The 83rd Venice Film Festival has unveiled its lineup, and it is one of the more compelling programmes the Lido has assembled in years. New films from Martin McDonagh, Werner Herzog, Lee Chang-dong, Hirokazu Koreeda, Florian Zeller, and Nanni Moretti are competing for the Golden Lion, alongside Robert Pattinson‘s solo producing debut, Alicia Vikander in an adaptation of a Bernardo Bertolucci screenplay, and a Penélope Cruz-Javier Bardem reunion. Danny Boyle’s Rupert Murdoch biopic Ink opens the festival on September 2nd.
The festival runs from September 2nd to 12th, with Dio Ride, an Italian period drama from Giovanni Veronesi starring Pierfrancesco Favino, closing proceedings out of competition. Maggie Gyllenhaal serves as competition jury president and will also screen her own short film Flesh Impact, a tribute to Marilyn Monroe starring Dakota Johnson and Ellen Burstyn. Burstyn and George Clooney will both receive Golden Lions for lifetime achievement.
Competition Highlights
Wild Horse Nine — Martin McDonagh returns to Venice competition with a black comedy set on Easter Island ahead of the 1973 Chilean coup, following two veteran CIA officers played by John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell. Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey co-star. Searchlight Pictures, the house studio behind both Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin — each of which received Best Picture Oscar nominations — is behind the film.
Bunker — Florian Zeller, last at Venice with The Son in 2022, returns with a psychological thriller starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz as a married couple whose relationship fractures after he accepts a commission to build a bunker for a billionaire. Stephen Graham, Paul Dano, and Patrick Schwarzenegger co-star. Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American rights.
Primetime — Robert Pattinson produces and stars in the feature debut of documentary director Lance Oppenheim, playing NBC journalist Chris Hansen, whose To Catch a Predator format became a media phenomenon. A24 is releasing in the US and handling international sales. Pattinson also has an involvement as producer.
Bucking Fastard — Werner Herzog, who appeared out of competition at Venice last year with Ghost Elephants, enters the main competition with a new feature starring siblings Rooney and Kate Mara in their first on-screen collaboration. Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson co-star. Herzog reportedly turned down an out-of-competition slot at Cannes for the film.
The Echo Chamber — Andrea Pallaoro (Monica) directs Alicia Vikander in an adaptation of the final screenplay written by the late Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, The Conformist), playing opposite a co-star as lovers trapped in a relationship they can neither leave nor sustain.
Possible Love — Lee Chang-dong returns to Venice for the first time since winning the best director Silver Lion for Oasis in 2002, with a new melodrama backed by Netflix and starring Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, and Parasite‘s Cho Yeo-jeong.
Look Back — Hirokazu Koreeda, fresh from Cannes, adapts Tatsuki Fujimoto’s beloved coming-of-age manga — also adapted as an animated feature in 2024 — in a live-action version.
It Will Happen Tonight — Nanni Moretti, winner of the Palme d’Or for The Son’s Room (2001), returns to Venice competition for the first time since 1989 with a romantic drama starring Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca.
Woman Unknown — Danish director May el-Toukhy makes her Venice competition debut with a period drama set in post-World War Two Europe. She is the sole female director among 20 in competition — a statistic that highlights the limited progress Venice has made since artistic director Alberto Barbera signed the 50/50 by 2020 gender parity pledge nearly a decade ago.
Also in competition: Casey Affleck’s 1970s gothic mystery Company starring Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn, and A Bit of Light from Iranian director Ali Asgari.
Out of Competition: The Oasis Documentary, a Four-Hour Musk Film, and More
The most anticipated documentary at this year’s festival is Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace (Shut Up and Play the Hits) from a script by Peaky Blinders‘ Steven Knight. The film follows the band’s triumphant 2025 reunion tour. Both Liam and Noel Gallagher are expected to attend the premiere. The documentary will open theatrically in IMAX and select cinemas on September 11th before streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
Also world premiering at the festival is Alex Gibney’s long-gestating Musk documentary, running close to four hours. Other notable non-fiction titles include Union Town from two-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple; My Undesirable Friends Part II – Exile, Julia Loktev’s follow-up tracing Russia’s crackdown on independent journalists; They’re Here, a documentary short from Laura Poitras and Rachel Mueller featuring never-before-seen footage of protests against Trump’s ICE raids in Minnesota; and Be Brave, an Italian documentary about Diesel fashion group founder Renzo Rosso made almost entirely using artificial intelligence.
Out of competition fiction highlights include Al Pacino and Kiefer Sutherland in Luc Besson-produced crime thriller Father Joe, Paul Schrader’s The Basics of Philosophy, and Lav Diaz’s Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors.
Luca Guadagnino’s Joie de Vivre screens in the Venice Open – Films on Film section alongside Sophie Fiennes’s The Pervert’s Guide to Utopias and a new documentary from Russell Crowe.
The Political Context
Venice’s presentation was not without controversy. Biennale chairman Pietrangelo Buttafuoco announced that the European Commission had withdrawn a €2 million grant to the Biennale’s arts exhibition in response to Russia being allowed to participate for the first time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Buttafuoco condemned the decision as “a political decision, not certainly a legal decision, and certainly not a cultural decision” and said he would not yield to pressure that he argued would compromise the autonomy and freedom of expression of the Biennale. He warned that the pulled funding would also impact the Biennale College film fund and the Venice Production Bridge initiatives.
Full Venice 2026 Lineup
Venice Competition
Ink — Danny Boyle (Opening Film) | Company — Casey Affleck | A Bit of Light — Ali Asgari | Ritorno a Buenos Aires — Marco Bechis | Un Bon Petit Soldat — Stéphane Brizé | Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro — Edoardo de Angelis | Woman Unknown — May el-Toukhy | Bucking Fastard — Werner Herzog | 15/18 A Place to Heal — Cédric Kahn | Dau — Ilya Khrzhanovsky | Look Back — Hirokazu Koreeda | Possible Love — Lee Chang-dong | Wild Horse Nine — Martin McDonagh | It Will Happen Tonight — Nanni Moretti | Primetime — Lance Oppenheim | The Echo Chamber — Andrea Pallaoro | Un Peu Avant Minuit — Nicolas Pariser | L’Estranea — Paolo Strippoli | Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? — Shinya Tsukamoto | Bunker — Florian Zeller
Venice Spotlight
Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing — Erik Shirai (Opening) | Conversation With the Sea — Muayad Alayan | Hombre Al Agua — Gael Garcia Bernal | Serpenti — Roberto de Paolis Maino | Furies — Rami Kodeih | Guria — Levan Koguashvili | Ground Floor — Gabor Reisz | I Matter — Alina Serban
Orizzonti (Horizons) Competition
La Ragazza con la Leica — Alina Marazzi (Opening) | The Burning Giants | What Belongs to Others | Una Storia — Anna Foglietta | La Città dei Vivi | Falling House | Too Much Sugar — Robert Greene | The Difficult Bride — Rubaiyat Hossain | La Maison du Vent | I Figli della Scimmia | A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra — Jacqueline Lentzou | Oasis — Jannis Lenz | Until the Day Ends | La Moula | Lovers in the Blue Night — Anuparna Roy | Un Détour par Diane | The Color of the Sun — Xavier Tera
Venice Open – Non Fiction (selected highlights)
Be Brave — Francesco Carrozzini | What Loves Builds — Russell Crowe | Musk — Alex Gibney | Union Town — Barbara Kopple | My Undesirable Friends Part II – Exile — Julia Loktev | Imperium — Sergei Loznitsa | Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger — Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace | Everest: The Other Side — Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chan | From Inside Out: The Architecture of Peter Zumthor — Wim Wenders
Venice Open – Fiction (selected highlights)
Dio Ride — Giovanni Veronesi (Closing Film) | Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors — Lav Diaz | Father Joe — Barthélémy Grossman | Place to Be — Kornel Mundruczo | The Basics of Philosophy — Paul Schrader
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