The Most Anticipated Films of Venice Film Festival 2025
Starting this week, Venice Film Festival opens with a lineup of Hollywood stars, celebrated auteurs and some of the year’s most anticipated premieres.
Still from Frankenstein. Cr. Ken Woroner/Netflix © 2025.
The 82nd edition of the Venice Film Festival arrives this week with one of its strongest lineups in recent memory. Following last year’s edition in which Pedro Almodóvar took home the Golden Lion for The Room Next Door, anticipation is high as to which film will capture the top prize in 2025. Mastermind will be covering the festival; stay tuned for reviews and interviews.
La Grazia
The festival opens with La Grazia, Paolo Sorrentino’s latest film and his seventh collaboration with actor Toni Servillo. Servillo stars opposite Anna Ferzetti in a love story set in Italy, though further plot details remain highly guarded.
Father Mother Sister Brother
Jim Jarmusch unveils Father Mother Sister Brother, featuring an ensemble cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Tom Waits, Charlotte Rampling, Indya Moore and Luka Sabbat. The film explores the reunion of estranged siblings as they are forced to confront unresolved tensions and their difficult relationships with emotionally distant parents.
L’Etranger
Adapted from the renowned French novel, François Ozon presents L’Etranger. Set in Algiers in 1938, the story follows Meursault, a man who is put on trial after committing a senseless murder. Ozon’s cast – Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin, Denis Lavant, Swann Arlaud – brings Camus’ existential musings to the screen.
Frankenstein
Guillermo del Toro offers his take on Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The story follows Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant yet egotistical scientist whose creation of life leads to devastating consequences. The cast includes Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth.
Bugonia
King of all things unsettling, Yorgos Lanthimos presents Bugonia, starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias and Alicia Silverstone. The film follows two conspiracy-obsessed young men who kidnap the CEO of a major company, convinced she is an alien intent on destroying the planet.
100 Nights of Hero
Closing the Critics’ Week sidebar is 100 Nights of Hero, directed by Julia Jackman. Described as a “feminist fairytale,” the film stars musician Charlie XCX alongside Emma Corrin, Richard E. Grant and Felicity Jones.
A House of Dynamite
Oscar winner Kathryn Bigelow returns to the director’s chair for the first time since 2017’s Detroit. In A House of Dynamite, a group of White House officials grapple with the threat of an impending missile strike on the United States.
After the Hunt
Screening out of competition is Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, described as a #MeToo thriller set at an Ivy League university. The film brings together Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny in one of the festival’s most talked about ensembles.
The Wizard of the Kremlin
Olivier Assayas adaptation of Giuliano da Empoli’s political thriller The Wizard of the Kremlin, co-written with Emmanuel Carrère, will also premiere at the festival. Set against the backdrop of Russia in the early 1990s, the story follows Vadim Baranov (Paul Dano), a young man whose path moves from artist to reality television producer, before becoming a spin doctor to rising KGB agent Vladimir Putin (Jude Law).
Ghost Elephants
Out of competition, Werner Herzog presents Ghost Elephants, a non-fiction work following Dr. Steve Boyes’ decade-long search for a hidden herd in the highlands of Angola. The screening arrives as Venice honors Herzog with the 2025 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, presented by Francis Ford Coppola.