The Venice Film Festival has long been cinema’s grand stage for auteurs and daring premieres, and the 82nd edition continues that legacy with one of its most stacked lineups in recent memory. Running from August 27 to September 6, 2025, Venice cements itself as the launching pad for prestige titles, major awards hopefuls, and visionary international works. This year’s Competition slate is loaded with heavy hitters: Paolo Sorrentino returns to his home turf with the opulent political drama “La Grazia,” while Yorgos Lanthimos unveils his eccentric sci-fi satire “Bugonia” following the acclaim of “Poor Things” with yet another Emma Stone collaboration. Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly” reteams him with Adam Sandler and George Clooney, Guillermo del Toro resurrects “Frankenstein” with his signature gothic flourish, Benny Safdie humanizes an MMA fighter (Dwayne Johnson) in “The Smashing Machine,” and Kathryn Bigelow storms back with political thriller “A House of Dynamite.” Competition also features films by Jim Jarmusch, Olivier Assayas, and Park Chan-wook, among many others.

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Beyond Competition, Venice’s Out-of-Competition and Orizzonti sections feature prominent names like Luca Guadagnino, Werner Herzog, Sofia Coppola, Julian Schnabel, Mark Jenkin, and Charlie Kaufman alongside international voices such as Teona Strugar Mitevska and Lucrecia Martel. From bold studio gambits to singular arthouse visions, Venice 2025 feels like a festival firing on all cylinders, offering a striking cross-section of contemporary cinema. Here are 20 of the most anticipated world premieres to watch from this year’s lineup.

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Venezia 82 Competition

“La Grazia”
Italian filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino opens Venice with a mournful chamber of power: Toni Servillo’s master strategist sees a carefully staged life buckle under scandal and a long-deferred crisis of faith, with Anna Ferzetti, Massimo Venturiello, Orlando Cinque, Milvia Marigliano, Giovanna Guida, and Giuseppe Gaiani orbiting the fallout.

“Jay Kelly”
Co-written by Noah Baumbach and Emily Mortimer, writer-director Baumbach rides a rueful European loop as a fading American star (George Clooney) and his loyal manager (Adam Sandler) crisscross festivals and backlots to salvage a passion project; the road keeps throwing up ghosts and temptations—Laura Dern, Riley Keough, Patrick Wilson, Greta Gerwig, Jim Broadbent, and Billy Crudup—as the duo reckon with aging, ego, and what friendship still owes.

“Frankenstein”
Mexican fantasist Guillermo del Toro recasts Shelley’s myth as a tragic romance and parental nightmare: a scientist defeats death and creates a sentient outcast who learns cruelty from the world that made him, with Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi at the center and Mia Goth, Christoph Waltz, Felix Kammerer, Charles Dance, and Lars Mikkelsen tightening the emotional vise.

“A House of Dynamite”
From action formalist Kathryn Bigelow comes a real-time brink: an unclaimed missile lights up U.S. radar, and a White House team has minutes to parse intel before the world changes—Idris Elba and Rebecca Ferguson anchor a crisis room populated by Jared Harris, Anthony Ramos, Tracy Letts, Moses Ingram, Greta Lee, and Jonah Hauer-King.

“Bugonia”
Greek Weird Wave iconoclast Yorgos Lanthimos steers a deranged kidnapping by true believers convinced their captive is an alien overlord; Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons needle the boundary between deadpan and mania as Alicia Silverstone, Stavros Halkias, and Aidan Delbis push the conspiracy toward heartbreak.

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