Forget red carpets and gondola selfies—Venice 2025 was all about cinema that’s going to dominate the next twelve months. Julia Roberts in a post-#MeToo psychodrama? Check. Clooney and Sandler teaming up for an existential Euro trip? Absolutely. A tree as a main character? Why not. Here’s your crash course in the movies everyone’s going to be talking about.
A House of Dynamite
Release Date: September 2
Kathryn Bigelow returns with a political thriller that already feels like it’ll ignite conversations. Written by Noah Oppenheim, A House of Dynamite promises the kind of high-stakes storytelling Bigelow thrives on—expect tension, corruption, and a few moral grenades.
The Smashing Machine
Release Date: October 3
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson sheds 27 kilos to play MMA legend Mark Kerr in this gritty biopic. The film follows Kerr’s rise in the brutal fight world alongside his battles with addiction and personal demons. Venice gave us a first look at a Rock we’ve never seen before.
After The Hunt
Release Date: October 22
Luca Guadagnino, the master of sensual chaos, serves up a post-#MeToo psychodrama with Julia Roberts at its centre. She plays a professor whose world collapses after a student accuses her colleague of sexual assault. Star-studded, divisive, and guaranteed to spark debate.
Bugonia
Release Date: October 31
Emma Stone and Yorgos Lanthimos clearly can’t quit each other. This time, Stone plays a woman convinced she’s an alien bent on destroying Earth, until she’s kidnapped by two paranoid conspiracy theorists. Expect absurdity, existential dread, and a heavy dose of dark comedy.
Marc by Sofia
Release Date: TBD
Sofia Coppola swaps fiction for documentary with an intimate portrait of her longtime friend, designer Marc Jacobs. After Priscilla and Lost in Translation, this promises to be a softer, more personal take—but still drenched in Coppola’s signature melancholy.
Frankenstein
Release Date: November 7 (Netflix)
Guillermo del Toro puts his gothic stamp on Mary Shelley’s classic. Oscar Isaac is Dr. Frankenstein, Jacob Elordi is the Creature, and Andrew Garfield joins the cast too. Consider this one your must-watch horror revival of the year.
The Testament of Ann Lee
Release Date: TBD
A biopic of Ann Lee, the radical 18th-century leader of the Shakers, who declared herself the female Jesus Christ. It’s one of those projects that could either be groundbreaking or stir endless controversy—Venice audiences leaned toward the former.
Jay Kelly
Release Date: December 5
George Clooney and Adam Sandler in a Noah Baumbach film. Yes, really. Clooney plays a fading movie star, Sandler his weary manager, and together they wander through Europe reckoning with love, legacy, and regret. Baumbach hasn’t felt this personal since Marriage Story.
No Other Choice
Release Date: TBD
Park Chan-wook adapts Donald Westlake’s The Ax into a Korean black comedy thriller. With Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin leading the cast, expect blood, biting humour, and Park’s signature cocktail of elegance and brutality.
Father Mother Sister Brother
Release Date: December 18
Jim Jarmusch brings together Cate Blanchett, Adam Driver, Tom Waits, and Vicky Krieps in an anthology comedy-drama that explores modern family in all its messy, surreal glory. A film as cool and oddball as its cast list.
Cover-Up
Release Date: TBD
Laura Poitras turns her lens on Pulitzer-winning journalist Seymour Hersh, chronicling his decades of exposing U.S. government scandals. From My Lai to Abu Ghraib, Cover-Up is essential viewing for anyone who cares about truth and accountability.
