Festival

Venice 2025 Recap – 8 Outstanding Films to Watch From the Festival

by Alex Billington
September 15, 2025

“What I want to test is not so complex…” Each year, I am lucky for the opportunity to return to the splendid city of Venice in Northern Italy to attend the Venice Film Festival and catch the latest films premiering there. This year’s festival was much better than the previous year (my recap of 2024 here) and I’ve listed the 8 best films of the festival below. This was my ninth year returning to Venice, and I’m always glad to be back, no matter how many terrific films I get to see (or bad films I have to sit through anyway). In total, I watched around 30 films at Venice this year, with many of them ending up being pretty good (phew!). The finest films of the fest were two majestically cinematic works of art by female filmmakers: The Testament of Ann Lee and Silent Friend. I would’ve been so happy with either winning the Golden Lion, but instead they ended up giving it to Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother – one of the worst films I have seen all year. Oh well, it happens. Instead, I want to highlight my favorites from Venice 2025. I always do my best to watch as many films as I can, hoping to find any hidden gems and breakout hits amidst the global selection.

As always, I keep my Letterboxd page updated with screenings and comments daily. And I have also been posting thoughts, photos, and more updates on my main Twitter account @firstshowing during the fest. And I’ve been writing reviews for a number of the films, already published over the last few weeks. Digging into the 2025 selection, more deserve to be mentioned here. Straight Circle is a superb debut by director Oscar Hudson with wildly creative filmmaking; Werner Herzog’s Ghost Elephants doc is a compelling tale of scientists & conservation; Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia is a great conversation-starter film; Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice was a let down for me but I’m happy everyone else is loving it; Mark Obenhaus & Laura Poitras’ doc Cover-Up is an awesome tribute to a fearless journalist but doesn’t go far enough (still good though). Finally – The Voice of Hind Rajab is a vitally important story, about how horrible things are in Palestine, but I don’t think the filmmaking is that interesting & it didn’t deserve to win the top prize. I’m always up for chatting about any of the films from the fest, even the ones I didn’t like can be discussed further anytime. There’s so much to talk about with each one. As for the ones I’m raving about — here we go.

Below are my Top 8 films from the 2025 Venice Film Festival; these are the films that I enjoyed the most, or those that I couldn’t stop thinking about, and I hope everyone else gives them a look, too. My favorites:

Silent Friend – Directed by Ildikó Enyedi

This is MY Golden Lion winner. The best film of the 2025 Venice Film Festival – hands down. I am still thinking about how breathtaking it was sitting in the Sala Darsena cinema watching this unravel. Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi is back with her first feature film in four years. Silent Friend is a film featuring three intertwined stories all based around a big, humble, magnificent ginkgo tree (hundreds of years old) in the middle of a garden in a university in Germany (it’s all real – this was filmed at Marburg University). The three stories are set at different times throughout the 1900s (and one in 2020 during Covid-19 lockdowns) but they all connect in a fascinating way exploring: are trees & plants sentient? Are they interacting with & observing us the same as we are observing them? Can we study this and prove this with real data? The cast is wonderful, with the highlights being Tony Leung as a researcher working alone on campus; along with students including Luna Wedler, Enzo Brumm, and Marlene Burow. The score by Gábor Keresztes & Kristóf Kelemen is exceptionally powerful & emotional. This is a kind of film that will be discovered & loved by more and more people over time. And they’ll all come to appreciate how remarkable it is and how it really does make you believe that plants are actually as live as we are and capable of communication, too. 🌳

The Testament of Ann Lee – Directed by Mona Fastvold

I was not expecting to be this AMAZED by this film. Wow is the word. The Testament of Ann Lee comes to Venice hot on the heels of last year’s The Brutalist (my #1 film of Venice 2024) because it involves the same team – co-written again by the husband & wife duo Brady Corbet & Mona Fastvold; it was also shot on film, and also features another all-timer score by Daniel Blumberg, and also tells an epic story from the past. Aside from those details, the films couldn’t be more unlike – though it is still just as brilliant as The Brutalist in many of its own unique ways. It’s a one-of-a-kind musical! The singing, the dancing, the vibes of the whole thing are extraordinary! It’s not really about religion, as many viewers believe, it’s really about a woman figuring out a way to escape the oppressive patriarchy of her time by inventing her own religion. It’s not just about a cult, it’s about a woman inventing and sticking to her dogma in order to envision a better life for her and anyone who wants to join. Amanda Seyfried is phenomenal in this – delivering a glorious best-of-this-decade performance for the ages. Don’t miss this magical cinematic creation! It’s truly stunning.

A House of Dynamite – Directed by Kathryn Bigelow

Tick, tock… What would you do – what would anyone do – if you learned that there was a nuclear missile on its way towards America and there’s now only 20 minutes until it impacts. And you must decide how to respond. Send more nukes back? They don’t even know who fired it! This extraordinarily tense, sweaty palms film is one of the most thrilling experiences I’ve had at the movies this year. It’s unbearably nerve-wracking watching these three different scenarios and many different people within the US government & military figure out what to do when they discover this missile is on the way. Kathryn Bigelow is back after years with her brand new feature film that elevates the tension from The Hurt Locker to the most extreme levels. This is properly scary cinema. It’s scary thinking about all the implications of this really happening since the attention to detail is exceptional (and it’s not about America – it’s about any country responding to a nuke). It’s also scary watching these various government officials scramble, in good and bad ways, to make careful decisions that might just result in humanity’s annihilation. Seriously incredible. Suspenseful filmmaking firing on all cylinders! A must watch film (and one to discuss endlessly) when it opens this fall.

Human Resource – Directed by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit

I caught up with this Thai film right at the end of the festival and instantly earned a spot on my Best of the Fest list. Mostly for the filmmaking above all else. Directed by Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit this plays like Thailand’s Ruben Östlund with a dash Roy Andersson. It’s a bleak, melancholic film about how horrible it is to live in the corporate, capitalist system most people are trapped in all over this planet nowadays – following one young Thai woman who works in the HR department. To be honest, it’s hard to recommend because you have to appreciate the extraordinarily dark humor hidden within the bleakness of this film. The director’s decision to let certain shots linger felt so powerful in a “we’re all so screwed” way that might not connect with every viewer. I wrote in my glowing review: “This is clever filmmaking. It’s extremely dark, yet exceptionally sharp, in its perfectly depicted sly criticism of the what-are-we-even-doing-anymore hell we all live in nowadays. I doubt it’ll wake anyone up from the delusions they’re living in. I doubt it’ll suddenly cause the world to stop being so obsessed with capitalism & corporations. But it totally slays anyway.” Yep.

Frankenstein – Directed by Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo is back! Retelling the macabre story of Dr. Victor Frankenstein! I loved this movie. I can’t even fully explain why – I was completely swept away in Guillermo del Toro’s storytelling and visuals and sets and over-saturated cinematic style. From the moment it starts, I was locked in. Guillermo re-imagines this classic tale, focusing more on the emotional storytelling, eventually getting to the most endearing part of the film – the scenes where Jacob Elordi as “The Creature”, the creation of Dr. Frankenstein, runs off on his own and “grows up” in the woods where he learns about his life and who he really is. His performance is exceptional, much more complex than a bumbling monster who can barely speak. He’s matched by Oscar Isaac co-starring as Victor, though his story is much different and takes him down other paths (which may not be as engaging for every viewer). I’ll be raving about this movie for a long time. From my full review: “I can’t wait to watch it again… Del Toro’s Frankenstein is a cinematic triumph. It represents his growth as a filmmaker and exemplifies his storytelling prowess. Much like Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpieces, I can sense every storyboard, every decision that led to every single shot working as wonderfully as it does on screen.”

After the Hunt – Directed by Luca Guadagnino

Easily the most controversial film at the festival this year. But I don’t know why? I was more shaken up and taken aback by Luca Guadagnino’s After the Hunt than any of the three other Luca Guadagnino movies that played at Venice in the past few years: Suspiria (2018), Bones and All (2022), and Queer (2024). This one is better than those films. Yes, it absolutely is. The negative reviews are being extra harsh because most of them didn’t quite understand the film. It’s exceptionally dense. The screenplay (written by Nora Garrett / not by Guadagnino) is a complex, philosophy-inspired, intellectual breakdown of the #MeToo movement as it relates to universities and campus life. There is a strong point it’s making, it’s not a “whodunit” mystery as advertised, it’s really about denial and how quick everyone is to make assumptions about people. I stated in my full review: it’s “meticulously crafted, entrancing and harrowing to watch” and it “will grow on people with time.” I also wrote an editorial inspired by the misreadings of this film entitled “The Big Question at Venice 2025: Are People Understanding the Films?” because this one really deserves a second look – or even a third – to understand what it’s really saying. I believe Guadagnino is still as terrific of a filmmaker as ever.

Calle Málaga – Directed by Maryam Touzani

This one has been stuck on my mind since the moment it was over. What a beautiful, beautiful film! From acclaimed Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani (also of the very lovely The Blue Caftan from just a few years ago) comes a film set in the city of Tangier, following an elderly Spanish woman named Maria who lives there. She lives in a gorgeous large apartment on a street she knows better than anything. One day her daughter shows up and forces her to sell her home to help with issues back in Spain. But Maria fights back. This is film a bright, beautiful tale of an older woman becoming a badass fighting for her home while uniting her community. Just delightful. Starring beloved Spanish actress Carmen Maura in such a deeply layered, vibrant role as Maria. This should’ve been in the Main Competition at Venice! It’s THAT good. It’s as tender and wholesome and soft as any film can be, while showing how fierce an old woman can be. I was constantly impressed watching with how every moment is handled with such care and authenticity. What a stellar film.

The Tale of Silyan – Directed by Tamara Kotevska

One of the best documentaries of 2025! A wonderful, vivid, moving cinematic experience! I am still in awe thinking about the cinematography from this film. How did they get these shots?! How is every single shot so perfect?! Following her Oscar-nominated work on the film Honeyland (from 2019), North Macedonian filmmaker Tamara Kotevska returns with her second feature called The Tale of Silyan. That title is a reference to a fable recited in the film. It’s actually about a farmer family in the European country of North Macedonia as well as the incredible white storks that live in their town. They are everywhere. And they’re such funny creatures! They clap their beaks behind their heads to make noise and communicate. And this remarkable story follows the relationship between an older farmer and a white stork. It’s very touching and uplifting! And unlike so many other eco thriller films recently, this one actually has an invigorating message of hope, a reminder we can return to nature and stop destroying the planet and make things better again. It is possible. Seek out this magnificent doc and watch it on the BIG SCREEN! It’s an unforgettable experience.

Recapping the 2025 Venice Film Festival experience, I would say it was a solid year. Many good films, not as many bad films, much better selection than the previous year (which was a let down). There are at least two or three films that have earned a spot on my all-time favorites list (as mentioned above). Plenty of others I cannot wait for them to open in theaters, for audiences to dig into them and watch them and discuss them. One of the most exciting trends at Venice 2025: women made many of the best films at the fest! So many top notch films made by female filmmakers stood out over all the men this year: The Testament of Ann Lee (dir. Mona Fastvold), Silent Friend (dir. Ildikó Enyedi), 100 Nights of Hero (dir. Julia Jackman), The Voice of Hind Rajab (dir. Kaouther Ben Hania), Cover-Up (co-dir. Laura Poitras), Calle Málaga (dir. Maryam Touzani), The Tale of Silyan (dir. Tamara Kotevska), and Girl (dir. Shu Qi). The only other big question at the festival this year is how they missed getting two major films that played at Telluride & TIFF. Specifically: Hamnet, considering Chloe Zhao already won the Golden Lion back in 2020 for Nomadland; and Rental Family, considering they played The Whale with Brendan Fraser and this would’ve been lovely to share as well. But they can’t show everything! I’m just happy the Venice selection was as exciting and engaging as I was hoping for this year. I’m always ready to discover more cinema each & every year in Venice and beyond.

And that’s all for Venice 2025 (aka #Venezia82), wrapping up our news from the fest. As already covered before, Jim Jarmusch’s film strangely won the Golden Lion award – view the full list of 2025 awards winners here. My coverage is finished now with this list of favorites and final thoughts on the films this year. I’m still looking forward to returning to Venice again in 2026, always an especially invigorating time watching new films there. Ready to discover the latest exciting work from wherever it might be from all around the world.

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