Venice 2026: Stars, Auteurs & the Fight for the Golden Lion

The 83rd Venice International Film Festival (Biennale Cinema 2026) runs from 2–12 September on the Lido and has unveiled a strong Competition lineup heavy on established auteurs, with relatively few studio titles. Artistic director Alberto Barbera presented a selection that mixes returning masters, bold new works and a handful of high-profile English-language films.

The International Competition Jury

Maggie Gyllenhaal (American actress, director, screenwriter and producer — known for The Lost Daughter) serves as Jury President. She is joined by:

• Kaouther Ben Hania — Tunisian director and screenwriter, acclaimed for films such as The Man Who Sold His Skin and Four Daughters

• Daniel Blumberg — English composer and artist (Oscar-nominated for The Brutalist)

• Francesco Casetti — Italian film scholar and professor

• Xavier Giannoli — French director and screenwriter

• Shahrbanoo Sadat — Afghan director and screenwriter

• Johnnie To — Hong Kong director and producer, celebrated for stylish crime and action cinema

Films in Competition

Here are the titles vying for the Golden Lion, with brief notes on the filmmakers:

• Ink (opening film) — Danny Boyle. The British director of Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire and 28 Days Later returns with a drama about Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of The Sun newspaper, starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy.

• Company — Casey Affleck. The Oscar-winning actor-director (Manchester by the Sea, Light of My Life) delivers a 1970s-set gothic mystery.

• A Bit of Light — Ali Asgari. Iranian filmmaker previously seen in Venice’s Horizons section with Divine Comedy.

• Ritorno a Buenos Aires (Back to Buenos Aires) — Marco Bechis. Chilean-Italian director known for politically charged work exploring the Argentine dictatorship.

• Un Bon Petit Soldat (A Good Little Soldier) — Stéphane Brizé. French realist filmmaker (The Measure of a Man, At War) teams with Alba Rohrwacher and Vincent Lindon.

• Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro — Edoardo De Angelis. Italian director working in a dark tragicomic register.

• Woman Unknown — May el-Toukhy. Danish-Egyptian director (Queen of Hearts); the sole female director in this year’s main competition. A post-WWII drama about a housekeeper whose past resurfaces.

• Bucking Fastard — Werner Herzog. The legendary German filmmaker and explorer of extremes stars Rooney and Kate Mara (their first film together), Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson.

• A Place to Heal (also referred to as 15/18) — Cédric Kahn. French director sets his story in an adolescent psychiatry unit.

• Dau — Ilya Khrzhanovsky. Continuation of the monumental, controversial DAU project.

• Look Back — Hirokazu Kore-eda. Japanese master of intimate family drama (Shoplifters, Nobody Knows) adapts a popular manga about two aspiring manga artists; his second major festival premiere of 2026.

• Possible Love — Lee Chang-dong. Acclaimed South Korean writer-director (Burning, Poetry, Oasis) returns after an eight-year gap with a Netflix-backed drama.

• Wild Horse Nine — Martin McDonagh. Irish playwright-turned-filmmaker (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Banshees of Inisherin) brings a black comedy about CIA agents on Easter Island, starring John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and Parker Posey.

• Succederà Questa Notte (It Will Happen Tonight) — Nanni Moretti. Italian auteur (The Son’s Room) returns to Venice competition for the first time since 1989; stars Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca.

• Primetime — Lance Oppenheim. Documentary filmmaker (Some Kind of Heaven, Ren Faire) makes his fiction debut with an A24 drama starring (and produced by) Robert Pattinson as Chris Hansen of To Catch a Predator.

• The Echo Chamber — Andrea Pallaoro. Italian director adapts an unfinished Bernardo Bertolucci script; stars Alicia Vikander, Luca Marinelli and Susan Sarandon.

• Un Peu Avant Minuit (A Bit Before Midnight) — Nicolas Pariser. French filmmaker with Melvil Poupaud, Chiara Mastroianni and Golshifteh Farahani.

• L’Estranea — Paolo Strippoli. Italian thriller centered on a complicated mother-daughter relationship (Jasmine Trinca, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi).

• Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? — Shinya Tsukamoto. Cult Japanese director (Tetsuo: The Iron Man) with a portrait of a Vietnam veteran starring Geoffrey Rush.

• Bunker — Florian Zeller. French director of The Father and The Son delivers a psychological thriller starring Javier Bardem, Penélope Cruz, Paul Dano and Stephen Graham.

The selection is notably male-dominated (only one woman in the 20-film Competition) and lighter on major studio fare than some recent years, leaning instead toward auteur-driven and independent voices. Lifetime Golden Lions will also be awarded to George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn.

This year’s Lido promises strong awards contenders, star power on the red carpet, and the usual mix of prestige drama, dark comedy and bold experimentation. The Golden Lion race is wide open.