The first freedom of man lies in not being indifferent.
— Pier Paolo Pasolini
The Venice Film Exhibition — not a festival, as president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco firmly insists — presents itself this year as an act of defiance, a gesture almost spiritual, against the numbness of our time. In an age where images are consumed without leaving a trace and news becomes a hollow echo, cinema, says Buttafuoco, still stands as faith, offering, alarm.
From Franco Battiato’s Povera Patria: don't those bodies on the ground without warmth cause you sorrow?
"But now" — the president adds — "indifference walks with us.
When there are no news broadcasts, there is cinema.
We are like ostriches with our heads buried in the mire of indifference.
Cinema is bold faith transformed into art.
Art as a way to restore consciousness."
With these words, the 82nd edition of the Exhibition — scheduled at the Lido from August 27 to September 6 — was introduced. Yet the list of competing titles, although rich in renowned names and awaited returns, is only a fragment of a deeper vision taking shape: that of a cinema that does not seek consensus but exposes itself, takes risks, and tries — perhaps in vain — to touch the abyss of the present.
The opening film will be La grazia by Paolo Sorrentino, already announced as a dizzying gaze into spirituality and the body. Alongside him, filmmakers like Pietro Marcello, Gianfranco Rosi, Leonardo Di Costanzo, and Franco Maresco bring radical, unsettling, and sometimes disheartening visions. And then the great international auteurs — Jim Jarmusch, François Ozon, Park Chan-wook, Yorgos Lanthimos, Kathryn Bigelow — appearing as witnesses to a shaken and unstable world, each striving to decipher collapse through aesthetics deeply aware of failure as a human condition.
And yet, as often happens, it is in the more peripheral trajectories that we glimpse the real fault lines of our time. Some apparently minor entries — removed from the most self-congratulatory spotlight — seem to hold the most urgent questions and searing visions. The Voice of Hind Rajab by Kaouther Ben Hania promises to be a painful and necessary testimony, Orphan by László Nemes a plunge into a memory that resists reconciliation, while Girl by Shu Qi offers an intimate, destabilizing look at the body and identity. Not to mention the voices scattered throughout the side sections, often the ones capable of breaking apart the very format of storytelling, shifting the gaze to where consciousness might still be possible.
But what this edition proposes is not so much a kaleidoscope of languages as a question: can the image, even today, generate awareness? Can narrative resist the flattening of the senses, the glut of information, the numbing of violence?
"This is an exhibition, not a festival," Buttafuoco reiterated, as if to separate the event from the promotional machine, from empty celebration.
The strength of critical thought finds expression in a world overwhelmed by its own damage.
CULTURE brings water to the thirsty and gives truth to those who have been fed only lies.
The Exhibition thus becomes a form of resistance: not entertainment, but an ethical call. A struggle — never rhetorical — to return art to its primary function: to stir, to dig, to dismantle certainties. In this sense, the cinematic work is not a refuge, but an examination. A bare room where one stays alone with the shadows of images and the echo of words. A secular mass where what matters is not the applause, but the silence that follows.
And in that silence, perhaps, we find again Battiato’s question, suspended like a wound:
Don't those bodies on the ground without warmth cause you sorrow?
Cinema may still be the place where that question is not ignored.
We hope so.
Culture is a form of resistance to lies.
— Albert Camus
CONCORSO
Bugonia di Yorgos Lanthimos
Duse di Pietro Marcello
Elisa di Leonardo Di Costanzo
Eojjeol suga eopda | No Other Choice di Park Chan-wook
L’étranger di François Ozon
Father Mother Sister Brother di Jim Jarmusch
Un film fatto per bene di Franco Maresco
Frankenstein di Guillermo del Toro
La Grazia di Paolo Sorrentino (film d’apertura)
A House of Dynamite di Kathryn Bigelow
Jay Kelly di Noah Baumbach
Nühai | Girl di Shu Qi
Orphan di Laszlo Nemes
A pied d’oeuvre di Valérie Donzelli
Ri gua zhong tian | The Sun Rises on Us All di Cai Shangjun
Silent Friend di Ildiko Enyedi
The Smashing Machine di Benny Safdie
Sotto le nuvole di Gianfranco Rosi
The Testament of Ann Lee di Mona Fastvold
The Voice of Hind Rajab di Kaouther Ben Hania
The Wizard of the Kremlin di Olivier Assayas
ORIZZONTICONCORSO
Un anno di scuola di Laura Samani
Barrio triste di Stillz
Dinti de lapte | Milk Teeth di Mihai Mincan
En el camino di David Pablos
Estrany riu | Strange River di Jaume Claret Muxart
Funeral Casino Blues di Roderick Warich
Grand ciel di Akihiro Hata
Harà watan | Lost Land di Akio Fujimoto
Hiedra di Ana Cristina Barragan
Human Resource di Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
Komedie elahi | Divine Comedy di Ali Asgari
Late Fame di Kent Jones
Mother di Teona Strugar Mitevska (Film d’apertura)
Otec | Father di Tereza Nvotova
Pin de fartie di Alejo Moguillansky
Il rapimento di Arabella di Carolina Cavalli
Rose of Nevada di Mark Jenkin
Songs of Forgotten Trees di Anuparna Roy
The Souffleur di Gaston Solnicki
VENEZIA SPOTLIGHT
A bras-le-corps di Marie-Elsa Sgualdo
Ammazzare stanca di Daniele Vicari
Un cabo suelto di Daniel Hendler
Calle Malaga di Maryam Touzani
La hija de la española di Mariana Rondon, Marité Ugas
Hijra di Shahad Ameen
Made in EU di Stephan Komandarev
Motor City di Potsy Ponciroli
FUORI CONCORSO FICTION
After the Hunt di Luca Guadagnino
Bosluga xutbo | Sermon to the Void di Hilal Baydarov
Chien 51 di Cédric Jimenez (film di chiusura)
Dead Man’s Wire di Gus Van Sant
Hateshinaki Scarlet di Mamoru Hosoda
In the Hand of Dante di Julian Schnabel
L’isola di Andrea di Antonio Capuano
Il maestro di Andrea Di Stefano
Orfeo di Virgilio Villoresi
Den sidste viking | The Last Viking di Anders Thomas Jensen
La valle dei sorrisi di Paolo Strippoli
NON FICTION
Baba wa al-Qadhafi | My Father and Qaddafi di Jihan K
Broken English di Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
Cover-Up di Mark Obenhaus, Laura Poitras
I diari di Angela – Noi due cineasti. Capitolo terzo di Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi
Director’s Diaries di Aleksandr Sokurov
Ferdinando Scianna – Il fotografo dell’ombra di Roberto Andò
Ghost Elephants di Werner Herzog
Hui jia | Back Home di Tsai Ming-liang
Kabul, Between Prayers di Aboozar Amini
Kim Novak’s Vertigo di Alexandre O. Philippe
Marc by Sofia di Sofia Coppola
Nuestra tierra di Lucrecia Martel
Remake di Ross McElwee
The Tale of Sylian di Tamara Kotevska
Zapiski nastoyashego prestupnika | Notes of a True Criminal di Andrij Aferov, Alexander Rodnyansky
PROIEZIONI SPECIALI CORTI
Boomerang Atomic di Rachid Bouchareb
How to Shoot a Ghost di Charlie Kaufman
Origin di Yann Arhtus-Bertrand
SPECIALE CINEMA & MUSICA
Francesco De Gregori – Nevergreen di Stefano Pistolini
Newport and the Great Folk Dream di Robert Gordon
Nino. 18 giorni di Toni D’Angelo
Piero Pelù, rumore dentro di Francesco Fei
SERIES
Etty di Hagai Levi
Il mostro di Stefano Sollima
Portobello (episodi 1-2) di Marco Bellocchio
Un prophète di Enrico Maria Artale
VENEZIA CLASSICI DOCUMENTARI
Boorman and the Devil di David Kittredge
Elvira Notari – Oltre il silenzio di Valerio Ciriaci
Holofiction di Michal Kosakowski
Louis Malle, le révolté di Claire Duguet
Mata Hari di Joe Beshenkovsky, James A. Smith
Megadoc di Mike Figgis
Memoria de los olvidados di Javier Espada
The Ozu Diaries di Daniel Raim
Sangre del Toro di Yves Montmayeur
BIENNALE COLLEGE
Agnus dei di Massimiliano Camaiti
Chiet chea manus | Becoming Human di Polen Ly
1 Woman 1 Bra di Josh Olaoluwa
Secret of a Mountain Serpent di Nidhi Saxena
