10 gems to look out for at Venice Film Festival 2025

Based on the canonical One Thousand and One Nights, Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights of Hero is particularly noteworthy as one of the first (of many) screen roles of ‘brat’ star Charli XCX. Described as a ‘feminist fairytale’, the film—which will close the Critic’s Week sidebar—also sees performances from Emma Corrin, Richard E Grant and Felicity Jones. 

Plot details are heavily under wraps for La Grazia, the latest feature from Italian master Paolo Sorrentino, which will open the Venice Film Festival later this month. We do know however, that it is Toni Servillo’s seventh collaboration with Sorrentino. 

The new film from indie American director Jim Jarmusch is about “estranged siblings who reunite after years apart, forced to confront unresolved tensions and reevaluate their strained relationships with their emotionally distant parents.” It stars Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Tom Waits, Charlotte Rampling, Indya Moore, and Luka Sabbat.

Uncut Gems directors The Safdie brothers are going head to head this year with their own solo movies, and first up is Benny Safdie with a sports biopic that sees Dwayne Johnson enter the ring as MMA fighter Mark Kerr. The role marks a major shift for Johnson, who is making a bid for best actor after a career of action and comedy blockbusters.

One of the great contemporary filmmakers, Park Chan-wook’s follow up to his acclaimed Decision To Leave looks as deliciously twisted and darkly funny as the rest in his oeuvre, following a recently-fired salary man who will stop at nothing to find employment—even murder.

From an early trailer, Guadagnino’s latest offering After the Hunt, is suggesting a more grounded feel for the typically romantic auteur. A #MeToo thriller set at an Ivy League university, its buzzy cast includes Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbar and Chloë Sevigny.

Argentinian auteur Lucrecia Martel is following up her 2017 feature Zama with a documentary. Nuestra Tierra—meaning ‘our earth’—tells the story of the murder of activist Javier Chocbar, and the expulsion of his indigenous community from their ancestral land.

Pioneering American filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow’s first film in just under a decade  (2017’s Detroit) sees her journey into Washington for a tense political thriller about a group of White House officials who must deal with an impending missile strike on the U.S.

Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit has steadily established himself as one of Thailand’s most brightest directors with thoughtful, inventive features like Happy Old Year and Mary Is Happy, Mary is Happy. Not much is known about his latest Human Resources, but Thamrongrattanarit’s stellar track record suggests that this out of competition entry will be well worth seeking out at the festival this year.

An adaptation of Giuliano da Emploli’s political thriller—co-written by Emmanuel Carrere—Olivier Assayas The Wizard of The Kremlin follows a fictional character who transforms from a young artist in the 90s to a spin doctor in the final years of the Soviet Union.