Alexander Payne President of the Venezia 82 international jury

American director Alexander Payne (The Holdovers, Sideways, Nebraska, The Descendants) will be the president of the International Jury of the Competition at the 82^nd Venice International Film Festival (August 27 - September 6, 2025), which will assign the Golden Lion for Best Film, as well as other official awards.

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”.

Alberto 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”.

On the final night (September 6, 2025) of the upcoming 82^nd Venice Film Festival, the International Jury of Venezia 82, chaired by Alexander Payne and composed of no more then nine international celebrities in the spheres of film and culture from different countries, will assign the following official prizes among the feature-length films in the Competition:

• 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
• Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress

Alexander Payne grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and studied history and Spanish literature at Stanford before earning a master’s degree in film directing at UCLA. His movies – all comedies – are said to be characterized by “elegant construction, biting humor, and fine tragi-comic performances.” They have been nominated for a total of 24 Oscars, including four times for Best Picture and three times for Best Director. 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.