Venice Film Festival 2026 programme: films, filmmakers and new directions at Venezia 83

July 23, 2026

Alberto Barbera: “films are our most important instrument for understanding reality and ourselves.”

Immagine Ufficiale Venezia 83

The Venice Film Festival 2026, taking place on the Lido between 2 and 12 September, presents 88 new feature films, 18 shorts, 19 restorations and 68 immersive projects. Productions and co-productions come from 62 countries, and 4,740 works were submitted. The scale is considerable, but the programme’s identity lies in its engagement with war, authoritarianism, social fracture, climate instability, memory and artificial intelligence.

In his introduction, Alberto Barbera asks whether cinema can remain the window through which audiences understand history, politics and geography, as well as the more elusive dimensions of human experience. Venezia 83 responds with a selection that lacks a dominant trend, allowing established auteurs, debut filmmakers, monumental works, and new audiovisual forms to coexist.

It is not the absence of America, but the absence of the majors

Venezia 83 confirms a trend already visible at the Berlinale and Cannes in 2026, but it needs to be defined precisely. American cinema has not disappeared from the festival circuit: what has withdrawn is the major studio system. US filmmakers, actors and producers remain prominent through independent films, smaller companies and international co-productions. Creative America is still here; it is Hollywood as an industrial apparatus that is retreating.

The distinction is far from minor. For American independent cinema, a festival can still change a film’s fate: selection at Venice, Cannes or Berlin buys a visibility no limited promotional budget could secure, attracts distributors, and opens the door to a global conversation. In some cases, it does more than present these titles: it rescues them from invisibility. Fewer majors means fewer large promotional events, but also attention restored to works for which a premiere is a necessity rather than an accessory.

The studios, by contrast, are pursuing an increasingly cautious strategy. A premiere brings immediate reviews, reactions that cannot be controlled, and press conferences where a film may become entangled in unwelcome political or industrial questions. Cannes 2026 hosted no feature produced by a major US studio. Promotional costs, critical risk, unease with political terrain: the issue concerns American creativity far less than the willingness of large corporations to accept public scrutiny.

Whether isolation can truly protect blockbusters remains unclear. A high-budget film does not need a festival to be seen, but it may need one to become something more than a product carried by a global campaign: a premiere on the Croisette or the Lido confers prestige, creates a genuine encounter with audiences, and turns a release into a shared cultural event.

Avoiding judgment does not make a film better, nor does it guarantee success: it merely narrows the space for the unexpected, the very thing on which cinema has built an essential part of its history. The more studios favour controlled environments, the more festivals can occupy the space they leave behind and return to their most necessary function: serving as showcases for cinema willing to take risks, and giving a chance to films that the market, left to itself, would never let anyone see.

Competition combines major returns and radical projects

John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell in Wild Horse Nine

Aside from the already announced opening film, Danny Boyle’s Ink, starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, among the most anticipated titles are Hirokazu Koreeda’s Look Back, shot on 35mm, and Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love, which Barbera linked to an episode of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Dekalog. Shinya Tsukamoto’s Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? examines the trauma of a Vietnam veteran who becomes an anti-war activist.

At 210 minutes, Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s Dau emerges out of the immense artistic experiment involving the reconstruction of a Soviet scientific institute. Barbera described it as “a project perhaps unique in the history of cinema, an extraordinarily bold and ambitious experiment.”

Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine brings together John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and Parker Posey. Its protagonists are two unlikely CIA agents operating in Chile. Barbera chose to protect the film’s surprises, citing “developments so unpredictable and entertaining that they need to be discovered by watching the film.” Such a cast will inevitably fuel speculation about one of the Lido’s busiest potential red carpets, although attendance has not yet been confirmed.

Competition also includes Casey Affleck’s Company, Ali Asgari’s A Bit of Light, Stéphane Brizé’s A Good Little Soldier, May el-Toukhy’s Woman Unknown, Cédric Kahn’s A Place to Heal, Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard, starring sisters Kate Mara and Rooney Mara, and Florian Zeller’s Bunker, featuring Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Stephen Graham and Paul Dano.

Italy, Moretti and Bertolucci’s final screenplay

Luca Marinelli e Susan Sarandon in The Echo Chamber

The Italian Competition presence comprises Marco Bechis’ Back to Buenos Aires, Edoardo De Angelis’ The Fire Within You, Nanni Moretti’s Succederà questa notte, Andrea Pallaoro’s The Echo Chamber and Paolo Strippoli’s The Spiral.

Moretti’s return, following his last Venice Competition appearance with Palombella rossa in 1989, inspired a characteristically playful comment. “We can only hope this eagerly awaited return will help Venice earn forgiveness for the mistake made 37 years ago,” said Barbera. A more cinephile story surrounds The Echo Chamber, starring Luca Marinelli, Alicia Vikander and Susan Sarandon. The project is probably the final screenplay written by Bernardo Bertolucci. “All of Bernardo Bertolucci is there, including the suffering of the final years of his life,” Barbera explained, while emphasising that the finished film fully belongs to Pallaoro.

Regarding The Spiral, starring Jasmine Trinca, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Adriano Giannini and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, Barbera described a significant leap in maturity and called Strippoli “a filmmaker absolutely worth betting on.” The Competition’s gender imbalance nevertheless remains striking, with nineteen male directors and one female director.

Venice Open, Oasis and seven hours with Bertolucci

Venice Open contains 36 feature films, including 25 non-fiction works. Fiction highlights include Gianni Amelio’s Painless, Mario Martone’s Trick, Barthélémy Grossmann’s Father Joe, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Al Pacino, Kornél Mundruczó’s Place to Be, Paul Schrader’s The Basics of Philosophy and the closing film, Giovanni Veronesi’s God Laughs.

The most discussed musical event may be Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace’s Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, centred on the reconciliation, rehearsals and reunion tour of Liam Gallagher and Noel Gallagher. “The Gallagher brothers have promised to come to Venice to present the film,” Barbera announced. It is not yet a definitive confirmation, but it places the premiere among the edition’s most potentially crowded events.

Venice Open also celebrates daunting running times. Alex Gibney’s Musk lasts 232 minutes, Mariano Llinás’ The Life of Jorge Luis Borges reaches 330, while Luca Guadagnino’s Joie de vivre, devoted to Bernardo Bertolucci’s cinema, occupies seven hours. Barbera offers firm reassurance: “You remain glued to the screen for seven hours.”

Orizzonti, Saoirse Ronan and spaces for discovery

La Città dei Vivi di Edoardo Gabbriellini

Orizzonti opens with Alina Marazzi’s The Girl with the Leica. The selection also includes Anna Foglietta’s directing debut A Common Story, Edoardo Gabbriellini’s The City of the Living, adapted from Nicola Lagioia’s book, and Tommaso Landucci’s The Children of the Monkey, starring Riccardo Scamarcio.

In Orizzonti Short Films, Saoirse Ronan directs Paper Plane, a 15-minute British-Irish short. Her attendance has not been announced, but the directing debut adds another name to the customary Lido speculation. Venice Spotlight presents eight films, including Erik Shirai’s Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing, Gael García Bernal’s Hombre al agua, Roberto De Paolis’ Snakes and Gábor Reisz’s Ground Floor.

Classics, College, Immersive and honorary Golden Lions

Venice Classics presents 19 restorations, including Tinto Brass’ Deadly Sweet, Roberto Rossellini’s Journey to Italy, Ettore Scola’s Ugly, Dirty and Bad, Ernst Lubitsch’s To Be or Not to Be and John Cassavetes’ Minnie and Moskowitz. For Barbera, the section is not an exercise in nostalgia: “The cinema of tomorrow can only be nourished by the lifeblood of the films of the past.”

Biennale College Cinema presents four features, each produced with a €200,000 grant, accompanied by mentor Marion Cotillard. Venice Immersive gathers 68 projects, while the honorary Golden Lions will be presented to George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn. Burstyn’s award will accompany Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Flesh Impact, dedicated to Marilyn Monroe on the centenary of her birth.

Venezia 83 finally reaches the screen

Venezia 83 consequently appears as a more polycentric festival, where Hollywood retains its faces and fascination but no longer determines the centre of the conversation alone. The space abandoned by the majors may become an opportunity for American independent cinema and international works willing to accept risk, debate and uncertainty.

The programme will acquire its definitive meaning inside the Lido cinemas, beneath the nocturnal flamingos created by Manuele Fior for the official poster. Beginning on 2 September, FRED Film Radio will be in Venice, featuring interviews, analysis, press conferences, and conversations with filmmakers. The films will handle everything else.

Written by: Federica Scarpa

Alberto Barbera Biennale Cinema 2026 independent cinema Orizzonti Venezia 83 Venice Film Festival Venice Open