Venice Film Festival 2025: Alexander Payne to preside as Jury President

The Prestigious Venice Film Festival will have director Alexander Payne presiding as the head of Jury. The 82nd Venice Film Festival will be held from August to September 2025 in Italy. Decided by the board members of La Biennale di Venezia who discussed the recommendation with the Director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera. 

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Alexander Payne, known for his comedy films all have been nominated for a total of 24 Oscar including 4 times nominated for Best Picture and thrice for Best Director and winning twice for Adapted Screenplay (Sideways 2004) and (Descendents 2011). Payne was last seen at the Venice Film Festival in 2017 for his Sci- Fi comedy ‘Downsizing’. 

‘Holdovers’ bagged one Academy Award for Best Supporting Role at the Oscars 2024, a melancholic comedy about three individuals in a school in West England who form an unlikely bond over the Christmas Holidays. 

Alexander Payne is a mastermind cinephile who is devoted to restore and resurrect movies and their core spirit in any form or cast. His induction into the Venice Film Festival is a fine selection. On being selected to head the Jury, Payne said, “It’s an enormous honor and joy to serve on the jury at Venice. Although I share a filmmaker’s ambivalence about comparing films against one another, I revere the Venice Film Festival’s nearly 100-year history of loudly celebrating film as an art form. I couldn’t be more excited”, reports Deadline. 

Payne along with the Jury will be deciding the winners of the Golden Lion – Best Film; Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize; Silver Lion – Best Director; Coppa Volpi – Best Actress; Coppa Volpi for Best Actor; Award for Best Screenplay; Special Jury Prize and Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress at the 82nd Venice Film Festival. 

Alexander Payne has impressive predecessors who have headed the Jury at the film festival as the likes of Juliane Moore, Isabelle Hupert, Bong Joon-ho, Damien Chazelle, Cate Blanchet and others. The 82nd Venice Film Festival will be held from 27 August to 6 September 2025.