Venice Festival 2025: Hot Sales Titles Lineup

The Venice Film Festival has no official market — no Marche du Film, no European Film Market — meaning the deals on the Lido tend to happen quietly, in hotel suites at the Excelsior and over spritzes along the Lungomare. But sellers still see the festival as a prime launchpad, using it to float prestige projects to the right buyers, banking on critical heat to position art house titles that could otherwise vanish in a crowded marketplace.

“It’s a different kind of hustle,” says one veteran European sales agent. “You’re not going to Venice to presell a title and close out your financing in a week. But for the right finished film, it can be the place that generates that first wave of buzz and gets buyers excited so you can close deals in Toronto and beyond.” 

This year’s lineup should give buyers plenty to work with. Politically charged dramas and hard-hitting documentaries dominate alongside geopolitical thrillers and a handful of star-driven titles with crossover potential, meaning Venice 2025 could prove a critical — and quiet — game changer for sellers looking to make noise without the market.

100 NIGHTS OF HERO

DIRECTOR Julia Jackman

STARS Nicholas Galitzine, Maika Monroe, Emma Corrin, Charli XCX, Richard E. Grant, Felicity Jones

BUZZ Based on Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel, Jackman’s feature debut reimagines a feminist fairy tale of forbidden love, seduction and survival told through 100 haunting stories. With an intriguing ensemble and a stylish pedigree, 100 Nights of Hero has the makings of a crossover art house hit.

SALES WME Independent (international), WME Independent/CAA Media Finance (domestic)

BELOW THE CLOUDS

DIRECTOR Gianfranco Rosi

BUZZ Rosi, a Golden Lion and Golden Bear winner, returns with an intimate homage to Naples, the third in his trilogy on everyday Italian life after Sacro GRA and Fire at Sea. Expect strong festival interest and high-end doc buyers looking for prestige nonfiction with cinematic flair.

SALES The Match Factory

COVER-UP

DIRECTORs Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus

BUZZ  Oscar winner Poitras (Citizenfour, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed) teams with Obenhaus for a portrait of legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, who exposed the Vietnam War massacres at My Lai, investigated Watergate, CIA domestic spying and Abu Ghraib. Prestige doc buyers will be watching closely.

SALES Submarine

DEAD MAN’S WIRE

DIRECTOR Gus Van Sant

STARS Bill Skarsgård, Colman Domingo, Al Pacino, Dacre Montgomery, Myha’la

BUZZ Van Sant’s Venice out-of-competition entry, originally set up as a project with Werner Herzog and Nicolas Cage, dramatizes the real-life 1977 hostage crisis in Indianapolis, in which a disgruntled borrower wired a shotgun to a bank manager in a tense standoff. The high-profile cast and true-crime edge make this a hot commercial prospect for the right indie buyer.

SALES WME Independent

HIJRA

DIRECTOR Shahad Ameen

BUZZ The Saudi director of Scales (Venice 2019) returns with an ambitious desert-set drama about the bond formed between different generations of women on a perilous journey. With its striking landscapes, rare look at Saudi society and feminist undercurrents, this should be a must-watch for festival programmers and specialty distributors.

SALES CAA Media Finance

IN THE HAND OF DANTE

DIRECTOR Julian Schnabel

STARS Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, Jason Momoa, Martin Scorsese, John Malkovich

BUZZ Art film expert Schnabel, director of Basquiat, At Eternity’s Gate and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, adapts Nick Tosches’ novel about a handwritten manuscript of The Divine Comedy passing from the Vatican to the New York mob to Tosches himself. A star-packed ensemble and literary intrigue could lure both prestige distributors and awards-minded buyers.

SALES WME Independent, co-repped by CAA Media Finance

LOST LAND

DIRECTOR Akio Fujimoto

BUZZ Following his acclaimed refugee dramas Passage of Life and Along the Sea, the Japan-born, Vietnam-raised filmmaker presents an international co-production (Japan, France, Malaysia, Germany) that continues his exploration of migration, displacement and identity. With Fujimoto’s growing reputation on the festival circuit, Lost Land is poised to attract global art house and socially engaged buyers.

SALES Arizona Distribution

MOTOR CITY

DIRECTOR Potsy Ponciroli

STARS Alan Ritchson, Ben Foster, Pablo Schreiber, Lionel Boyce, Shailene Woodley

BUZZ In 1970s Detroit, an ex-con is out for revenge after being framed by a gangster for loving the wrong woman. Gritty period action with a muscular cast, including Reacher star Ritchson, positions this for mainstream distributors looking for elevated genre fare.

SALES Black Bear Pictures (international), WME Independent/Stampede Ventures (domestic)

NUESTRA TIERRA (LANDMARKS)

DIRECTOR Lucrecia Martel

BUZZ Martel’s documentary examines the murder of indigenous leader Javier Chocobar, connecting it to Argentina’s colonial legacy and the ongoing struggle for land rights. Political, poetic nonfiction should be in demand among doc buyers and human rights-focused distributors.

SALES The Match Factory (international), Cinetic Media (domestic)

ROSE OF NEVADA

DIRECTOR Mark Jenkin 

STARS George MacKay, Callum Turner, Rosalind Eleazar

BUZZ After netting critical acclaim and sleeper success with his first two indie efforts — 2019’s Bait and 2022’s Enys Men () — Cornish director Jenkin heads to Venice with his most ambitious feature yet, a sci-fi drama centered on a pair of fisherman (played by MacKay and Turner) who board a mysterious boat and find themselves transported back in time.

SALES Protagonist Pictures 

THE LAST VIKING

DIRECTOR Anders Thomas Jensen

STARS Mads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas, Sofie Gråbøl

BUZZ Jensen reteams with his Riders of Justice leads for a dark comedy genre-tinged tale of two brothers on a quixotic hunt for stolen loot — and themselves. Quirky Scandinavian humor plus Mikkelsen’s global star power should prove irresistible to international buyers.

SALES TrustNordisk

THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE

DIRECTOR Mona Fastvold

STARS Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott, Matthew Beard

BUZZ Fastvold’s historical drama musical casts Seyfried as Ann Lee, 18th century founder of the Shakers. With a strong ensemble and period musical ambition, this could appeal to art house and prestige buyers looking for something both historical and offbeat.

SALES Charades (international), CAA Media Finance (domestic)

THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB

DIRECTOR Kaouther Ben Hania

BUZZ The Oscar-nominated Tunisian filmmaker dramatizes the true story of 5-year-old Hind Rajab, killed during the ongoing Israeli invasion of Gaza. Extremely timely and deeply emotional, this will draw strong interest from politically engaged speciality distributors.

SALES The Party Film Sales (international), CAA Media Finance (domestic)

THE WIZARD OF THE KREMLIN

DIRECTOR Olivier Assayas

STARS Paul Dano, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Zach Galifianakis, Tom Sturridge, Jeffrey Wright

BUZZ Adapted from Giuliano da Empoli’s best-seller, Assayas’ political thriller follows Kremlin insider Vadim Baranov during the USSR’s collapse and Putin’s rise. A starry cast — including Law as Putin — alongside prestige source material and timely geopolitical intrigue gives this title strong international appeal.

SALES Gaumont (international), CAA Media Finance (domestic)

TIRED OF KILLING

DIRECTOR Daniele Vicari

STARS Gabriel Montesi, Vinicio Marchioni, Selene Caramazza, Rocco Papaleo

BUZZ Count on Venice to serve up a healthy serving of Mafia movies, with this Calabrian-set crime drama among the finest on the menu. The director of Diaz and The Human Cargo adapted Antonio Zagari’s autobiographical novel for this feature, a look inside the inner workings of Italy’s ‘Ndrangheta crime syndicate through the eyes of a reluctant hit man.

SALES Beta Cinema 

This story appeared in the Aug. 20 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.