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Venice Film Festival · 2025

Venice Film Festival 2025

Competition

Programme

20 films · 12 reviews

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At Work (À pied d'œuvre)

The true story of a successful photographer who gives up everything to devote himself to writing - and discovers poverty.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Valérie Donzelli; Writer: Valérie Donzelli, Gilles Marchand; Stars: Bastien Bouillon, André Marcon, Virginie Ledoyen)

Below The Clouds (Sotto Le Nuvole)

Review preview for Below The Clouds

Rosi expertly paints a picture of a community with all its widely varied facets.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Documenting Vesuvius, featuring traces of history, the excavation of time, the remains of everyday life.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2025; Director: Gianfranco Rosi; Writer: Gianfranco Rosi)

Full review

Bugonia

Review preview for Bugonia

While some directors spend their lives crafting love letters to the worlds they create, Yorgos Lanthimos has developed a fine line in cinematic hate mail to humanity.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Two conspiracy-obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.

(Country: Ireland, South Korea, Canada, United States; Year: 2025; Director: Yorgos Lanthimos; Writer: Jang Joon-hwan, Will Tracy; Stars: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Alicia Silverstone, Stavros Halkios)

Full review

Duse

Review preview for Duse

Duse is as much about the rise of fascism as it is about the decision making of an artist at a precarious time in her life.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Eleonora Duse’s legendary career seems over, but in the ferocious times between the Great War and the rise of fascism, the Divina feels a call stronger than any resignation and returns to where her life began: on stage.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2025; Director: Pietro Marcello; Writer: Letizia Russo, Guido Silei, Pietro Marcello; Stars: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Fanni Wrochna, Noémie Merlant, Fausto Russo Alesi, Edoardo Sorgente, Vincenzo Nemolato, with the participation of Noémie Lvovsky)

Full review

Elisa

Elisa, thirty-five, has been in prison for ten years, convicted of killing her older sister without apparent motive and burning her body. She claims to remember little to nothing of the crime, as if she had drawn a veil of silence between herself and the past. But when she decides to meet with criminologist Alaoui and take part in his research, in a tense and relentless dialogue memories begin to take shape.

(Country: Italy, Switzerland; Year: 2025; Director: Leonardo Di Costanzo; Writer: Leonardo Di Costanzo, Bruno Oliviero, Valia Santella; Stars: Barbara Ronchi, Roschdy Zem, Diego Ribon, Valeria Golino)

Father Mother Sister Brother

Three stories all concern the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parent (or parents) and each other. Each of the three chapters takes place in the present, and each in a different country.

(Country: US, Ireland, France; Year: 2025; Director: Jim Jarmusch; Writer: Jim Jarmusch; Stars: Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Sarah Greene, Indya Moore, Luka Sabbat, Françoise Lebrun)

Frankenstein

Review preview for Frankenstein

There is a magnetism to it all.

Andrew Robertson · 5 out of 5
A brilliant but egotistical scientist brings a creature to life in a monstrous experiment that ultimately leads to the undoing of both the creator and his tragic creation

(Country: Mexico, US; Year: 2025; Director: Guillermo Del Toro; Writer: Guillermo Del Toro, based on the book by Mary Shelley; Stars: Ralph Ineson, Mia Goth, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Oscar Isaac, Charles Dance, Christian Convery, David Bradley)

Full review

Girl

A young girl finds solace in her friendship with another girl of a similar name, who embodies the dreams she has suppressed. However, her aspirations are challenged by her mother’s past, which mirrors her own struggles and traps her in a cycle of despair.

(Country: China; Year: 2025; Director: Shu Qi; Writer: Shu Qi; Stars: Roy Chiu, 9m88, Bai Xiao-Ying)

A House Of Dynamite

Review preview for A House Of Dynamite

In A House Of Dynamite the uncertainties are propulsive, what we learn unsettling. Each tick of the clock reorients our understanding of the same events.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
When a single, unattributed missile is launched at the United States, a race begins to determine who is responsible and how to respond.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Kathryn Bigelow; Writer: Noah Oppenheim; Stars: Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Gabriel Basso, Jared Harris, Tracy Letts, Anthony Ramos, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King, Greta Lee, Jason Clarke)

Full review

Jay Kelly

Review preview for Jay Kelly

It cannot be denied that Jay Kelly is interested in exploring the human condition through the lens of fame and fatherhood, but the romantic, sentimental, and saccharine tones come with a risk.

Paul Risker · 3 out of 5
Famous movie actor Jay Kelly and his devoted manager Ron embark on a whirlwind and unexpectedly profound journey. Both are forced to confront choices they've made, their relationships with loved ones and the legacies they'll leave behind.

(Country: US, UK, Italy; Year: 2025; Director: Noah Baumbach; Writer: Noah Baumbach, Emily Mortimer; Stars: George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Greta Gerwig, Patrick Wilson, Riley Keough, Emily Mortimer)

Full review

No Other Choice (Eojjeol suga eopda)

Review preview for No Other Choice

Park keeps inviting us to laugh, then forcing us to confront what, exactly, we’re laughing at.

Edin Custo · 4 out of 5
When a man loses his job he finds himself drifting before deciding to take things into his own hands...

(Country: South Korea; Year: 2025; Director: Park Chan-wook; Writer: Park Chan-wook, Lee Kyoung-mi, Don McKellar, Jahye Lee; Stars: Lee Byung-hun, Son Yej-in, Park Hee-soon, Lee Sung-min, Yeom Hye-ran, Cha Seung-won)

Full review

Orphan

1957. In Budapest, after the uprising against the Communist regime, a young Jewish boy, Andor - raised by his mother with idealised tales of his deceased father - has his world turned upside down when a brutish man appears, claiming to be his true father.

(Country: Hungary; Year: 2025; Director: László Nemes; Writer: László Nemes, Clara Royer; Stars: Bojtorján Barábas, Andrea Waskovics, Grégory Gadebois, Elíz Szabó, Sándor Soma, Marcin Czarnik)

Silent Friend

Tales told from the perspective of a lonely old tree standing in the middle of a botanical garden.

(Country: Greece, France, Hungary; Year: 2025; Director: Ildikó Enyedi; Writer: Ildikó Enyedi, Tina Kaiser; Stars: Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm, Léa Seydoux, Sylvester Groth, Yun Huang)

The Smashing Machine

Review preview for The Smashing Machine

Repetition also works against Safdie, with matches towards the end of the film feeling as though he is labouring the point.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
The story of legendary mixed martial arts and UFC fighter Mark Kerr.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Benny Safdie; Writer: Benny Safdie; Stars: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt)

Full review

The Stranger (L'Etranger)

Review preview for The Stranger

Ozon remains faithful to the source and keeps its sense of mystery but has strengthened the female characters

Richard Mowe · 4 out of 5
Adaptation of Camus' classic.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: François Ozon; Writer: François Ozon, , based on the book by Albert Camus; Stars: Benjamin Voisin, Rebecca Marder, Pierre Lottin, Swann Arlaud, Denis Lavant)

Full review See: Ozon on the challenges of tackling Camus' masterwork The Stranger , Benjamin Voisin on Camus, Ozon and learning not to act in The Stranger , Denis Lavant on the art of constructing personas in Redoubt and The Stranger

The Sun Rises On Us All

He sacrificed himself for love, taking the blame for a crime she committed. Unable to repay him for the sacrifice he made, she leaves to start a new life. Many years later, the former lovers meet again, but their estranged yet intertwined daily lives gradually unveil their tragic past.

(Country: China; Year: 2025; Director: Cai Shangjun; Writer: Han Nianjin, Cai Shangjun; Stars: Xin Zhilei, Zhang Songwen, Feng Shaofeng)

The Testament Of Ann Lee

Review preview for The Testament Of Ann Lee

Made with consummate care, the film stands out for its exquisite cinematography.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
An epic fable inspired by the life of Ann Lee, the founder of the Shakers, a radical religious movement that began in the late 1700s.

(Country: UK; Year: 2025; Director: Mona Fastvold; Writer: Mona Fastvold, Brady Corbet; Stars: Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott, Matthew Beard, Scott Handy, Jamie Bogyo, Viola Prettejohn, David Cale)

Full review See: Amanda Seyfried and Mona Fastvold on music, Mancunian and money in The Testament Of Ann Lee

Un Film Fatto Per Bene

The shooting of Franco Maresco’s film about Carmelo Bene is abruptly interrupted after yet another accident on set. Pulling the plug is the producer Andrea Occhipinti, frustrated by the endless takes and constant delays. Meanwhile, Maresco accuses the production of “filmicide” before vanishing without a trace.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2025; Director: Franco Maresco; Writer: Franco Maresco, Claudia Uzzo, con Umberto Cantone, Francesco Guttuso; Stars: Franco Maresco, Umberto Cantone, Bernardo Greco, Francesco Conticelli, Marco Alessi, Francesco Puma, Antonio Rezza)

The Voice Of Hind Rajab

Review preview for The Voice Of Hind Rajab

There is some very good work here, and all of it tempered where it needs to be, to give due prominence to Hind herself.

Jennie Kermode · 5 out of 5
January 29, 2024. Red Crescent volunteers receive an emergency call. A six-year old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying to keep her on the line, they do everything they can to get an ambulance to her.

(Country: Tunisia, France; Year: 2025; Director: Kaouther Ben Hania; Writer: Kaouther Ben Hania; Stars: Saja Kilani, Motaz Malhees, Clara Khoury, Amer Hlehel)

Full review

The Wizard Of The Kremlin

Review preview for The Wizard Of The Kremlin

Dano has chosen to use the same flat vocal expression throughout, a technique well suited to satire which might have worked if only the rest of the film had been a bit more lively.

Jennie Kermode · 2.5 out of 5
Russia, early 1990s. Amid post-Soviet chaos, a brilliant young man, Vadim Baranov, charts his path. First an artist, then a reality show producer, he becomes the spin doctor to a rising KGB agent: Vladimir Putin.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Olivier Assayas; Writer: Olivier Assayas, Emmanuel Carrère, based on the novel by Giuliano Da Empoli; Stars: Paul Dano, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander)

Full review See: Interview with Olivier Assayas about The Wizard Of The Kremlin