The Venice Film Festival 2025 has revealed a power-packed lineup, signaling one of the strongest editions in recent memory. Running from August 27 to September 6, the festival will open with Paolo Sorrentino’s much-anticipated La Grazia, ushering in a roster of bold premieres from cinematic heavyweights.
Jim Jarmusch returns with Father Mother Sister Brother, a comedy-drama featuring Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, and Tom Waits, while Yorgos Lanthimos explores futuristic terrain in Bugonia, starring Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. Noah Baumbach unveils Jay Kelly, headlined by George Clooney, Adam Sandler, and Laura Dern.
Hot on its heels, Luca Guadagnino’s provocative After the Hunt, starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, and Ayo Edebiri, tackles #MeToo themes. Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine brings a gritty UFC backdrop, with Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt in leading roles, and a score by Nala Sinephro.
Veterans return in full force: Gus Van Sant presents Dead Man’s Wire, his first feature in seven years, and Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite marks her comeback after eight, with Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson. Olivier Assayas, François Ozon, Guillermo del Toro, and Park Chan-wook also headline the slate with new features.
Out-of-competition premieres include Charlie Kaufman’s short How to Shoot a Ghost starring Jessie Buckley, and Broken English, a documentary tribute to Marianne Faithfull from Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth.
The documentary program includes Sofia Coppola’s fashion doc Marc by Sofia, Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants, and Lucrecia Martel’s powerful Nuestra Tierra, which confronts colonialism and Indigenous resistance in Latin America.
Venice 2025 is more than a film festival—it’s a cultural summit.