Venice Festival unveils 2026 lineup

The 83rd Venice International Film Festival is unveiling its official lineup today.

Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera and Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, president of the Biennale di Venezia, will confirm the films running in competition and main sidebar sections.

You can follow their presentation, starting from 11 am local time at La Biennale Library of the Historical Archive in Venice, on the festival site or on its social media channels on YouTube, X, TikTok, and Facebook.

Venice, alongside Cannes, is considered the world’s most prestigious film festival and a major awards season prognosticator.

Buttafuoco, who has usually avoided making political statements in reference to the Venice festival, made an exception this time. In his official comments opening the press conference, he lashed out at the European Commission, which this week withdrew a €2 million ($2.8 million) grant earmarked for the La Biennale di Venezia Foundation. The EC took the move to punish Venice’s art Biennale for allowing Russia to return to the event this year, for first time since the start of the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Comparing the European Commission to a “wolf” and Venice to a “lamb,” Buttafuoco said Brussels were” abandoning us…because of a political decision, not a legal decision, and certainly not a cultural decision.”

Barbara began with the line up for the Venice Spotlight, including Conversation With the Sea from Palestinian director Muayad Alayan, and Hombre Al Agua from Mexican star Gael Garcia Bernal. The Spotlight line up looks like a particularly political one this year, with other highlights including Ground Floor from Hungarian director Gabor Reisz, which Barbara described as a metaphor for the Victor Orban “dictatorship;” and I Matter, from director Alina Serban, the first film from a Roma director to screen in the section.

Among the highlights of Venice’s main sidebar, the Orizzonti or Horizons section, include Lovers in the Blue Night, the new film from India’s Anuparna Roy, whose Songs of Forgotten Trees won best director in the section last year; and Too Much Sugar, the new documentary from Procession director Robert Greene.

Among the highlights of Venice’s main sidebar, the Orizzonti or Horizons section, include Lovers in the Blue Night, the new film from India’s Anuparna Roy, whose Songs of Forgotten Trees won best director in the section last year; and Too Much Sugar, the new documentary from Procession director Robert Greene.

Another new section, the Venice Open Non Fiction sidebar for documentary films, will see the world premiere of several of this year’s most hotly-anticipated docs, including Alex Gibney’s Elon Musk documentary Musk, My Undesirable Friends Part II – Exile, Julia Loktev’s follow-up to her 2025 film tracing Russia’s crack down on independent journalists; and Union Town, from two-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple (Harlan County U.S.A., American Dream).

Venice has already confirmed that Danny Boyle’s Ink, a biographical drama starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, about Rupert Murdoch and his British tabloid empire, will open this year’s event, on Sept. 2. Dio Ride, an Italian period drama from director Giovanni Veronesi starring Pierfrancesco Favino (Maria, Rush) will close the fest on Sept. 12, screening out of competition.

Also out of competition are Place to Be from Hungarian director Kornel Mundruczo (Pieces of a Woman) with Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi and Pamela Anderson; Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors, the latest from Filipino auteur Lav Diaz (Season of the Devil); Paul Schrader’s new film, The Basics of Philosophy; and the Luc Besson-produced crime thriller Father Joe, from director Barthelemy Grossman starring Kiefer Sutherland and Al Pacino.

Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter, The Bride!) will head up this year’s Venice competition jury as president, picking the winner of the Golden Lion for best film. George Clooney, a Lido regular, will receive an honorary Golden Lion lifetime achievement award.

Last year’s Biennale included several high-profile premieres, though many — Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite — were award season flops.

The only 2025 Venice title to score at the Oscars was Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, which picked up 9 Academy Award nominations, winning three, for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design and Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling. Bugonia, from Yorgos Lanthimos, another Venice world premiere, picked up three Oscar nominations but won none. Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, which won Venice’s Silver Lion last year, was nominated for Best International Feature but lost out to Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value.

Europe’s other big festivals, Cannes and Berlin, struggled this year to attract films from major studios, leading to speculation that the majors are going cold on the festival circuit. Barbera has traditionally proven adept at enticing the studios, and Netflix, to premiere their prestige titles on the Lido. This year’s lineup will see if he still has the touch.

Full Venice 2026 line up below:

Venice Competition

Ink, dir. Danny Boyle (Opening Film)

Company, dir. Casey Affleck

A Bit of Light, dir. Ali Asgari

Ritorno a Buenos Aires, dir. Marco Bechi

Un Bon Petit Soldat, dir. Stephane Brize

Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro, dir. Edoardo de Angelis

Venice Spotlight

Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing, dir. Erik Shirai (Opening Film)

Conversation With the Sea, dir Muayad Alayan,

Hombre Al Agua, dir. Gael Garcia Bernal

Serpenti, dir. Roberto de Paolis Maino

Furies, dir. Rami Kodeih

Guria, dir. Levan Koguashvili

Ground Floor, dir. Gabor Reisz

I Matter, dir. Alina Serban

Orizzonti Competition

La Ragazza con la Leica, dir. Alina Marazzi (Opening Film)

The Burning Giants, dir. Phuttiphong Aroonpheng Thai

What Belongs to Others, dir. Grzegorz Debowski

Una Storia, dir. Anna Foglietta

La Citta dei Vivi, dir. Edoardo Gabbriellini

Falling House, dir. Mohsen Gharaei

Too Much Sugar, dir. Robert Greene

The Difficult Bride, dir. Rubaiyat Hossain

La Maison du Vent, dir. Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu

I Figli Della Scimmia, dir. Tommaso Landucci

A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra, dir. Jacqueline Lentzou

Oasis, dir. Jannis Lenz

Until the Day Ends, dir. Jelena Maksimovic

La Moula, dir. Jerome Pierrat

Lovers in the Blue Night, dir. Anuparna Roy

Un Detour par Diane, dir. Ann Sirot, Raphael Balboni

The Color of the Sun, dir. Xavier Tera

Venice Open – Films on Film

Juso Per Ferie, dir. Karen di Porto

Nino – Un Film su Nino, dir. Walter Fasano

The Pervert’s Guide to Utopias, dir. Sophie Fiennes

Joie de Vivre, dir. Luca Guadagnino

Twist and Shoot Mister Suzuki, dir. Yves Montmayeur

Intermission, dir. Yonfan

Venice Open – Non Fiction

Be Brave, dir. Francesco Carrozzini

What Loves Builds, dir. Russell Crowe

Burgundy, dir. Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw

Musk, dir. Alex Gibney

The Road to Jericho, dir. Amos Gitai

Citizen Osama, dir. Ahmed Hassouna

Union Town, dir. Barbara Kopple

Holy Wood Dust, dir. Victor Kossakovsky

Letters from the Silenced Country, dir. Andrei Kutsila

Biografia de Jorge Luis Borges, dir. Mariano Llinas

My Undesirable Friends Part II – Exile, dir. Julia Loktev

Boatbilders, dir. Luke Lorentzen

Imperium, dir. Sergei Loznitsa

Shumei – The Living Legacy of Kabuki, dir. Takashi Miike

Queer Edward II, dir. Theo Rollason

Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, dirs. Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace

Dust, dir. Tsai Ming-liang

Everest: The Other Side, dirs. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chan

From Inside Out – The Architecture of Peter Zumthor, dir. Wim Wenders

Venice Open – Fiction

Dio Ride, Giovanni Veronesi (Closing Film)

Nessun Dolore, dir. Gianni Amelio

Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors, dir. Lav Diaz

Father Joe, dir. Barthelemy Grossman

Scherzetto, dir. Mario Martone

Place to Be, dir. Kornel Mundruczo

No Paradise if You Are Killed by a Woman, dir. Halkawt Mustafa

Arrested Memory, dir. Sabu

The Basics of Philosophy, dir. Paul Schrader

Un Bon Avocat, dir. Tristan Seguela

Jupiter, dir. Alexandre Smia