The 2025 Venice Film Festival features a lineup of films with British talent, setting the stage for the upcoming Awards season. Explore the British-made films and those starring UK actors at the festival.
The 2025 Venice Film Festival Line Up is Stacked with British Talent
It's mid-August, which means that preparations for Autumn 2025 are in full swing. Kids are shopping for back to school, college kids are heading back to their dorms, and the Spooky Season decor is already creeping into shops. This is a busy time for those who work in the entertainment business. Not only does the traditional TV season begin in the next few weeks, so does one of the most important parts of the calendar year: Awards season. From the end of August through the end of the year, the best films Hollywood and the International community have to offer will be released, first at high profile film festivals, and then in theaters for the rest of us.
The film festival circuit is a year round affair; Sundance begins the coming year with January debuts, followed by Berliner and Cannes. But for the majority of movie goers, that's too much to pay attention to. The result has been the coalescing of the schedule around the Venice International Film Festival and the Toronto International Film Festival, which convenient occur back-to-back at the end of August/beginning of September, strategically placed on either side of the pond. The majority of hopefuls debut at either one or both, hoping to ride a wave of good press in the weeks ahead of holiday-centered theatrical premieres.
As always, these events include several British made films; however, more importantly, they feature a run of films that put British talent front and center. Many of these films will go on to be part of the Awards conversation in early 2026, so let's run down what's on offer over in Venice as summer concludes.
In Competition
- Opening Film: La Grazia (Director: Paolo Sorrentino; Main Cast: Toni Servillo, Anna Ferzetti) Italy
- UK Films: Jay Kelly (Director: Noah Baumbach; Main Cast: George Clooney, Jim Broadbent, Lenny Henry, Emily Mortimer, Nicôle Lecky, Thaddea Graham) USA/UK/Italy
The Testament of Ann Lee (Director: Mona Fastvold; Main Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Tim Blake Nelson, Matthew Beard, Viola Prettejohn) UK
Bugonia (Director: Yorgos Lanthimos; Main Cast: Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons, Aidan Delbis, Stavros Halkias, Alicia Silverstone) UK
Orphan (Director: László Nemes; Main Cast: Bojtorján Barábas, Andrea Waskovics) Hungary/UK/Germany/France
Non-UK films starring British talent: The Wizard of the Kremlin (Director: Olivier Assayas; Main Cast: Paul Dano, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Tom Sturridge, Jeffrey Wright) France
A House of Dynamite (Director: Kathryn Bigelow; Main Cast: Idris Elba, Rebecca Ferguson, Jared Harris, Moses Ingram, Jonah Hauer-King) USA
Frankenstein (Director: Guillermo Del Toro; Main Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth, Charles Dance, David Bradley) USA
Father Mother Sister Brother (Director: Jim Jarmusch; Main Cast: Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Indya Moore) USA/Ireland/France
The Smashing Machine (Director: Benny Safdie; Main Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt) Canada/USA/Japan
Horizons (Orizzonti) Competition: Rose of Nevada (Director Mark Jenkin; Main Cast: George MacKay, Callum Turner, Francis Magee, Edward Rowe, Rosalind Eleazar, Mary Woodvine) UK
Out of Competition
- UK Films: Broken English (Directors: Jane Pollard & Iain Forsyth; Documentary) UK
Non-UK films starring British talent: After the Hunt (Director: Luca Guadagnino; Main Cast: Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg, Chloë Sevigny) USA
In the Hand of Dante (Director: Julian Schnabel; Main Cast: Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, Jason Momoa) USA/Italy
Dead Man’s Wire (Director: Gus Van Sant; Main Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Colman Domingo, Cary Elwes, Myha'la, Al Pacino) USA
The 82nd annual Venice International Film Festival runs from Wednesday, August 27 to Saturday, September 6, 2025.
Published on 13 August 2025 by Ben Robinson
