The 82nd Venice Film Festival may be over, but the conversations on the films that premiered, the things people said, the clothes they wore, and how it affects the Oscar race are still going.
Here’s a rundown of the big moments and takeaways from this year’s edition.
What won big at the Venice Film Festival?
Jim Jarmusch’s quiet film “Father Mother Sister Brother” took the top prize, the Golden Lion. It was a surprise to many who expected that honor to go to “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which ended up with the runner up award, or “No Other Choice.”
Aside from Benny Safdie’s best director win for “The Smashing Machine,” Hollywood players were largely shut out of the awards in favor of a diverse, international selection. Chinese actor Xin Zhilei won best actress for Cai Shangjun’s “The Sun Rises on Us All,” Italian icon Toni Servillo won best actor for “La Grazia” and Swiss actor Luna Wedler took the up-and-comer prize, the Marcello Mastroianni Award, for “Silent Friend.”
Who might be an Oscars player?
The awards didn’t give many hints, but Venice has been known to launch several best actor campaigns including Joaquin Phoenix in “Joker,”Brendan Fraser in “The Whale” and Adrien Brody in “The Brutalist.” This year the most obvious heavyweight to follow is Dwayne Johnson for his turn as MMA fighter Mark Kerr in “The Smashing Machine.”
Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons were also strange and fierce as kidnapped and kidnapper in Yorgos Lanthimos’s provocative “Bugonia.” Oscar Isaac portrayed Victor Frankenstein as a romantic madman and Jacob Elordi was naïve and raw as the monster. Amanda Seyfried put a human, feminist, face to the religious sect the shakers in “The Testament of Ann Lee,” and Julia Roberts flexed her acting muscles as a Yale philosophy professor in the midst of a misconduct accusation against a colleague in “After the Hunt.”
Filmmakers like Kathryn Bigelow and previous Golden Lion winners Guillermo del Toro and Yorgos Lanthimos will also likely be in the conversation for months to come.
Why was Seth Rogen everywhere?
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.
Julia Roberts and Amanda Seyfried’s sisterhood of the traveling Versace?
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.
There was a record standing ovation
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).
Politics and war on the big screen
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.
Best quotes from the 2025 Venice Film Festival
“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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