Biennale Cinema 2025 - Roundup Of The 82nd Venice International Film Festival - Part 1
Silent Friend, dir. Ildikó Enyedi
I got back from Venice a few days ago and have another trip coming up in a few days. So for now, I will just share a list of films I liked, didn’t like, and a few other highlights/standouts.
I do have more to say and hope I can find the time to write something before the month ends.
Top 4
Silent Friend (Ildikó Enyedi)
Nuestra Tierra (Lucrecia Martel)
Remake (Ross McElwee)
No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook)
Also liked:
After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino) - except for the epilogue
At Work (Valérie Donzelli)
Cotton Queen (Suzannah Mirghani)
Dead Man’s Wire (Gus Vant Sant)
Do You Love Me (Lana Daher)
Girl (Shu Qi)
La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino)
A Sad and Beautiful World (Cyril Aris)
Strange River (Jaume Claret Muxart)
The Stranger (François Ozon)
Liked more than others:
A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow)
Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach)
The Wizard of the Kremlin (Olivier Assayas)
Liked by others more than me:
Father Mother Sister Brother (Jim Jarmusch)
Favourite Restored Classics:
Aniki-Bóbó (Manoel de Oliveira, 1942)
Two Acres of Land (Bimal Roy, 1953)
Double Willem Dafoe
The Souffleur (Gaston Solnicki)
Late Fame (Kent Jones)
Deliberately skipped:
The Voice of Hind Rajab (Kaouther Ben Hania) - too soon, too raw
Orphan (László Nemes) - because of Nemes’ obnoxious statement about Jonathan Glazer’s Oscar speech
Did not like:
1000 Nights of Hero (Julia Jackman)
Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Duse (Pietro Marcello)
In the Hand of Dante (Julian Schnabel)
Wish I skipped
La Gioia (Nicolangelo Gelormini)
Motor City (Potsy Ponciroli)
Could not get on its wavelength:
Pin de Fartie (Alejo Moguillansky)
Post end credits many missed:
Dead Man’s Wire (Gus Vant Sant) - “What a shitshow.”
Impressive set design
Frankenstein (Guillermo Del Torro)
This year’s The Brutalist
The Testament of Ann Lee (Mona Fastvold) - the only film screened on 70mm, but at least the projection at the press screening wasn’t faulty like last year
Dubai mentioned twice:
A Sad and Beautiful World (Cyril Aris)
Songs of Forgotten Trees (Anuparna Roy)
Wanted to watch but couldn’t
Agnus Dei / Lamb Of God (Massimiliano Camaiti)
Below The Clouds (Gianfranco Rosi)
Becoming Human (Polen Ly)
Megadoc (Mike Figgis)
Human Resource (Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
)
Memory (Vladlena Sandu )
Memory Of Princess Mumbi (Damien Hauser)
The Ozu Diaries (Daniel Rain
)
Past Future Continuous (Morteza Ahmadvand, Firouzeh Khosrovani)
Rose Of Nevada (Mark Jenkin
)
List of all the films I watched:
Competition
At Work (Valérie Donzelli)
Bugonia (Yorgos Lanthimos)
Duse (Pietro Marcello)
Father Mother Sister Brother (Jim Jarmusch)
Frankenstein (Guillermo Del Torro)
Girl (Shu Qi)
A House of Dynamite (Kathryn Bigelow)
Jay Kelly (Noah Baumbach)
La Grazia (Paolo Sorrentino)
L’étranger (François Ozon)
No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook)
Silent Friend (Ildikó Enyedi)
The Testament of Ann Lee (Mona Fastvold)
The Wizard of the Kremlin (Olivier Assayas)
Out of the Competition
After the Hunt (Luca Guadagnino)
Chien 51 (Cédric Jimenez)
Dead Man’s Wire (Gus Vant Sant)
In the Hand of Dante (Julian Schnabel)
Nuestra Tierra (Lucrecia Martel)
Remake (Ross McElwee)
Orrizonti
The Kidnapping of Arabella (Carolina Cavalli)
Late Fame (Kent Jones)
Mother (Teona Strugar Mitevska)
Pin de Fartie (Alejo Moguillansky)
The Souffleur (Gaston Solnicki)
Songs of Forgotten Trees (Anuparna Roy)
Strange River (Jaume Claret Muxart)
Venice Spotlight
Calle Malaga (Maryam Touzani)
Motor City (Potsy Ponciroli)
Venice Classics
Aniki-Bóbó (Manoel de Oliveira, 1942)
I Married You For Fun (Luciano Salce, 1967)
Queen Kelly (Eric von Stroheim, 1929)
Two Acres of Land (Bimal Roy, 1953)
Giornate Degli Autori
Do You Love Me (Lana Daher)
La Gioia (Nicolangelo Gelormini)
A Sad and Beautiful World (Cyril Aris)
Vanilla (Mayra Hermosillo)
Settimana Internazionale della Critica
1000 Nights of Hero (Julia Jackman)
Confini, canti (Simone Massi)
Cotton Queen (Suzannah Mirghani)
Family Feast (Nadir Taji)