New films from Martin McDonagh, Florian Zeller, Casey Affleck , Paul Schrader and Werner Herzog will have their world premieres at the 2026 Venice International Film Festival, Venice president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and festival artistic director Alberto Barbera. announced at a press conference on Thursday morning.
But those narrative films may be overshadowed by a four-hour documentary also in the lineup: “Musk,” Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney’s long-in-the-works film about Elon Musk.
Films in the main competition include McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine,” with John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell; Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard,” starring sisters Rooney and Kate Mara; Zeller’s “Bunker,” with Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz; Lance Oppenheim’s “Primetime,” starring Robert Pattinson as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen; and Affleck’s “Company,” with Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn.
An unusually robust slate of out-of-competition documentaries will include Gibney’s Musk film, as well as “The Truffle Hunters” directors Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw’s “Burgundy,” Barbara Kopple’s “Union Town,” Sergei Loznitsa’s “Imperium,” Takashi Miike’s “Shumei – The Living Legacy of Kabuki,” Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Everest: The Other Side,” Wim Wenders’ “From Inside Out – The Architecture of Peter Zumthor” and two music-oriented films, Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace’s “Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger” and Russell Crowe’s “What Love Builds,” which focuses on the actor’s side career as a musician and bandleader.
In a festival filled with multiple films that top the three-hour mark, the prize for longest movie goes to Luca Guadagnino’s documentary “Joie de Vivre,” a seven-hour look at the cinema of Bernardo Bertolucci.
The Venice lineup is conspicuously light on American studio films, as was this year’ Cannes Film Festival slate. Films that were rumored to be headed to the Lido but were not announced on Thursday include Fernando Mereilles’ Netflix thriller “Here Comes the Flood,” with Denzel Washington and Robert Pattinson; Tom McCarthy’s “The Statement,” with Paul Rudd and Paul Giamatti; and Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth,” with Pedro Pascal.
High profile films like Aaron Sorkin’s “The Social Network” follow-up “The Social Reckoning,” Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune: Part Three,” Alejandro G. Inarritu’s “Digger” and David Fincher’s “The Adventures of Cliff Booth” were once thought to be Venice possibilities, but their chances had faded in recent weeks, reportedly because they wouldn’t be ready in time.
Italian director Nanni Moretti will be returning to the festival for the first time since 1989, while this year’s jury, president, Maggie Gyllenhaal, will also have a short film screening out of competition, “Flesh Impact.”As previously announced, Gyllenhaal’s jury will include directors Kaouther Ben-Hania, Xavier Giannoli, Johnnie To and Shahrbanoo Sadat, composer Daniel Blumberg and academic Francesco Csetti will also be on the jury.
George Clooney will receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, one year after he went to Venice for “Jay Kelly,” in which he starred as a Hollywood icon who goes to a European film festival to receive a lifetime achievement award.
Venice is the first of three major fall festivals that arrive back-t0-back-to-back in late August and early September and typically showcase many of the films that will be in the awards race for the remainder of the year.
In recent years, films that premiered in Venice have included “Frankenstein,” “Bugonia,” “The Brutalist,” “I’m Still Here,” “Maestro,” “Poor Things,” The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Tar,” “The Power of the Dog,” “Dune,” “Joker,” “Roma,” “The Favourite,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and Oscar Best Picture winners “Nomadland” and “The Shape of Water.”
The 83rd Venice Film Festival will begin on Sept. 2 and continue through Sept. 12. The four-day Telluride Film Festival begins two days after Venice in the Colorado mountain town, followed by the larger Toronto International Film Festival the following week.
Here is the 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 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
