While beautiful locations featured in films and TV shows have long provided travel inspiration for those seeking to recreate on-screen adventure, romance and escapism, the trend has really ramped up in recent years. ‘Set-jetting’ – the act of travelling to locations seen on screens – has become as common a reason for travel as any other. While our obsession with on-location TV shows is truly live and kicking (see the sandy shores of Thailand in The White Lotus, the romantic cobbled streets of Bath in Bridgerton or the gothic backdrop of Eastern Europe in Wednesday), it’s the latest set of buzzy movie releases that have our travel radars tingling.
Venice Film Festival – the world’s oldest film festival – has long been hailed as the ultimate way to launch new movies into the awards season dialogue. Yorgos Lanthimos premiered two of his latest films at the festival, The Favourite in 2018 followed by Poor Things in 2023, both of which won multiple Academy Awards. His latest feature, Bugonia, will be premiering at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival – and already, the Oscar buzz is rife.
Debuting alongside him is Kathryn Bigelow with her much anticipated release A House of Dynamite – the Oscar-winning director’s first feature in eight years – as well as Guillermo del Toro with Frankenstein (starring Jacob Elordi, Oscar Isaac and Mia Goth), Benny Safdie with The Smashing Machine (starring Dwayne Johnson) and Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly (with George Clooney and Adam Sandler).
One thing many of these new debuts have in common (alongside impressive casts and award-winning directors), is the location taking a leading role. Below, we run through the films showing at this year’s Venice Film Festival that are set to inspire your future travels.
After The Hunt, Luca Guadagnino
Cambridge, UK
Italian film director Luca Guadagnino has long been loved for his artistic portrayals of love, lust and drama. Moving on from the roaring 2024 success of Challengers and Queer, Guadagnino has turned his sights to a psychological thriller. After The Hunt, starring Julia Reoberts, Ayo Edebiri, Andrew Garfield, Michael Stuhlbarg and Chloë Sevigny, is set against the academic setting of an Ivy League university. The film centres around an accusation levied by a student (Edebiri) against a teacher (Garfield), leaving professor Julia Roberts to grapple with the fallout. Filming was largely done at Cambridge university – according to local news outlet Cambridge Independent, the cast were spotted filming at Selwyn College and Westminster College, as well as at The Pitt Building in nearby Trumpington Street. This isn’t the first time Cambridge has been used as a filming location – recently, 2025’s Apple TV thriller Prime Target was filmed and set at the university, and previous Oscar-winner The Theory of Everything was also based there.