Alex Gibney’s Four-Hour Elon Musk Documentary Debuts at Venice

Alex Gibney’s long-awaited portrait of Elon Musk will open the 83rd Venice Film Festival in September. The film runs 232 minutes—just under four hours—making it one of the longest high-profile documentaries ever screened at the event.

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Gibney first announced the project in March 2023, describing it as a “definitive and unvarnished examination” of Musk’s roles at Tesla, SpaceX and X. A finished cut was delivered in early 2025, but editing resumed after Musk’s vocal support for Donald Trump’s 2024 campaign and his brief tenure as the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The documentary follows Gibney’s three-decade track record of probing powerful figures, including previous works on Steve Jobs and Elizabeth Holmes.

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Musk reacted on X (formerly Twitter) when the project was first reported in 2023, calling it “a hit piece.” He later labeled Gibney “a douche.” In response, Gibney retorted, “How would you know?” and later replied, “douché.”

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• “I invite you to look at the duration of the movie — four hours,” — Alberto Barbera, Venice artistic director

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After its Venice debut, Bleecker Street will roll the documentary out in U.S. theaters in October, while HBO Documentary Films will handle North American television and streaming rights. International sales are being managed by Black Bear, and production credits include Jigsaw Productions, Zhang Xin’s Closer Media, Double Agent and Anonymous Content.

Hollywood Reporter