CIAO! The 82nd Annual Venice Film Festival is ongoing, and the stars are attacked by canals, and this year’s world premiere will feature Yorgos Lantimos’s thriller “Bagonia,” Noah Bambach’s showbizdramedy “Jay Kelly,” and after-campus Slager’s Rays Campus Slager’s massacre “Jay Kelly,” after-campus Slager’s massacre of “Frankensch” in Guillermo del Toro’s Rabisch adaptation “The Massacre of Frankensch.” UFC biography “Smashing Machine.”
The lineup also includes new films: Mona Fastvold, Kathryn Bigelow, Paolo Sorrentino, Jim Jalmusch, Park Chan Uk, Gus Van Sant, Lucrezia Martel, Laslo Nemes and Kauser Ben Chania. This year’s ju umpire is led by Alexander Payne, director of films such as The Holdovers, Elections and Sideways.
Venice often serves as the launch of the awards season, ahead of the onslaught of other fall festivals, including Telluride, Toronto and New York, which distributors use to lay the foundations of their campaigns in the coming months.
Check out the reviews of all variety shows from the 2025 Venice Film Festival below. Roundup is updated throughout the festival and includes the latest reviews.
“There are no other options” (dir. parkchan-wook)
Read Variety Review: Park Chan Wook’s dazzling murder comedy is a masterclass of controlled chaos. There is an interesting satire about the confusion that the Korean directors of “Oldboy”, “The Handmaiden” and “Decision of Leed” darken the competition in Venice and are diluted.
“At the workplace” (dir. Valérie Donzelli)
Read Variety Review: The writer is inspired and exploited by Valerie Donzeri’s perceptual character research gig economy. Bastian Bouillon is a wonderful embarrassing and self-denial hero in this French drama, a quiet gem of the Venetian competition.
“After the Hunt” (Director Luca Guadagnino)
Read reviews for variety: Luca Guadagnino’s sexually edited drama plays Julia Roberts like a confused “tal” as a professor exploring. The film is made of craft and intrigue, but too many things scratch their heads.
“Cover-up” (dir. laurapoitras)
Read reviews of variety: Laura Poitras’ seductive portrait of Seymour Hersh asks, “Where did all the investigative reporters go?” Fifty years later, the story reported by Hirsch – like my Rye Massacre – now looks symbolic. But the documentary captures how revealing corruption is always a mountain to climb.
“Jay Kelly” (directed by Noah Bambach)
Read Variety Review: George Clooney plays his version in Noah Bambach’s lightly deflective but overly soft Inside Hollywood drama. The main character is a movie star who is loved like Clooney.
“Bagonia” (directed by Yorgos Lantimos)
Read Variety Review: Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons descend on a rivet duel in Yorgos Lantimos’s scaldy topic lure thriller. The director is at the top of his visionary, nihilistic game with a film about what’s going on in the world.
‘orphan’ (dir. lászlónemes)
Read the Variety Review: László Nemes returns with a large amount of sepia childhood pain. The portrait of director Saul’s Son, a 12-year-old boy who faced ugly family secrets in Soviet-occupied Hungary in the 1950s, is attached to a handsome man, but is narratively inert.
“Memory” (dir. vladlena Sandu)
Read reviews of variety: an unforgettable memorial collage made from children’s war experiences, Ukrainian director Vladrena Sandhu forms the incredibly portrayed memories of war-torn Grozny, shaping the trauma of a self-determined generation, and the urgent and seductive portrait of the traumatized generation.
“La Grazia” (Dil Paolo Sorrentino)
Read Variety Review: Paolo Sorrentino holds the Venice Film Festival with a presidential drama that is more modest than usual for him. Toni Serbilo plays the Italian president. Italy has hidden depths (as in the film) and suffers from negligence.
