(Photo by Aleksander Kalka, Venice International Film Festival / ASAC)

(Photo by Aleksander Kalka,
Venice International Film Festival / ASAC)

The rain that had scattered across the Adriatic comes to a halt, and the sun peers out once more. Late August in Venice is bustling. The vaporetto, the water bus running from Piazzale Roma to its final stop on Lido Island, is so crowded there is hardly any room to stand. With each stop—San Marco Square and others—casually dressed tourists gradually disappear. Those who remain until the end are clad in tuxedos and gowns, journalists with notebooks in hand and cameras slung over their shoulders, and film students who seem to have come from far away. Crossing the rippling waters, they head toward the Palazzo del Cinema—the Hall of Film. It is the very heart of the Venice International Film Festival, the world’s oldest film festival. On August 27, the 82nd festival opened and unfolded over eleven days, and I was there to witness it.

Venice Film Festival: The Prelude to the Oscars Once the wealthiest city in the world, Venice now retains only traces of its former splendor. Yet the spark of its golden age has not gone out. Today, the city is sustained by culture and the arts. Under the banner of the Venice Biennale, six artistic festivals—visual arts, architecture, dance, music, theater, and film—support this “City on the Water” (La città sull’acqua ). And in August and September, it is cinema that shines the brightest. Each year, the Venice Film Festival transforms the Lido into a mecca of cinematic art that captures the world’s attention. Of the 44 international film festivals in 27 countries accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF), Venice, founded in 1932, is the oldest. Despite the rise and fall of countless festivals, it has endured. That is not to say it has been free of setbacks. There was a time when Venice’s pride was wounded, reduced to watching the spotlight shift toward Cannes—a festival that embraced commercialism and popular appeal to become the “world exposition of cinema.” Yet in recent years, that once-gaping divide has begun to narrow again.

The key lies in Venice’s refined ability to bridge art and the public. As Ko Kyung-bum, Head of Global Projects at CJ ENM and co-producer of Bugonia , put it, “Venice is the starting point that opens the gates to the Oscars.” That single remark encapsulates the festival’s importance in the global film world. Indeed, over the past four years, some 90 films introduced in both competition and non-competition sections at Venice have gone on to become Oscar nominees, with many capturing trophies—cementing the festival as a prelude to awards season. While Cannes excluded streaming titles by enforcing its theatrical screening rule, Venice, by contrast, displayed a sharp sensibility in embracing high-caliber OTT films. Decisions such as awarding the Golden Lion in 2018 to Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma, released on Netflix, were key to revitalizing the prestige of this award.

Jim Jarmusch, Park Chan-wook, and Kaouther Ben Hania Good films, great directors and actors, and cinephiles—the devoted audiences who share in the experience. This, in essence, is the formula behind the success of countless film festivals in renowned cities around the world. In this light, Venice’s standing rose even higher this year, as the lineup that gathered at the Lido was so abundant it offered a glimpse into the currents of world cinema. Marking its 82nd edition, the Venice Film Festival demonstrated a firm sense of balance. Legendary directors returned alongside Netflix, while forward-looking perspectives sparked new cinematic discourse. Socially engaged works and experimental endeavors were also evenly represented. As one local film industry figure I met on the Lido remarked, “Perhaps the reason Venice has become the world’s oldest international film festival is because it was the first to recognize the true value of cinema as an art form. Here, it always feels new.”

The curation of the 21 films in this year’s Golden Lion competition speaks volumes. Most striking was the return of true feature-length cinema. Seven entries, including László Nemes’s Árva with a running time of 132 minutes, exceeded the two-hour mark. In an era swept by the craze for YouTube-driven short-form content—where long narratives are often dismissed as outdated and dull—Venice boldly reaffirmed the value of “true cinema.” The festival also showcased the breadth of genre experiences unique to film as an art form. From Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia , blending science fiction with black comedy, to Guillermo del Toro’s fantasy-horror Frankenstein , Jim Jarmusch’s three-part anthology drama Father Mother Sister Brother , Kaouther Ben Hania’s reality-exposing documentary The Voice of Hind Rajab , and Olivier Assayas’s political thriller The Wizard of the Kremlin , the lineup presented works that resisted trends, each grounded in its director’s distinct aesthetics and cinematic concerns.

The results of this year’s competition hint at where the global film industry’s gaze is turning. Jim Jarmusch’s Golden Lion win was seen by many as a “surprise victory.” While Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice and Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab were widely considered frontrunners, Jarmusch’s triumph is by no means inexplicable. As always, Venice remained attentive to the artistic value of cinema. This year’s jury president, Alexander Payne, is known for weaving humanism into everyday life, and in that sense Jarmusch’s Father Mother Sister Brother , a quiet portrayal of emotional estrangement within families, aligned with his vision. The award reaffirmed Venice’s belief that films need not focus solely on wars or grand political events to serve as chronicles of their times. Wearing a purple suit and black sunglasses as he took the stage, Jarmusch underscored the point himself: “Art does not need to deal with politics directly in order to be political,” he said. “Creating empathy and connection among people is the first step toward solving problems.”

More significant than the upset in the Golden Lion race was Venice’s decision to award its second-highest honor, the Grand Jury Prize, to The Voice of Hind Rajab, a film with an unmistakably political message. Much like Cannes did when it granted its top prize, the Palme d’Or, to Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident, Venice signaled that it views cinema not only as an aesthetic pursuit but also as a forum for social testimony and a medium for articulating the pains of the times. That Venice—the traditional starting point for the road to the Oscars—chose to honor a work likely to unsettle Hollywood, given its ties to Israel, with the second prize is itself a meaningful gesture. Co-produced by Hollywood figures such as Brad Pitt, Joaquin Phoenix, and Alfonso Cuarón, the film reconstructs in docudrama form the true story of Hind Rajab, a young girl killed in last year’s Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. At its Venice screening, the film drew a 23-minute standing ovation, sparking widespread attention.

Equally persuasive were the jury’s choices to give the Special Jury Prize to Gianfranco Rosi’s Below the Clouds and the Best Screenplay honor to Valérie Donzelli’s At Work. The Volpi Cups for Best Actor and Best Actress went to Italian national treasure Toni Servillo for La Grazia and Chinese actress Xin Zhilei for The Sun Rises on Us All. The Best Director award to Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, however, was seen as a blemish, as the film’s flat narrative had not been well received during the festival.

No Other Choice, An Unmistakable Presence Even though many outstanding works premiered on the Lido this year, it was Korean cinema that stood out most. Park Chan-wook, the “master of mise-en-scène,” arrived with stars including Lee Byung-hun and Son Ye-jin to contend for the Golden Lion with his new film No Other Choice, marking his return to Venice after twenty years. For the Korean film industry—long beset by debates over its survival amid turbulence following the COVID pandemic—this was welcome news, quickly drawing attention back home. Particularly striking was the fact that Park, often dubbed “Cannes Park” for his singular presence at that festival, skipped Cannes this year, citing final post-production work, and instead brought his film to Venice. The move carried added significance, as Korean cinema had had little connection with Venice since the late Kim Ki-duk won the Golden Lion in 2012 with Pieta.

If The Voice of Hind Rajab dominated the festival’s tone during the latter half, No Other Choice electrified the opening days. Above all, it became the talk of Venice when it edged out prominent contenders to secure the festival’s coveted “prime time” slot—the official world premiere screening on Friday night, August 28. While screening times do not determine award outcomes, being scheduled in the time most closely watched by global media, industry professionals, and cinephiles signaled that Venice intended to spotlight the film as one of its centerpiece selections this year. Indeed, in 2023, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things premiered in the same Friday prime-time slot and went on to win the Golden Lion.

At the world premiere of No Other Choice , unveiled in Venice’s coveted prime-time slot,
director Park Chan-wook and actor Lee Byung-hun greet a crowd of fans.
(Photo by Jacopo Salvi, Venice International Film Festival / ASAC)

Korean cinema, once hailed as the first wave of the Korean Wave alongside K-pop, has more recently drawn concern for its apparent decline. Since Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite won the Palme d’Or in 2019, Korean films have struggled to achieve notable results at major international festivals. Growing concern also surrounds the reality that audiences drifting away from theaters may be undermining the distinctive artistry of K-movies that continued after the “Korean movie renaissance” of the 2000s. Although series such as Squid Game and films like KPop Demon Hunters have swept across the globe, they are, as Netflix originals, difficult to credit purely as achievements of Korean cinema.

The world premiere of No Other Choice at the Palazzo del Cinema became a showcase of both the enduring strength of K-movies and their recognition on the global stage. Ahead of the 9:45 P.M. screening at the festival’s main theater, the Sala Grande, the Lido began filling with people in suits and gowns. Although rain and wind swept through at one point, crowds of filmgoers had already gathered outside the theater well before showtime. They erupted in cheers when Director Park Chan-wook and his cast stepped onto the red carpet. Some cried out “Lee!” at actor Lee Byung-hun, seeking his autograph and startling onlookers. Such was the fervor of the night that the screening began well after its scheduled time.

The highlight came past midnight, when the end credits rolled. More than a thousand audience members rose to their feet in unison, showering Park and his cast, seated in the second balcony, with a standing ovation. The cheers and applause continued for nearly nine minutes. One audience member, visibly elated, remarked, “It was more fascinating than I expected. The film captured the monsters created by society remarkably well.” U.S. entertainment outlet Variety echoed the sentiment, hailing the film as “decisive proof that Park Chan-wook is the most elegant filmmaker alive” and “a delectable black comedy.”

Korean Cinema’s New Path Confirmed with Bugonia The strength of Korean cinema was also evident in Bugonia, which competed alongside No Other Choice. Developed by CJ ENM and produced by renowned Hollywood director Ari Aster, the film was directed by Yorgos Lanthimos with his frequent muse Emma Stone in the lead. It is a remake of the 2003 Korean film Save the Green Planet!, which was a box-office flop at the time but gained recognition for its originality and imagination. Two decades later, it has been reborn in Hollywood. Ko Kyung-bum, Head of Global Projects at CJ ENM, whom I met during the festival, explained the significance of Save the Green Planet! being remade and invited to this year’s Venice competition: “Save the Green Planet! is a product of imagination that emerged during the ‘Korean movie renaissance’ when Bong Joon-ho and Park Chan-wook appeared. By remaking it, Bugonia shows that this imagination still resonates in today’s global film market. In that sense, the fact that this film was invited to Venice alongside No Other Choice is symbolic.”

Bugonia is being evaluated as opening a new path for Korea’s film industry in crisis. At a time when investment has dried up and new productions have stalled in Chungmuro, the film demonstrated that Korean intellectual property (IP) can generate fresh revenue streams. With K-content now firmly established as a global mainstream cultural trend, the project underscored that Korean imagination and storytelling possess international appeal. It also sent a clear signal that the Korean film industry should no longer create works solely for the domestic market. At a Venice press conference, Yorgos Lanthimos recalled the experience: “The moment I read the script, I felt an immediate response. We kept nudging and reshaping it, aligning it with my vision, and it turned into an extraordinarily intense journey.”

After the Venice Film Festival closed, disappointment lingered in Korea over No Other Choice not winning the Golden Lion. From the perspective of one who attended the festival, however, the prevailing mood was more about anticipation than regret. The praise for No Other Choice and the strong showing of Bugonia, which drew on Korean film IP, reaffirmed that Korean cinema still holds persuasive power at the center of global cinematic discourse. Even the inconveniences of shuttling across the waters between Venice’s main island and the Lido felt like a toll worth paying for having witnessed a page in Korean film history. The festival has ended, and theaters in Korea remain in a lean season—but imagining an optimistic future for Korean cinema, it seems, is inescapable.

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