The Venice Film Festival, one of cinema’s most prestigious showcases, opens its 82nd edition this Wednesday on the city’s sandy Lido, promising a blend of Hollywood glamour, heavyweight directors, and politically charged storytelling.
Stars including Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Emma Stone, and Jude Law are expected to glide into the festival by water taxi, igniting the usual frenzy of fans and flashing cameras. Roberts makes her Venice debut in Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt, a drama about a sexual assault case at a U.S. university, while Clooney returns in Noah Baumbach’s Netflix-backed Jay Kelly, alongside Adam Sandler.
The lineup mixes blockbuster spectacles with independent gems. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson takes center stage in Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, portraying an aging wrestler, while acclaimed auteurs such as Werner Herzog, Gus Van Sant, Jim Jarmusch, Kathryn Bigelow, and Park Chan-wook bring new works. Paolo Sorrentino opens the festival with La Grazia, a love story set in Italy, starring longtime collaborator Toni Servillo.
As ever, Venice is a launchpad for Oscar hopefuls, with past Golden Lion winners like Nomadland and Joker securing Academy Awards glory. This year’s jury, led by two-time Oscar winner Alexander Payne, will decide the top prize from 21 films in competition.
But the red carpet glitz is shadowed by politics. The Gaza war looms large, with the activist group Venice4Palestine calling for protests and urging the festival to take a stance against Israeli actions. Their petition targeted stars Gerard Butler and Gal Gadot, both appearing in Julian Schnabel’s In the Hand of Dante. In response, organizers defended Venice as a space for open debate, highlighting Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, which recounts the tragic death of a Palestinian girl in Gaza through real emergency call recordings.
Other politically charged entries include Olivier Assayas’s The Wizard of the Kremlin, featuring Jude Law as Vladimir Putin, and Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, starring Idris Elba. Yorgos Lanthimos reunites with Emma Stone for the sci-fi Bugonia, while Guillermo del Toro offers a lavish reimagining of Frankenstein with Oscar Isaac.
With its mix of star power, provocative themes, and cinematic artistry, Venice 2025 looks set to reaffirm its place as a defining stage for global cinema.
