Highlights and Recap: The 2025 Venice Film Festival

The 82nd Venice Film Festival recently concluded in Venice, Italy, yet discussions about the films that debuted, the remarks made, the fashion choices, and their potential impact on the Oscars are still ongoing.

Here’s a rundown of the big moments and takeaways from this year’s edition.

Jim Jarmusch’s subtle film “Father Mother Sister Brother” won the prestigious Golden Lion award. This came as a surprise to many who had anticipated the honor would go to “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which ultimately received the runner-up prize, or “No Other Choice.”

Apart from Benny Safdie’s win for best director with “The Smashing Machine,” the awards favored a diverse international array of talent over Hollywood figures. Chinese actor Xin Zhilei earned best actress for Cai Shangjun’s “The Sun Rises on Us All,” Italian stalwart Toni Servillo was awarded best actor for “La Grazia,” and Swiss actress Luna Wedler received the Marcello Mastroianni Award for up-and-coming talent for her role in “Silent Friend.”

While the awards provided few clues, Venice has a reputation for launching successful best actor campaigns, such as Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker,” Brendan Fraser in “The Whale,” and Adrien Brody in “The Brutalist.” This year, Dwayne Johnson’s performance as MMA fighter Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine” is likely to be closely watched.

Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons delivered intense performances as a captive and her captor in Yorgos Lanthimos’s daring film “Bugonia.” Oscar Isaac portrayed Victor Frankenstein as a romantically-driven madman, and Jacob Elordi gave a raw portrayal as the monster. Amanda Seyfried brought a personal, feminist perspective to the religious sect in “The Testament of Ann Lee,” while Julia Roberts showcased her range playing a Yale philosophy professor embroiled in the fallout of a colleague’s misconduct scandal in “After the Hunt.”

Directors like Kathryn Bigelow, along with former Golden Lion winners Guillermo del Toro and Yorgos Lanthimos, are expected to remain topics of discussion for some time.

There’s always some unexpected Hollywood person at the Venice Film Festival who doesn’t seem to be associated with any one film. Sometimes they’ve come in for amfAR, sometimes they’ve been invited by one of the festival’s sponsors. But text chains started blowing up when Seth Rogen started popping up everywhere: Red carpets, press conferences, parties. Don’t be surprised if there’s a Venice episode of “The Studio” in the works: This trip was research, and maybe even a little more.

In a cute, unexpected (possibly highly staged) moment during the festival, Amanda Seyfried commented on Julia Roberts’ Instagram asking to “please let me wear the same outfit.” Three days later, Seyfried was also rocking the Versace blazer, jeans, button up and belt, just with different shoes. It helps that they share a stylist, Elizabeth Stewart.

First, let’s just make clear that entertainment trade publications only started tracking Venice standing ovations recently. This year, audiences at the premiere of “The Voice of Hind Rajab” applauded for 22-minutes, surpassing the 18-minute record set last year by “The Room Next Door,” which went on to win the Golden Lion. Even with a limited data set, that’s a long time to clap after a movie.

Other standing ovation times from the 82nd festival: “After the Hunt” ((tilde)5 minutes), “Bugonia” ((tilde)6 minutes), “No Other Choice” ((tilde)7 minutes), “Jay Kelly” ((tilde)9 minutes), “The Wizard of the Kremlin” ((tilde)10 minutes), “A House of Dynamite” ((tilde)11 minutes), “Frankenstein” ((tilde)14 minutes), “The Testament of Ann Lee” ((tilde)15 minutes), “The Smashing Machine” ((tilde)15 minutes).

The festival might not take political stances, but politics, and filmmakers grappling with the state of the world, from the Israel-Hamas conflict to nuclear weapons, were clearly top of mind. Kathryn Bigelow set off a warning shot about nuclear weapons and the apparatus of decision making with her urgent, and distressingly realistic, thriller “A House of Dynamite.” Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania made an essential document of the human toll in Gaza with “The Voice of Hind Rajab.” And Olivier Assayas charted the rise of Vladimir Putin in “The Wizard of the Kremlin.”

Gaza also dominated conversations off screen too, from a protest that drew an estimated 10,000 people, to awards speeches.

“The real monsters are the men in suits.” — Jacob Elordi, who plays Frankenstein’s monster in a big budget Netflix film.

“I’ve been very fortunate to have the career that I’ve had and make the films that I have, but there was just this voice inside of me, this little voice, like what if I can do more.” — Dwayne Johnson on his transformative, serious turn as MMA fighter Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine.”

“I consider pretty much all corporate money is dirty money.” — Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, when asked about Mubi’s relationship with Sequoia Capital.

“How is annihilating the world a good defensive measure? I mean, what are you defending?” — Filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow on the nuclear stockpiles.

“Humanity is facing a reckoning very soon. People need to choose the right path, otherwise, I don’t know how much time we have.” — Filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos on the relevance of “Bugonia.”

“Everyone comes out with all these different feelings and emotions and points of views. And you realize what you believe in strongly and what your convictions are because we stir it all up for you. So, you’re welcome.” — Julia Roberts on the debates stirred by “After the Hunt.”

“It’s time at the end of your life to put the puzzle pieces together and make them fit.” — Kim Novak, 92, on receiving the festival’s lifetime achievement award.

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