Alexander Payne has been announced as Jury President for the 82nd Venice Film Festival, running from August 27 to September 6.
The director follows in the footsteps of recent jury presidents Isabelle Huppert (2024), Damien Chazelle (2023), Julianne Moore (2022), Bong Joon-ho (2021) and Cate Blanchett (2020).
The decision was made by the Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia, who confirmed the recommendation of the Director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera.
In accepting the proposal, Alexander 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.”
Payne’s films have been nominated for a total of 24 Oscars, including four times for Best Picture and three times for Best Director.
Watch on Deadline
He has won twice for Best Adapted Screenplay – for Sideways (2004) and The Descendants (2011) — and his latest, The Holdovers (2023), won Best Supporting Actress just last year. A lifelong film buff and ardent supporter of film preservation, he serves of the boards of The Film Foundation and the Telluride Film Festival. He is currently preparing a new film to be shot in rural Denmark, and his dream is to make a Western.
Barbera commented: “Alexander Payne belongs to the small circle of filmmakers-cinephiles whose passion for cinema is fueled by knowledge of films of the past and curiosity about contemporary cinema, without boundaries or barriers of any kind. These qualities – along with his experience as a screenwriter – make him an ideal candidate to preside over the work of the Venice Jury, which is called upon to evaluate films from around the world. I am grateful to Alexander for accepting my invitation, which seals an acquaintance that goes back to the days of his graduation short film at UCLA.”
The Jury will decide the Golden Lion for Best Film; Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize; Silver Lion – Award for Best Director; Coppa Volpi for 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.
The post Alexander Payne Announced As Jury President At 2025 Venice Film Festival appeared first on Deadline.
