The 83rd Biennale will also feature new films from festival faves, Werner Herzog, Hirokazu Koreeda, Nanni Moretti, Martin McDonagh.

Irish director McDonagh, whose Three Billboards won Venice’s Golden Lion in 2017 and was last there with The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), returns to competition with Wild Horse Nine.

John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell star in the black comedy as a pair of vet CIA officers who, ahead of the 1973 Chilean coup, are sent far from the action to Easter Island. Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey co-star. Three Billboards and Banshees both received Best Picture, with the former won acting Oscars for stars Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell. Searchlight Pictures expects a similar run for Wild Horse Nine after its Venice launch.

French director Florian Zeller, last on the Lido in 2022 with The Son, returns to comeptition with Bunker. The psychological thriller stars Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz as a couple whose marriage buckles after he, a celeb architect, accepts a commission to build a bunker for a billionaire. Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger co-star. Sony Pictures Classics has picked up Bunker for North America.

German director Werner Herzog, whose docu Ghost Elephants screened out of competition in Venice last year, is in main selection with Bucking Fastard. Herzog turned down an out-of-competition slot in Cannes for his new feature, which stars siblings Rooney and Kate Mara in their first on-screen collaboration. Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson co-star. The film is still lacking domestic distributor.

Danish director May el-Toukhy (Queen of Hearts) will make her Venice debut in competition with Woman Unknown. The period drama stars Mathilde Arcel as Marie, a nanny and housemaid set to marry her boss, the wealthy older widower, Christian (Carsten Bjørnlund). But Marie’s past — her shameful affair with German soldier during occupation — threatens to catch up with her,

Cannes darling Nanni Moretti will return to the Lido with It Will Happen Tonight, a romantic drama starring Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca. The Italian director, winner of Palme d’Or for The Son’s Room (2001), was last in Venice with Palombella rossa in 1989.

Two of Asia’s acclaimed directors, Hirokazu Kore-eda and Lee Chang-dong, will present their latest, Look Back and Possible Love, respectively, in competition.

Also in competition are Casey Affleck’s 1970s-set gothic mystery, Company starring Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn, and A Bit of Light from Iranian director Ali Asgari.

Venice has already confirmed that Oscar winner Danny Boyle’s Ink, a biopic starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, about Rupert Murdoch and his British tabloid empire, will open this year’s event, on Sept. 2.

My Oscar Book:

Dio Ride, Italian period drama from director Giovanni Veronesi starring Pierfrancesco Favino (Maria, Rush) will close the fest on Sept. 12, out of competition.

Also screening out of competition, in Venice Open Non Fiction, are the most hotly-anticipated docs of this year. Alex Gibney’s long-gestating Elon Musk documentary Musk, will have its world premiere on the Lido.

As will Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger, a Hulu Original film from Peaky Blinders‘ Steven Knight directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace (Shut Up and Play the Hits) after the band’s 2025 reunion tour. Both Liam and Noel Gallagher would be on hand for the film’s premiere in Venice.

Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger will open theatrically on IMAX and select theaters on Sept. 11 before streaming on Disney+ and Hulu later this year.

Indie actress and novice director Maggie Gyllenhaal (the good The Lost Daughter, and the terrible The Bride!) is the surprising head of this year’s competitiont, picking the winner of the Golden Lion.

Among titles screening out of competition are Place to Be from Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo (Pieces of a Woman) with Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi and Pamela Anderson; Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors, the latest from Filipino auteur Lav Diaz (Season of the Devil); Paul Schrader’s The Basics of Philosophy; and the Luc Besson-produced crime thriller Father Joe, from director Barthelemy Grossman starring Kiefer Sutherland and Al Pacino.

Among the highlights of Venice’s Orizzonti or Horizons section, include Lovers in the Blue Night, the new film from India’s Anuparna Roy, whose Songs of Forgotten Trees won best director in the section last year; and Too Much Sugar, the new docu from Procession director Robert Greene.

It remains to be seen if this year’s Biennale will live up to its initial promise.

Venice last year included several high-profile premieres, but many — Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite — were artistic and commercial flops.

The only 2025 Venice title to score at the Oscars was del Toro’s Frankenstein, which picked up 9 Academy nominations, winning three, for Costume Design, Production Design and Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling.

Bugonia, from Lanthimos, another Venice world premiere, picked up three Oscar nominations but won none.

Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, which won Venice’s Silver Lion, was nominated for Best International Feature but lost out to Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value.

Venice Competition

Ink, dir. Danny Boyle (Opening Film)

Company, dir. Casey Affleck

A Bit of Light, dir. Ali Asgari

Ritorno a Buenos Aires, dir. Marco Bechi

Un Bon Petit Soldat, dir. Stephane Brize

Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro, dir. Edoardo de Angelis

Woman Unknown, dir. May el-Toukhy

Bucking Fastard, dir. Werner Herzog

Dau, dir. Ilya Khrzhanovsky

Look Back, dir. Hirokazu Koreeda

Possible Love, dir. Lee Chang-dong

Wild Horse Nine, dir. Martin McDonagh

Primetime, dir. Lance Oppenheim

The Echo Chamber, dir. Andrea Pallaoro

Un Peu Avant Minuit, dir. Nicolas Pariser

L’Estranea, dir. Paolo Strippoli

Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?, dir. Shinya Tsukamoto

Bunker, dir. Florian Zeller

Venice Spotlight

Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing, dir. Erik Shirai (Opening Film)

Hombre Al Agua, dir. Gael Garcia Bernal

Serpenti, dir. Roberto de Paolis Maino

Furies, dir. Rami Kodeih

Guria, dir. Levan Koguashvili

Ground Floor, dir. Gabor Reisz

I Matter, dir. Alina Serban

Orizzonti Competition

La Ragazza con la Leica, dir. Alina Marazzi (Opening Film)

What Belongs to Others, dir. Grzegorz Debowski

Una Storia, dir. Anna Foglietta

La Citta dei Vivi, dir. Edoardo Gabbriellini

Falling House, dir. Mohsen Gharaei

Too Much Sugar, dir. Robert Greene

The Difficult Bride, dir. Rubaiyat Hossain

La Maison du Vent, dir. Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu

I Figli Della Scimmia, dir. Tommaso Landucci

A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra, dir. Jacqueline Lentzou

Oasis, dir. Jannis Lenz

Until the Day Ends, dir. Jelena Maksimovic

La Moula, dir. Jerome Pierrat

Un Detour par Diane, dir. Ann Sirot, Raphael Balboni

The Color of the Sun, dir. Xavier Tera

Venice Open – Films on Film

Juso Per Ferie, dir. Karen di Porto

The Pervert’s Guide to Utopias, dir. Sophie Fiennes

Joie de Vivre, dir. Luca Guadagnino

Twist and Shoot Mister Suzuki, dir. Yves Montmayeur

Intermission, dir. Yonfan

Venice Open – Non Fiction

Be Brave, dir. Francesco Carrozzini

What Loves Builds, dir. Russell Crowe

Musk, dir. Alex Gibney

The Road to Jericho, dir. Amos Gitai

Citizen Osama, dir. Ahmed Hassouna

Union Town, dir. Barbara Kopple

Holy Wood Dust, dir. Victor Kossakovsky

Letters from the Silenced Country, dir. Andrei Kutsila

Biografia de Jorge Luis Borges, dir. Mariano Llinas

My Undesirable Friends Part II – Exile, dir. Julia Loktev

Boatbilders, dir. Luke Lorentzen

Imperium, dir. Sergei Loznitsa

Shumei – The Living Legacy of Kabuki, dir. Takashi Miike

Queer Edward II, dir. Theo Rollason

Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, dirs. Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace

Dust, dir. Tsai Ming-liang

Everest: The Other Side, dirs. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chan

From Inside Out – The Architecture of eter Zumthor, dir. Wim Wenders

Venice Open – Fiction

Dio Ride, Giovanni Veronesi (Closing Film)

Nessun Dolore, dir. Gianni Amelio

Father Joe, dir. Barthelemy Grossman

Scherzetto, dir. Mario Martone

Place to Be, dir. Kornel Mundruczo

No Paradise if You Are Killed by a Woman, dir. Halkawt Mustafa

Arrested Memory, dir. Sabu

The Basics of Philosophy, dir. Paul Schrader

Un Bon Avocat, dir. Tristan Seguela

Jupiter, dir. Alexandre Smia