Eight talking points from the Venice 2025 line-up: long films, starry nights, political play

The selection for the 82nd Venice Film Festival (August 27-September 6) was unveiled today by artistic director Alberto Barbera and festival president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco.

Screen assesses the key talking points from this year’s line-up, including the challenges of long films, a competitive Netflix return, and several political selections.

Loooong movies

While announcing Julian Schnabel’s 150-minute Hand Of Dante as part of Venice’s out-of-competition line-up, Alberto Barbera took time out to muse on the “concerning” trend for longer films.  

“Most of the movies this year…last from two hours up to two hours and 30 minutes. This is the new international standard,” said Barbera.

It’s a challenge, he lamented, for programming a festival like Venice “because packing them in our agenda is quite a problem”.

Among the long-runners in Competition are Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein at 149 minutes and Ildiko Enyedi’s Silent Friend, which clocks in at 145 minutes.

Of the 21 films in Competition, another six are over 130 minutes long: Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, Cai Shanjun’s The Sun Rises On Us All, Mona Fastvold’s The Testament Of Ann Lee, Laszlo Nemes’s Orphan and Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice.  

The shortest Competition title is Kaouther Ben Hania’sThe Voice Of Hind Rajab at a brisk 89 minutes.

Elsewhere, Luca Guadagnino’s After The Hunt runs for 139 minutes out of competition. But this pales into comparison with the festival’s big beast: veteran Russian director Alexandr Sokurov’s out-of-competition title Director’s Diary, which clocks in at 305 minutes – or a little over five hours.

Barbera has form in criticising the length of movies. He said similar things last year, noting “an expansion of the lengths and conventions of traditional narratives”. That said, one of Venice 2024’s longest films, Brady Corbet’s 215-minute-long The Brutalist, went on to win three Oscars.

Political play

Berlin has long been considered the most overtly political of the major festivals, but several titles this year see Venice challenging for that descriptor.

Jude Law plays Vladimir Putin in Olivier Assayas’s Competition entry The Wizard Of The Kremlin. While the film focuses on the Russian president’s rise to power instead of contemporary actions, it will still be viewed in the political context of the day, including the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. Expect Assayas and Law to field some spicy questions at the press conference.

Cancel culture is in the spotlight of Guadagnino’s out-of-competition title After The Hunt, in which a college professor finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star pupil levels an accusation at one of her colleagues. Todd Field’s Tár, which also looked at the contemporary issue of public ‘cancellation’, debuted at Venice in 2022; while Guadagninostood by his Call Me By Your Name  star Armie Hammer that same year after the latter faced public criticism amid accusations of sexual misconduct.

The ongoing Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip has been a prominent topic at festivals – both film and beyond – in recent weeks. Tunisian director Ben Hania’s The Voice Of Hind Rajab, about the killing of a five-year-old Palestinian girl in Gaza in January 2024, will put the conflict in focus again, while attending talent may take the red carpet opportunity to speak out. Several likely Venice guests such as After The Hunt’s Ayo Edebiri have previously called for a ceasefire in the region.

It remains to be seen whether Israeli actress Gal Gadot, star of Schnabel’s Hand Of Dante and advocate for the release of the Israeli hostages, will attend the festival, after filming of Kevin Macdonald’s The Runner in London this year was disrupted by pro-Palestinian activists due to her involvement.

Red carpet attraction

Last year’s festival brought back the brightest stars, after 2023’s lower wattage strike-afflicted edition. Venice will continue to shine in 2025 with an array of US, UK and international guests that will excite media – providing they can get access to them.

From the US, potential guests include George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Oscar Isaac, Adam Sandler, Dwayne Johnson, Greta Gerwig, Colman Domingo, Emma Stone, Amanda Seyfried and Jason Momoa.

UK and Irish talent are also well-represented, with red carpet sightings likely to include Jude Law, Felicity Jones, Idris Elba, Emily Blunt, Andrew Garfield, Gerard Butler, Jessie Buckley – and Comic Relief co-founder Lenny Henry.

International attendees may include Cate Blanchett, Gadot, Alicia Vikander, Rebecca Ferguson, Lea Seydoux, Tony Leung Chiu-wai, Noomi Rapace, Mads Mikkelsen, Lee Byung-hun, and homegrown Italian talents Benedetta Porcaroli, Toni Servillo, Valeria Golino and Pierfrancesco Favino.

The festival is also consistent in inviting the next generation of stars. Edebiri, Lewis Pullman, Dacre Montgomery, Jacob Elordi, Emma Corrin, Nicholas Galitzine, George MacKay and Callum Turner will all be flying the flag for the younger cohort; while possibly the biggest star of them all right now is taking her first steps into the film world: music icon Charli XCX, cast member of Julia Jackman’s Critics’ Week title 100 Nights Of Hero.

UK-Ireland on display  

UK-Ireland directors, actors, producers, funders and filming locations are well-represented through the full breadth of the Venice line-up, despite no films by UK or Ireland directors in Competition. 

London-based David Heyman’s Heyday Films produced Baumbach’s Competition title Jay Kelly, which partly shot in the UK and features Jim Broadbent, Lenny Henry, Emily Mortimer, Thaddea Graham, Louis Partridge, Eve Hewson and Jamie Demetriou among the cast.  

US filmmaker Jim Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother, also in Competition, is an anthology of three stories, which shot across the US, France and Ireland. Mubi is a producer on the project, with Ireland’s Hail Mary a co-producer, and funding from Screen Ireland.

Greek auteur Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest Bugonia sees him reteam with his regular Dublin and London-based production partner Element Pictures and Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan, with shooting taking place in the UK last summer.

The Zone Of Interest producer Jim Wilson is among the producers of The Voice Of Hind Rajab, with Film4 one of the backers.

Norwegian filmmaker Fastvold’s The Testament Of Ann Lee has involvement from UK producers Mid March Media and Intake Films, while among the producers on Nemes’s Hungarian family drama Orphan is Mike Goodridge through his UK outfit Good Chaos, with UK Global Screen Fund backing. 

Out of competition, the UK stamp can be seen in the non-fiction category with UK filmmakers Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth’s Marianne Faithfull documentary Broken English.

Mark Jenkin’s Cornwall-set Rose Of Nevada is making its world premiere in Horizons. UK producer Denzil Monk produced the film starring Callum Turner and George MacKay with backing from the BFI and Film4; the UK’s Protagonist Pictures reps worldwide sales.

Read more about UK and Ireland talent in Venice here. 

Beefy non-fiction launchpad

Slowly but surely, Venice has beefed up the size and quality of its documentary offer – and shows signs of starting to rival Sundance as a major launchpad for non-fiction features.

This year’s line-up has documentaries by a string of high-profile names. Sofia Coppola’s Marc By Sofia is a portrait of fashion designer Marc Jacobs. Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants follows a mysterious herd of elephants in the jungles of Angola. Lucrecia Martel premieres her long-awaited Nuestra Tierra about the murder of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar. Laura Poitras – who won the 2022 Golden Lion for All The Beauty And The Bloodshed – and Mark Obenhaus’s Cover-Up is about investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. And Tamara Kotevska, double-Oscar nominated for 2019’s Honeyland, brings The Tale Of Sylian.

The roll call of names goes on, with other docs in the line-up by Tsai Ming-Liang, Alexandr Sokurhov, Alexander Rodnyansky and Andriy Alferov, Pollard and Forsyth, and Ross McElwee.

Two years ago, the festival played six documentaries in its out-of-competition non-fiction section, rising to 11 last year. In 2025, Venice has programmed 19, counting the four music-themed docs that make up its new ‘Film & Music’ section.

“It’s more than usual,” said Barbera. “A sign that this segment of audiovisual production is growing, both in terms of quality and attention from the public.” 

Two new sections

Venice’s Horizons Extra strand appears to have lasted just four editions of the festival and has been reformed for this year’s edition as Spotlight. Barbera did not go into detail on the programming strategy for the section; the former Horizons Extra strand focused on offbeat world cinema features with no genre restrictions.

Among the eight titles in the new Spotlight strand are Potsy Ponciroli’s US crime drama Motor City, starring Shailene Woodley and Ben Foster; Stephan Komandarev’s Made In EU, set in a clothing factory during the Covid pandemic; and Spanish-language drama Calle Malaga  from The Blue Caftan filmmaker Maryam Touzani.

The aforementioned ‘Film & Music’ strand added to out of competition consists of four films for its first outing, led by Robert Gordon’s Newport And The Great Folk Dream about the 1960s music event that cemented Bob Dylan’s renown and featured heavily in James Mangold’s A Complete Unknown­­.

Streamers

Netflix is back in force at Venice, after skipping the festival last year amid a strike-impacted slate and change of film leadership (with Dan Lin replacing Scott Stuber). The streaming giant returns with three major Oscar contenders in Competition with stacked casts: Baumbach’s Jay Kelly starring Clooney, Adam Sandler and Laura Dern; Bigelow’s political thriller A House Of Dynamite starring Elba and Ferguson; and del Toro’s Frankenstein featuring Isaac, Elordi and Mia Goth. The company also has serial killer series Il Mostro from Gomorrah creator Stefano Sollima. 

Netflix’s strong showing is in contrast to the relative absence of the other major streamers on the Lido this year. Amazon MGM Studios has one title – After The Hunt  – while Apple Original Films is absent entirely, one year after it launched Wolfs starring George Clooney and Brad Pitt at the festival. Paul Greengrass’s The Lost Bus, Apple’s big-ticket fall festival film, is headed to Toronto instead.

Having bought a slew of titles from the Cannes Competition lineup, Mubi will make its presence felt in Venice too. The company holds rights to four of the 21 Competition titles: Sorrentino’s festival opener La Grazia, Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother and Nemes’s Orphan.

Female filmmakers  

Six of the 21 films in Competition are directed by women, which is roughly on a par with last year, in which seven female directors were selected across six films. 

Bigelow returns to Venice with A House Of Dynamite, having previously graced the Lido with The Hurt Locker in 2008. 

Ben Hania also returns to Venice after The Man Who Sold His Skin played in Horizons in 2020, as does Fastvold, who co-wrote 2023 Silver Lion winner The Brutalist  and whose second feature as a director, The World To Come, screened in the festival’s competition lineup in 2020.

There’s also A Pied D’Oeuvre from France’s Valérie Donzelli, who starred in Cedric Kahn’s 2023 Venice title Making Of; Girl, the directorial debut from Taiwan-born actor Shu Qi; and Silent Friend, from Hungary’s Golden Bear winner Enyedi.

There are four films with female directors in the non-fiction out-of-competition strand, with a further three films with female co-director credits, although no women are in any of the other out-of-comp categories. 

In Horizons, 26% of the directors are female, an improvement on 21% last year. In Venice Spotlight, there are also positive movements, with five female directors across four films, up on last year’s Horizons Extra (as Spotlight was previously known), which had just one female director, listed as a co-director.

Black filmmakers continue to be poorly represented in the line-up. As per last year, there are no Black filmmakers in Competition or out of competition. 

• Venice Critics’ Week line-up includes 100 Nights Of Hero with Emma Corrin, Charli XCX