Venice Film Festival

Documentary on Gaza killings gets 25 minute ovation at Venice Film Festival

If last year’s Venice Film Festival spotlighted "The Voice of Hind Rajab", this year’s edition has turned its attention to "NAZA", a documentary exploring the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
11 September 2026

‘I am grateful that my films have reached three major festivals’: Badhan

With “The Difficult Bride”, Badhan is preparing for another major festival appearance. She is travelling to Venice today to attend the festival.
3 September 2026

George Clooney receives Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at Venice Film Festival

Hollywood actor George Clooney took centre stage at the opening ceremony of the Venice Film Festival yesterday, receiving the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.
3 September 2026

Bidhan Rebeiro to attend Venice and Budapest film festivals as film critic

Rebeiro said he is particularly excited about this year’s festival because of the selection of “The Difficult Bride”. He also noted that 2026 marks 100 years since Rabindranath Tagore’s visit to Italy in 1926.
1 September 2026

Venice Film Festival opens fall season with starry lineup

The 83rd Venice International Film Festival will open on September 2, bringing Hollywood stars, international auteurs and a slate of potential awards contenders to the Lido as the autumn festival season gets underway.
31 August 2026

Anuparna Roy defends Palestine remarks after Venice Film Festival win

The Purulia-born director made headlines after dedicating a portion of her address to Palestine, a stance that sparked heated debate in India.
13 September 2025

Anuparna Roy’s breakthrough at Venice Film Festival

For Anuparna Roy, in her thirties, the excitement of winning an award with her very first feature film at the world’s oldest film festival in Venice is yet to sink in. The Indian media took no notice of Roy, an English literature student from Burdwan University in West Bengal, when she released her first short film “Run To The River” a couple of years ago. But today, that moment seems light years away.
10 September 2025

AI to resurrect Orson Welles’ lost masterpiece at Venice

At the 82nd Venice Film Festival, San Francisco-based startup Showrunner unveiled one of the most audacious projects in film history: an attempt to restore Orson Welles’ mutilated classic "The Magnificent Ambersons" using artificial intelligence.
6 September 2025

Dwayne Johnson moved to tears as film earns ovation at Venice Film Festival

Dwayne Johnson delivered the most emotional moment yet at this year’s Venice Film Festival as his new film “The Smashing Machine” earned a thunderous 15-minute standing ovation on Monday night, sparking immediate Oscar buzz for the actor.
2 September 2025

Thousands rally for Gaza as protests shadow Venice Film Festival

Organised by left-wing groups from Italy’s northeast, the rally drew an estimated 3,000 to 4,000 people, many waving Palestinian flags as they moved through the Lido district toward the festival grounds—just as the Hollywood blockbuster “Frankenstein” prepared for its red-carpet premiere.
1 September 2025

Park Chan-wook brings 20-year project on job insecurity to Venice

It took Park Chan-wook two decades to bring his latest film "No Other Choice" to the screen, but the South Korean director said on Friday the story's core theme of job insecurity was more relevant than ever as technologies march into the workplace.
30 August 2025

Julia Roberts defends ‘After the Hunt’ at Venice Film Festival

Julia Roberts and director Luca Guadagnino defended their new film “After the Hunt” at the Venice Film Festival after being questioned about whether it undermines the #MeToo movement.
30 August 2025

Venice Film Festival kicks off with premieres starring George Clooney and Emma Stone

George Clooney and Emma Stone star in two films premiering at the Venice Film Festival yesterday. Clooney plays a famous actor on a soul-searching journey in Noah Baumbach’s “Jay Kelly”, while Stone appears as the CEO of a pharmaceutical company in Yorgos Lanthimos’s “Bugonia”.
29 August 2025

Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix and Rooney Mara back Gaza-set drama

Major Hollywood stars including Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, and Rooney Mara have boarded Kaouther Ben Hania’s Gaza-set drama "The Voice of Hind Rajab" as executive producers, giving the film a powerful push ahead of its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival.
27 August 2025

Venice Film Fest to launch with global stars, acclaimed directors, and Oscar contenders

This year’s competition features an impressive lineup of A-listers. Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Emma Stone, Dwayne Johnson, Adam Sandler, and Idris Elba are all attached to major premieres. Stone reunites with Yorgos Lanthimos for “Bugonia”, an English-language remake of the Korean sci-fi comedy “Save the Green Planet!” Meanwhile, Clooney leads Noah Baumbach’s latest, “Jay Kelly”, playing a well-known actor navigating Europe alongside his longtime manager.
23 July 2025

Alexander Payne to lead Venice jury as Fernanda Torres, Rasoulof, Mungiu join lineup

Oscar-nominated director Alexander Payne returns to the Lido as president of the main competition jury. Joining him are Brazilian actress and writer Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”), Iranian auteur Mohammad Rasoulof (“The Seed of the Sacred Fig”), and Palme d’Or-winning Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”).
20 July 2025

Razzies 2025: ‘Joker 2’ taps seven nods, Gaga and Phoenix face the heat

The long-awaited announcement of this year’s Academy Award nominations, postponed due to the devastating Los Angeles fires, is now scheduled for Thursday (January 23). In the meantime, the annual Golden Raspberry Awards, known for spotlighting the “worst” in cinema, unveiled their nominees on Tuesday. Leading the pack is “Joker: Folie à Deux” with seven nominations, followed closely by “Madame Web”, “Megalopolis”, “Borderlands”, and “Reagan”, each securing six nods.
22 January 2025

Venice Film Festival 2024 winners announced

The 81st Venice Film Festival came to its close last Saturday with an award award-giving ceremony. The festival marks the start of the awards season and regularly throws up big favourites for the Oscars, with eight of the past 12 best director awards at the Oscars going to films that debuted in Venice.
8 September 2024

Nicole Kidman misses Venice Film Festival due to mother’s sudden death

Prominent Hollywood actress Nicole Kidman had to make a heartbreaking decision to leave the Venice Film Festival after landing in Italy, following the sudden death of her mother, Janelle Ann Kidman.
8 September 2024

Connection to Harley Quinn is deeply personal: Lady Gaga

Academy Award-winning actress Lady Gaga is set to bring the notorious character Harley Quinn to life in Todd Phillips' upcoming film “Joker: Folie à Deux”, starring alongside Joaquin Phoenix, who reprises his role as the Joker.
6 September 2024