Year of French Central European Film 2025: Four French films in Competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival

24-08-2025

Year of French Central European Film 2025: Four French films in Competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival

credit: Unifrance

Four French films, directed by Olivier Assayas, Kaouther Ben Hania, Valérie Donzelli, and François Ozon will fly the French colors in Competition at the 82nd Venice Film Festival.

Learn all about the presence of French film professionals and Unifrance's activities at this year's festival, which will take place from August 27 to September 6.

The Wizard of the Kremlin by Olivier Assayas, shot with an international cast (Paul Dano, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander), is an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Giuliano Da Empolii, a political thriller set in the corridors of power in Russia in the early 1990s.

The Wizard of the Kremlin

The Voice of Hind Rajab, the sixth film by the Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania (Four Daughters), a filmmaker who shifts between fiction and documentary, is a fictionalized account of the real-life drama experienced in early 2024 by a six-year-old Palestinian girl trapped in a car hit by a bomb in the heart of Gaza, who managed to call the Red Cross emergency services.

The Voice of Hind Rajab

With The Stranger, François Ozon tackles a monument of French literature, Albert Camus' novel (1942), which was already adapted for the cinema in the 1960s. This time, Benjamin Voisin plays Meursault under the dark sun of interwar Algiers.

The Stranger

Still in an existential vein, and also based on a novel (by Franck Courtès), At Work, Valérie Donzelli's eighth film features a successful photographer (played by Bastien Bouillon) who gives up everything to devote himself to writing and discovers poverty in the process. Or how to pay the high price of freedom...

At Work

While Olivier Assayas and François Ozon are Lido "regulars," each with three previous selections in Competition—Wasp Network (2019), Non-Fiction (2018), and Something in the Air (2012, Best Screenplay) for Olivier Assayas, and Frantz (2015, Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actress for Paula Beer), Potiche (2010), and 5x2 (2004) for François Ozon—this will be the first time that Valérie Donzelli and Kaouther Ben Hania have had works in Competition at the prestigious Italian festival. Kaouther Ben Hania did however present The Man Who Sold His Skin in the Orizzonti strand in 2020.

Three other (minority-) French coproductions feature in Competition, directed by Jim Jarmusch (Father Mother Sister Brother), László Nemes (Orphan), and Ildiko Enyedi—who works once again with Léa Seydoux in Silent Friend.

Out of Competition features Dog 51, the latest film by Cédric Jimenez, a futurist thriller and adaptation of the novel by Laurent Gaudé, starring Gilles Lellouche, Adèle Exarchopoulos, and Louis Garrel in the leading roles, as well as, unusually, three series produced or co-produced by France, including A Prophet, which follows the character of Malik revealed in Jacques Audiard's film (2009), as well as Etty, created by renowned showrunner Hagai Levi, which traces the inner journey of Dutch Jewish writer Etty Hillesum between 1941 and 1943. The new film by Argentine filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, Landmarks, completes the French presence Out of Competition.

Finally, to round off the official selection for feature films, seven French co-productions will be presented in the Orizzonti section, including the majority-French production Grand Ciel, starring Damien Bonnard in a social thriller set on a construction site in a futuristic neighborhood.

Grand Ciel

The soul of French cinema will also be present in Venice with Stéphane Brizé (a member of the Competition jury), Julia Ducournau (a member of the Orizzonti jury), and Erige Sehiri (a member of the Luigi de Laurentiis Award jury).

--> The full Venice Film Festival line-up can be found here

Unifrance at the Venice Film Festival

Club Unifrance

Unifrance will establish Club Unifrance, a space dedicated to hosting the French production teams of films selected for the festival for their meetings with the international press and to record interviews. This initiative, launched at the latest Berlinale this February, is intended to amplify media coverage of French films. It has been made possible thanks to increased support from the CNC for 2025 and the Unifrance Endowment Fund.

Unifrance's 2025 10 to Watch group at the Venice Film Festival, with the support of Ami Paris

For the first time, Unifrance is organizing, with the collaboration of the Venice Film Festival teams and the invaluable support of Ami Paris, a trip for some of the 2025 members of the 10 to Watch to this major event. The program includes an official red carpet event and meetings with professionals, artists, and journalists in attendance.

Venice Immersive

Unifrance will be present on the Immersive Isola with a stand where French cinema professionals can organize their meetings.

On Saturday, August 30, from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. at Spazio Incontri Immersivo, located on the Immersive Isola, Unifrance will organize a panel discussion entitled “A Close Look at the French XR Industry.”
On this occasion, the Ambassadeur de France in Italy Martin Briens and the audiovisuel attaché Rémi Guittet will announce the new recipient of the XR Farnese-Medici Residency.
News about the NewImages festival will be provided by its director Michele Ziegler and its head of partnerships and production Sarah Arnaud.
Last but not least, Unifrance will exclusively reveal the results of its annual study on the international export of French immersive works. The figures for 2024 will be announced and discussed with two representatives from PXN: Marie Point (producer at Dark Euphoria) and Emanuela Righi (producer at Novaya).

The artistic delegation representing French cinema

The following professionals are already expected to attend (subject to change): Valérie Donzelli, Michel Gondry, Bastien Bouillon, François Ozon, Rebecca Marder, Benjamin Voisin, Olivier Assayas, Paul Dano, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Jeffrey Wright, Tom Sturridge, Kaouther Ben Hania, Cédric Jimenez, Olivier Demangel, Adèle Exarchopoulos, Gilles Lellouche, Louis Garrel, Stéphane Bak, Thomas Bangalter, László Nemes, Grégory Gadebois, Ildiko Enyedi, Léa Seydoux, Tony Leung, Vladlena Sandu, Lana Daher, Claire Simon, Annie Ernaux, Enrico Maria Artale, Mamadou Sidibe, Sami Bouajila, Caroline Deruas Peano, Lena Garrel, Louiza Aura, Maryam Touzani, Carmen Maura...

Semaine de la Critique

For the third consecutive year, the Semaine de la Critique—which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year—will open with a French film. The honor goes to Stereo Girls, Caroline Deruas Peano's second feature film, a story of female friendship and coming of age in the south of France in the 1990s. Also in the selection, Semaine audiences will be able to discover Roqia, Yanis Koussim's debut feature, which he describes as a horror film in which memory, and memory loss, play a prominent role.

Stereo Girls

--> The full Semaine de la Critique line-up can be found here

Giornate degli Autori

The youngest of Venice's sidebar strands, Giornate degli Autori will present three French films (or majority-French productions) at its 22nd edition: Writing Life - Annie Ernaux Through The Eyes Of High School Students, which Claire Simon has dedicated to the writer and Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux, Laguna, the new film by Lithuanian filmmaker Sharunas Bartas, and Memory, by Chechen-Ukrainian filmmaker Vladlena Sandu, which will open the strand.

Laguna