Early this morning, Alberto Barbera, the Venice Film Festival Artistic Director, announced the official lineup for La Biennale di Venezia’s 83rd edition. The slate is stacked with big names from across the globe, including a return of legendary filmmaker Werner Herzog (with Bucking Fastard) and entries from directors Casey Affleck (Company), Martin McDonagh (Wild Horse Nine) and Florian Zeller (Bunker). Those films alone feature star power from John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Rooney Mara, Domhnall Gleeson, Orlando Bloom, and Steve Buscemi.
Documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim will hit the Lido with his feature fiction film debut, Primetime, starring Robert Pattinson, while Luca Guadagnino heads over to the non-fiction side of things with his nearly 8-hour doc on the iconic Bernardo Bertolucci, Joie de Vivre. If you’re in the mood for another lengthy biographical deep dive, then there’s always Alex Gibney’s 232-minute intensive on tech trillionaire Elon Musk. Then for music fans, there’s Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace’s doc on the comeback tour of rock band Oasis, titled Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger, and Russell Crowe’s (yes, that Russell Crowe) concert film, What Love Builds.
This year, American actress and filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal will serve as Jury President for the main competition, while both Ellen Burstyn (starring in Kornél Mundruczó’s Place to Be) and Venice fave George Clooney are scheduled to receive Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement.
Already announced were the festival’s opening and closing titles: Ink, from director Danny Boyle and starring Jack O’Connell and Guy Pearce, and Dio ride, written and directed by Giovanni Veronesi (The King’s Musketeers).
Though Barbera signed the 50/50 pledge back in 2018, which committed to aiming for gender parity among their cinematic selections, there is only one female filmmaker in competition for the Golden Lion in 2026: Danish-Egyptian director May El-Toukhy with her drama, Kvinde Ukendt (Woman Unknown). This marks a big step back from even their meagre 2025 female-led slate, which accounted for just 29% of films in competition and featured films from Mona Fastvold, Kathryn Bigelow, Ildikó Enyedi, Shu Qi, Donzelli and Kaouther Ben Hania. Ben Hania went on to win the Grand Jury Prize for The Voice of Hind Rajab, while scribe Valérie Donzelli earned best screenplay for At Work.
The festival will run on the Lido di Venezia from 2-12 September.
Here is the full lineup:
Competition
“Ink,” Danny Boyle (opening film)
“Company,” Casey Affleck
“Kami Nour” (“A Bit of Light”), Ali Asgari
“Ritorno a Buenos Aires,” Marco Bechis
“Un Bon Petit Soldat” (“A Good Little Soldier”) Stephane Brize
“Il Fuoco che ti Porti Dentro,” Edoardo De Angelis
“Kvinde Ukendt” (“Woman Unknown”) May el-Toukhy
“Bucking Fastard,” Werner Herzog
“15/18 (A Place to Heal),” Cedric Kahn
“Dau,” Ilya Khrzhanovsky
“Look Back,” Hirokazu Kore-eda
“Ga-Neung-Han Sa-Rang” (“Possible Love”), Lee Chang-dong
“Wild Horse Nine,” Martin McDonagh
“Succedera Questa Notte,” Nanni Moretti
“Primetime,” Lance Oppenheim
“The Echo Chamber,” Andrea Pallaoro
“Un Peu Avant Minuit,” Nicolas Pariser “L’Estranea,” Paolo Strippoli
“Nelson San, Anata Ha Hito Wo Koroshimashitaka?” (“Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?”) Shinya Tsukamoto
“Bunker,” Florian Zeller
Venice Open – Out of Competition – Fiction
“Dio Rise,” Giovanni Veronesi
“Nessun Dolore,” Gianni Amelio
“Makikiraan Po” (“Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors”), Laz Diaz
“Father Joe,” Barthelemy Grossman
“Scherzetto,” Mario Martone
“Place to Be,” Kornel Mundruczo
“No Paradise if You Are Killed by a Woman,” Halkawt Mustafa
“Arrested Memory,” Sabu “The Basics of Philosophy,” Paul Schrader
“Un Bon Avocat,” Tristan Seguela
“Jupiter,” Alexandre Smia
Venice Open – Out of Competition – Non Fiction
“Be Brave,” Francesco Carrozzini
“What Love Builds,” Russell Crowe
“Burgundy,” Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
“Musk,” Alex Gibney
“The Road to Jericho,” Amos Gitai
“Al Mowaten Osama” (“Citizen Osama”), Ahmed Hassouna
“Union Town,” Barbara Kopple
“Holy Wood Dust,” Victor Kossakovsky
“Listy” (“Letters From the Silenced Country”), Andrei Kutsila
“Biografia de Jorge Luis Borges,” Mariano Llinas
“My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile,” Julia Loktev
“Boatbuilders,” Luke Lorentzen “Imperium,” Sergei Loznitsa
“Shumei – The Living Legacy of Kabuki,” Takashi Miike
“Queer Edward II,” Theo Rollason
“Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger,” Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace
“Weichen” (“Dust”), Tsai Ming-liang
“Everest: The Other Side,” Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
“From Inside Out – The Architecture of Peter Zumthor,” Wim Wenders
Venice Open – Out of Competition – Film on Films
“Juso per Ferie,” Karen Di Porto
“Nino – Un Film su Nino Rota,” Walter Fasano
“The Pervert’s Guide to Utopia,” Sophie Fiennes
“Joie de Vivre,” Luca Guadagnino
“Twist and Shoot Mister Suzuki,” Yves Montmayeur
“Intermission,” Yonfan
Venice Open – Out of Competition – Short Films
“Flesh Impact,” Maggie Gyllenhaal
“Halayon” (“Wild Asparagus”), Avi Mograbi
“They’re Here,” Laura Poitras, Rachel Lauren Mueller
Venice Open – Out of Competition – Series
“Peccato,” Valerio Vestoso
Venice open – Out of Competition – Special Screening
“Dai Nostri Inviati. La Rai Racconta La Mostra del cinema di venezia 2001-2012, Giuseppe Giannotti, Enrico Salvatori, Nicolette Berardi
Orrizonti
“La Ragazza Con La Leica,” Alina Marazzi
“Yak Mai” (“The Burning Giants”), Phuttiphong Aroonpheng
“Cudze Rzeczy” (“What Belongs to Others”), Grzegorz Debowski
“Una Storia,” Anna Foglietta
“La Citta dei Vivi,” Edoardo Gabbriellini
“Moragheb” (“Falling House”), Mohsen Gharaei
“Too Much Sugar,” Robert Greene
“The Difficult Bride,” Rubaiyat Hossain
“La Maison du Vent,” Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
“I Figli Della Scimmia,” Tommaso Landucci
“Mia Mera Sti oi Tis Tzo: Kefalaio Faidra” (“A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra”), Jacqueline Lentzou
“Oase” (“Oasis”), Jannis Lenz
“Do Kraja Dana” (“Until the Day Ends”), Jelena Maksimovic
“La Moula,” Jerome Pierrat
“Lovers in the Blue Night,” Anaparna Roy
“Un Detour par Diane,” Ann Sirot, Raphael Balboni
“The Color of the Sun,” Xavier Tera “Eklipse,” Manuel Wetscher
“Huangyan Shenghuo” (“Big Little Things”), Michelle Zhou
Venice Spotlight
“Sumo: Spirit Weights Nothing,” Erik Shirai
“Hiwar Ma’Albahr” (“Conversation with the Sea”), Muayad Alayan
“Hombre al Agua,” Gael Garcia Bernal
“Serpenti,” Roberto De Paolis Maino
“Furies,” Rami Kodeih
“Guria,” Levan Koguashvili
“Foldszint” (“Ground Floor”), Gabor Reisz
“El Contez” (“I Matter”), Alina Serban
