The 82nd Venice International Film Festival unfurled its full slate Tuesday, unveiling 21 competition titles and a clutch of star‑driven premieres that will bring a wave of awards hopefuls to the Lido from 27 August to 6 September 2025. Paolo Sorrentino’s Naples‑set drama La Grazia will raise the curtain as opening‑night film, while Erich von Stroheim’s restored silent classic Queen Kelly screens the evening before as the festival’s traditional pre‑opener.
The main competition mixes returning auteurs and first‑time contenders. Yorgos Lanthimos reunites with Emma Stone for the sci‑fi satire Bugonia; Guillermo del Toro brings his long‑gestating Frankenstein starring Oscar Isaac; Chloé Zhao adapts Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet; Benny Safdie directs Dwayne Johnson in wresting biopic The Smashing Machine; Kathryn Bigelow enters with U.S. political thriller A House of Dynamite; Noah Baumbach premieres suburban dark comedy Jay Kelly featuring George Clooney and Adam Sandler; and Park Chan‑wook lands in competition with corporate noir No Other Choice. Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania rounds out the marquee with docudrama The Voice of Hind Rajab.
Hollywood’s out‑of‑competition presence remains robust: Julia Roberts makes her Venice debut in Luca Guadagnino‑produced thriller After the Hunt, while Julian Schnabel presents the long‑awaited In the Hand of Dante and Gus Van Sant screens tech‑industry satire Dead Man’s Wire.
Festival president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco confirmed that Alexander Payne will lead a jury that also includes filmmaker Cristian Mungiu, Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres and Italian writer‑director Maura Delpero. Kim Novak and Werner Herzog will receive lifetime achievement Golden Lions during the 11‑day event.
With Venice again positioned as the first major fall showcase, analysts expect several titles to launch Oscar campaigns straight from the lagoon—a pattern underscored by the festival’s recent track record with Poor Things and Oppenheimer. Organisers say ticket requests spiked within hours of the announcement, suggesting that star wattage from Roberts, Clooney, Stone and Johnson, combined with a slate heavy on auteur visions, could deliver one of the festival’s most commercially potent editions yet.
