining the list are Luca Guadagnino’s Hollywood thriller After the Hunt, produced by Amazon MGM Studios and starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri, Chloë Sevigny, and Michael Stuhlbarg; Julian Schnabel’s In the Name of Dante, starring Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, and Al Pacino; and French director Cédric Jimenez’s Chien 51, the closing film of Venice82. Representing Italy are Andrea Di Stefano’s Il Maestro, starring Pierfrancesco Favino; Antonio Capuano’s L’isola, starring Teresa Saponangelo; Paolo Strippoli’s La valle dei sorrisi, starring Michele Riondino; and Virgilio Villoresi’s Orfeo, starring Vinicio Marchioni. The lineup of world-premiere TV and limited series is equally impressive. The highly anticipated Portobello, directed by Marco Bellocchio and starring Fabrizio Gifuni as Enzo Tortora, has been chosen as the first Italian title for the launch of the new HBO Max platform (Warner Bros.-Discovery) in early 2026. Also premiering at the Venice Film Festival is Il Mostro (1–4 episodes), a new crime drama series by Stefano Sollima, who previously directed the TV Series Adagio, Romanzo Criminale,” and “Gomorrah” ), a Netflix exclusive series adapted from the case of the so-called “Monster of Florence.” Other titles include Un prophète (1–8) by Enrico Maria Artale, a French TV series inspired by Jacques Audiard’s film of the same name; and Etty (1–6) by Hagai Levi, acclaimed writer and director of the TV series Scenes from a Marriage (2021) and The Affair (2014–19). Independent documentaries and musical biopics will also be featured. The lineup includes Sofia Coppola’s “Marc by Sofia” on fashion designer Marc Jacobs; “Director’s Diary” by Aleksandr Sokurov; “Nuestra Tierra” by Lucrecia Martel; “Piero Pelù. Rumore Dentro by Francesco Fei; and Francesco De Gregori: Nevergreen by Stefano Pistolini.
Other titles showcased at Venice82
Nineteen films will compete in the Orizzonti (Horizons) section, which showcases experimental and innovative works. Opening the section will be Teana Strugar Mitevska’s Mother, starring Noomi Rapace, which offers a chiaroscuro portrait of Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Other Italian films include Il rapimento di Arabella by Carolina Cavalli, starring Benedetta Porcaroli who made her film debut in Amanda (2022), and Un anno di scuola by Laura Samani. The Venice Spotlight section features eight films, including Daniele Vicari’s Ammazzare Stanca, and nine documentaries are featured in Venice Classics, including Valerio Ciriaci’s Elvira Notari: Oltre il Silenzio, about the first Italian female director. Venice Classics will also showcase a total of 19 restored films. Venice Immersive will feature 69 titles, including 30 in competition, 11 Best Experiences, 23 Best of Worlds, and 5 Biennale College Cinema. A total of 4,580 films were submitted to the 82nd Venice Film Festival, including 1,936 feature films (173 of which from Italy) and 2,353 short films (189 from Italy), 102 restored classics (16 from Italy) and 189 Immersive projects (9 from Italy). Of those, 3,039 were directed by men (66.35%), and 1,478 were directed by women (32.27%).
Hosts, juries, and collateral awards
Italian actress Emanuela Fanelli will host the opening ceremony on Wednesday, August 27, and the closing ceremony on Saturday, September 6. Oscar-winning U.S. director and screenwriter Alexander Payne is the president of the international jury, which includes Stéphane Brizé (director, France), Maura Delpero (director, Italy), Cristian Mungiu (director, Romania), Mohammad Rasoulof (director, Iran), Fernanda Torres (actress, Brazil), and Zhao Tao (actress, China). French director Julia Ducournau will chair the Orizzonti Jury, and Scottish director Charlotte Wells will chair the Venice Opera Prima “Luigi De Laurentiis” Jury. The official posters for Venice 82 were designed by Italian cartoonist and illustrator Manuele Fior.
Cultural and media outlets representing the Catholic world will likewise have a presence at the Lido. The Signis Award is the longest-running collateral event of the Film Festival and has members of the CEI Film Commission on its jury. Of particular significance is the presence of historic Church associations in Italy: Acec – Sale della Comunità and the Fondazione Ente dello Spettacolo, which publishes the Rivista del Cinematografo. The latter will confer the prestigious Robert Bresson Award in collaboration with the Dicastery for Communication and Culture of the Holy See. News coverage of the event will be provided daily by the Italian Bishops’ Conference media outlets Agenzia SIR, Avvenire, and TV2000.
