Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger — Venice Documentary on the Oasis Reunion, Forgiveness, and the Future

Today, at the Venice International Film Festival, the Oasis are being celebrated, or rather idolized, by the festival’s spotlight on the legendary British band in the eagerly awaited documentary Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger, presented out of competition. As you may know, the film centers on the reunion of Liam and Noel Gallagher, sealed by the triumphant Oasis Live ’25 tour, which kicked off in Cardiff, England, on July 4 and wrapped up in São Paulo, Brazil, on November 23.

conceived by Steven Knight and directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, the film is not merely a chronicle of a succession of concerts, some shot with as many as 18 cameras and entrusted not to mere cameramen but to exceptional directors of photography, but also features the first joint interviews of Noel and Liam after more than two decades. Southern and Lovelace didn’t simply document the band’s vocal performances or limit themselves to testimony of what happened on stage; they also intended to bring viewers into the rehearsal rooms and backstage, delivering footage never seen before. From the outset, their goal was to explore the profound emotional impact of a global cultural moment and to try to explain what Oasis’s music means to audiences around the world.

As was expected, at the Venice Lido’s Casinò pier, where stars arrive before the photocall after crossing the Lagoon, there were plenty of people—photographers, camera crews, and simply enthusiastic fans. The Gallagher brothers stepped off the official boat and lingered only for a short while. Both wore sunglasses, jeans, and a shirt untucked, with Liam pausing to sign a few autographs. Together with the directors and Steven Knight they participated in the photocall, but then they did not attend the press conference, much to journalists’ disappointment who would have liked to write about them. Asked for his impression of the Gallagher brothers and what it was like for him to tell their human and professional story, Knight replied: “I didn’t drift away from Peaky Blinders that much—because this is also a tale of brothers. Liam and Noel are very intelligent and funny. It doesn’t happen every day that you can tell such a compelling story from an emotional perspective and at the same time rely on a totally perfect soundtrack. The documentary is called Don’t Look Back In Anger for a precise reason. We didn’t want to dwell on the past or on what happened between Liam and Noel. What happened happened. Many people know how things went; others have no clue. The film, however, isn’t meant to recount Oasis’s past or the band’s breakup. For us, it was important that it come out now, in a time full of bitterness and hatred, such as the hate you sometimes see on social media. This film speaks of people finding common ground, of reconciliation. We’ve noticed that viewers who watch the film are moved at first, but toward the end they start thinking: maybe I should send a message to that person, maybe I should call them. That’s the spirit of the film, which speaks to today and to the future.”

Someone asks Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace whether, in their view, the Gallagher brothers could quarrel again and dissolve the group, and the pair respond that the risk of such a thing happening is non-existent, because Liam and Noel get along harmoniously. They go on to explain: “We aimed to document the reconciliation of the Gallagher brothers. It was what the whole world cared most about: after 15 years apart, would things work again? How were we to expect it to play out? It was a privilege to witness a rapprochement between Liam and , both during rehearsals and on tour. We were determined to document what was really happening. The crowd was overjoyed by their reunion, and it was the music that brought them back together. They reconciled on stage.”