Venice Film Festival has rolled out its red carpet for 2025, and like every year prior, we’ve been inundated with news of the minutes-long standing ovations received by all the contending movies.
This year’s edition — which kicked off in Lido on August 27 and wraps up next week — has proven to be just as clap-happy, as audiences applaud a new batch of films for about the same length of time it took Katy Perry to literally fly to space (sometimes even longer).
While we’ve already waxed poetic about standing ovations being an irrelevant measure of films’ future success (with some of the most-clapped films going on to flop among audiences and critics), it’s still a fun litmus test to gauge enthusiasm.
If only because it’s nice to imagine celebs internally groaning about standing up for minutes on end while plastering a smile on their face, we’ve collated the buzziest films out of this year’s Venice Film Festival, based entirely on the standing ovations they received.
La Grazia — 5 minutes
The Italian film La Grazia, directed by Paolo Sorrentino, opened the 2025 Venice Film Festival, which is perhaps why audiences offered a measly five-minute standing O. Perhaps their clapping skills were just a bit rusty after a year-long rest, because five minutes? Pathetic! That is the Venice Film Festival equivalent of walking out mid-film. (Less than two minutes is throwing tomatoes.)
Despite the lack of red-raw hands, La Grazia copped some pretty glowing reviews, with the story of an Italian President (played by Toni Servillo) described as “surreal and sensational” by The Guardian and “surprising and ironically fastidious” by Variety. That’s critic-speak for “put your mother fucking hands together!”. Too bad Venice audiences didn’t.
After the Hunt — 5.57 minutes
Julia Roberts’ new film After the Hunt arrived on a flurry of controversy at Venice, with the actress forced to defend its handling of #MeToo themes about victims of sexual assault.
Even despite her star power, the movie — which also stars Andrew Garfield and was helmed by Challengers director Luca Guadagnino — earned relatively sparse applause, clocking in somewhere between five and six minutes.
While those three names might prompt some Nicole Kidman-level clapping à la the 2017 Oscars, the critics were less than inspired. After the Hunt — which stars Roberts as a professor grappling with the sexual assault allegations levelled against her colleague — received divided reviews, with some saying it contains “risky blurred lines” about its themes and others praising Roberts’ performance.
Bugonia — 6.28 minutes
In Venice terms, the 6.28 minute ovation received by the Emma Stone-led Bugonia is somewhat short, but it’s worth reiterating that it is still enough time for everyone in that audience to brush their teeth twice with room for a quick floss.
Still, the movie made waves for the names circling it, with Poor Things’ Yorgos Lanthimos in the director’s chair and Jesse Plemmons co-starring. The film — about conspiracy theorists who kidnap a woman they believe is an alien — is so far the best-reviewed movie on this list, already landing a clap-worthy 90 per cent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Jay Kelly — 9.5 minutes
Assembling George Clooney, Adam Sandler and Marriage Story director Noah Baumbach is bound to get tongues waggin’ and hands clappin’, which is exactly what happened for Jay Kelly and its nearly ten-minute standing ovation. Note: extra time to floss, or maybe even unpack the dishwasher.
The do-some-chores-long applause for the comedy-drama was reflected in its reviews, with its story of a movie actor (Clooney) and his manager’s (Sandler) trip through Europe scoring 82 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes. *Chef’s clap*.
The Wizard of the Kremlin — 10 minutes
Jude Law? Check. Playing Vladimir Putin? Check. And co-starring Paul Dano? Check, check, check, clap, clap, clap. The Olivier Assayas-directed political thriller The Wizard of the Kremlin, which charts the origins of the Russian President, won over Venice with an applause length that was around the same as a pop star going suborbital.
Interestingly, though, the film hasn’t landed too crash-hot with critics, earning a rather rotten 46 per cent on the Tomatometer and described by The Hollywood Reporter as only “sporadically entertaining”. Guess all those clappers could’ve better used their time, I dunno, having a wank (though 10 minutes for that might be generous).
Frankenstein — 14 minutes
Hollywood absolutely loves it when attractive stars go ugly for a role (the versatility! The rawness!), which is probably why Venice Film Festival absolutely lost it over the Jacob Elordi-starring Frankenstein.
The movie, a take on the original 1818 book from director Guillermo Del Toro, copped a 14 minute ovation, which if done correctly, is enough time to brush, floss, empty the dishwasher and have a wank all while aboard a Blue Origin space flight. Or just to run an errand.
Frankenstein’s warm Venice Film Festival reception was probably helped when Elordi was seen sharing a teary-eyed hug with co-star Oscar Isaac, because I too would instinctively clap at the sight of those two doing quite literally anything, even unpacking the dishwasher.
Del Toro’s latest creature feature was similarly applauded by critics, with the folks at Roger Ebert — which is essentially the Bible for film bros — awarding it four out of four stars.
It’s unclear whether any of this will translate to the future success of the movies, so we’ll just have to wait and see whether all those cramped legs, loud decibels and fidgety hands was worth it.
In the meantime, let’s all go unpack our dishwashers, shall we?
Lead images: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images and Aldara Zarraoa/Getty Images
The post The Buzziest Films At Venice Film Festival, Based On The Length Of Standing Ovation appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
