2025 Venice Film Festival Preview: 23 Must-See Films To Watch

Competition stacks "La Grazia," "Bugonia," "Jay Kelly," "Frankenstein," and "A House of Dynamite," while Out of Competition, Orizzonti, and Critics’ Week add "Marc by Sofia," "Late Fame," and "100 Nights of Hero."

“Dead Man’s Wire”
Gus Van Sant directs “Dead Man’s Wire,” scripted by Austin Kolodney, which revisits the 1977 Indianapolis hostage crisis and the media circus that surrounded it. The ensemble includes Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Colman Domingo, Al Pacino, and Myha’la. Van Sant approaches the real-life standoff as both a tense period drama and a commentary on the volatile intersection of crime, spectacle, and public perception.

Dead Man's Wire

“Marc by Sofia”
Sofia Coppola’s first documentary feature turns her camera on Marc Jacobs, blending home-movie intimacy with runway spectacle; Roman Coppola, Jenna Rosher, and Shane Sigler chart ateliers, fittings, and backstage scrums as collaborators and friends—from fashion and music—fan the spark from sketchbook to show.

Orizzonti (Horizons)

“Mother”
Macedonian writer-director Teona Strugar Mitevska reframes Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu—before she was Mother Teresa—teaching in post-war Calcutta and edging toward a radical vocation. Noomi Rapace anchors a contemplative portrait pitched between doubt and calling.

“Rose of Nevada”
Cornwall’s coastal mythmaking filmmaker Mark Jenkin works in hand-tooled 16mm: a boat long thought lost drifts into harbor, stirring buried loyalties and hauntings. George MacKay, Callum Turner, and Mary Woodvine inhabit a briny folk mystery of rumor, song, and memory. Francis Magee and Edward Rowe co-star.

Rose Of Nevada

“The Souffleur”
Argentine formalist Gastón Solnicki offers a Viennese elegy: a devoted hotel manager (Willem Dafoe) fights redevelopment as an era slips away. Deadpan observation accumulates into an aching portrait of place, service, and quiet resistance. Dafoe’s laconic sentinel is flanked by Lilly Lindner, Claus Philipp, and Stephanie Argerich in a comedy that promises to ache.

Rodrigo Perez
Rodrigo Perez
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2008. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.

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