The Most Anticipated Venice International Film Festival Debuts to Watch

The Venice International Film Festival remains one of the most respected events in world cinema. Each year, it provides a platform for both celebrated filmmakers and new voices, offering premieres that have the potential to define future critique and conversation in film. The most anticipated films of 2025 are part of a large lineup of projects that embrace bold storytelling. These are the films you can't miss.

To assemble this list of the most anticipated premieres, 247 Tempo consulted major film news sources, such as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, Vogue, AP News, and Pitchfork, along with early program notes from La Biennale. For each film, we'll provide the director, key cast, reported budget (where available), and a summary of its plot to get you excited about these Venice Film Festival premieres.

The 82nd Venice International Film Festival will take place on the Lido di Venezia from August 27 to September 6, 2025, offering a platform for premieres across a range of genres and formats. The event will be presided over by jury president Isabelle Huppert, with Kim Novak and Werner Herzog receiving Golden Lion lifetime achievement awards.

The festival will showcase both high-profile feature films and genre-bending experimental titles, reinforcing its standing as a launchpad for international cinema’s most anticipated releases. These are some of those releases!

• Director: Paolo Sorrentino
• Actors: Toni Servillo, Anna Ferzetti
• Plot: A president faces an existential reckoning after a personal loss upends his moral compass.

• Director: Luca Guadagnino
• Actors: Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri
• Plot: A professor’s past resurfaces when a campus scandal threatens her career and conscience.

• Director: Guillermo del Toro
• Actors: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth
• Plot: A scientist defies nature to create life, unleashing a tragic bond between maker and monster.

• Director: Yorgos Lanthimos
• Actors: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons
• Plot: Two true believers kidnap a tech mogul they’re certain is an alien plotting Earth’s demise.

• Director: Noah Baumbach
• Actors: George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern
• Plot: A fading star and his manager embark on a European trip that forces a reckoning with fame and family.

• Director: Benny Safdie
• Actors: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt
• Budget: Reported around $70 million
• Plot: The rise of MMA legend Mark Kerr collides with addiction, love, and the cost of punishment.

• Director: Jim Jarmusch
• Actors: Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Tom Waits
• Plot: Three intimate stories trace the strange, tender ways families try to hold together.

• Director: Kathryn Bigelow
• Actors: Idris Elba, Greta Lee, Rebecca Ferguson
• Plot: A White House crisis team races to defuse a geopolitical flashpoint before it detonates.

• Director: Mona Fastvold
• Actors: Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie
• Plot: A surreal musical charts the visions and controversies surrounding the Shaker leader Ann Lee.

• Director: Sofia Coppola
• Actors: Marc Jacobs (documentary)
• Plot: A personal portrait of designer Marc Jacobs told through decades of friendship and collaboration.

• Director: Park Chan-wook
• Actors: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin
• Plot: A downsized fixer takes a ruthless path through corporate intrigue to reclaim his life.

• Director: Kaouther Ben Hania
• Actors: Saja Kilani, Clara Khoury
• Plot: A drama built around real audio follows a trapped child’s calls for help during fighting in Gaza.

• Director: Gus Van Sant
• Actors: Bill Skarsgård, Al Pacino, Dacre Montgomery
• Plot: A stranger’s bizarre kidnapping plot unravels into a true-crime odyssey of delusion and desire.

• Director: Olivier Assayas
• Actors: Jude Law
• Plot: A political operator narrates the rise of power inside Moscow’s inner circle and the propaganda that sustains it.

• Director: François Ozon
• Actors: French ensemble cast (reported)
• Plot: A contemporary retelling of Camus’s classic probes alienation, guilt, and moral ambiguity.

• Director: Maryam Touzani
• Actors: Carmen Maura, Marta Etura
• Plot: A mother fights to save her childhood home when her daughter decides to sell the family property.

• Director: Gastón Solnicki
• Actors: Willem Dafoe, Lilly Lindner
• Plot: A veteran hotel manager resists change as the landmark he loves faces demolition.

• Director: Julian Schnabel
• Actors: Ensemble cast (reported)
• Plot: A labyrinthine meditation on art, faith, and authorship that echoes across centuries.

• Director: Charlie Kaufman
• Actors: Jessie Buckley
• Plot: This meta short film transforms the process of filmmaking into a haunted-house puzzle of memory and invention.

• Director: Werner Herzog
• Actors: None (documentary)
• Plot: A reflective inquiry into myth, memory, and the traces that animals leave on human imagination.

• Director: Lucrecia Martel
• Actors: None (documentary)
• Plot: A rigorous exploration of colonial legacies and contemporary indigenous resistance.

• Director: Jane Pollard & Iain Forsyth
• Actors: Marianne Faithfull (archival), collaborators
• Plot: A poetic documentary assembles the life and art of Marianne Faithfull through song and image.