Venice International Film Festival (September 2–12, 2026), Venice Lido, Italy
The Biennale di Venezia has unveiled the official lineup of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, presented at a press conference by Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and Artistic Director Alberto Barbera. The full slate of titles set to take over the Lido from September 2 to 12 confirms the growing weight of Italian production within the international selection.
Opening the festival will be Ink, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce, and Claire Foy, with its world premiere set for September 2 in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema. Written by James Graham and adapted from his own stage play, the film traces Rupert Murdoch’s rise in the world of British tabloids; it marks Boyle’s competition debut at Venice, with international distribution handled by Studiocanal. Closing the festival, out of competition, will be Dio ride (“God Laughs”) by Giovanni Veronesi, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, Silvio Orlando, and Carlo Cecchi as Pope Innocent X, produced by Indiana Production, Piperfilm, and Ogi Film in collaboration with Netflix, with an Italian theatrical release set for October 29 through Piperfilm. The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement will go to George Clooney, honoring a three-decade relationship with the festival.
Italian cinema runs organically through the entire selection this year. In competition, where the race for the Golden Lion unfolds, five national titles stand out: Ritorno a Buenos Aires by Marco Bechis, with Adriano Giannini, an Italian-Brazilian coproduction; Il fuoco che ti porti dentro by Edoardo De Angelis, with Vanessa Scalera and Lino Musella; Succederà questa notte by Nanni Moretti, who returns to the Lido with an international cast including Louis Garrel, Jasmine Trinca, and the director himself, in an Italian-French-Spanish coproduction; The Echo Chamber by Andrea Pallaoro, with Luca Marinelli, Alicia Vikander, and Susan Sarandon, developed from an unfinished screenplay by Bernardo Bertolucci; and L’estranea by Paolo Strippoli, with Jasmine Trinca and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, a competition debut for a director rooted in genre filmmaking. The Out of Competition section brings two further leading figures of Italian cinema: Gianni Amelio with Nessun dolore (Alessandro Borghi, Valeria Golino, Valerio Mastandrea) and Mario Martone with Scherzetto (Toni Servillo, Serena Rossi). The same section also includes a project of particular significance for film scholarship, Joie de Vivre, Luca Guadagnino’s monumental 435-minute work on Bernardo Bertolucci, part of the “Film on Films” strand and poised to become a reference point for the study of one of Italian cinema’s great masters. The film resonates with Pallaoro’s own use of Bertolucci’s unfinished material in competition, a testament to how the legacy of the director of Last Tango in Paris continues to engage new generations of filmmakers. Also in “Film on Films” is Nino – Un film su Nino Rota by Walter Fasano, a further contribution to the rediscovery of Italy’s great musical and authorial tradition. The national presence continues in Orizzonti, opened by La ragazza con la Leica by Alina Marazzi, an Italian-German coproduction, alongside in-competition entries Una storia by Anna Foglietta, La città dei vivi by Edoardo Gabbriellini, and I figli della scimmia by Tommaso Landucci. It extends to Venice Spotlight, with Serpenti by Roberto De Paolis Maino (Alessandro Borghi, Pietro Castellitto, Valeria Golino); to the Biennale College – Cinema program supporting emerging filmmakers, with Demetra in esilio by Maria Giovanna Cicciari; and to Venezia Classici, where the restorations include Col cuore in gola by Tinto Brass as the pre-opening film, Lo zio di Brooklyn by Ciprì and Maresco, Viaggio in Italia by Roberto Rossellini, Brutti, sporchi e cattivi by Ettore Scola, and La lunga notte del ’43 by Florestano Vancini.
The international jury will be chaired by Maggie Gyllenhaal, joined by director Kaouther Ben Hania, composer Daniel Blumberg, and scholar Francesco Casetti, Sterling Professor of Humanities and Film and Media Studies at Yale. The festival will also once again host Venice Immersive, the section dedicated to virtual reality and immersive experiences, curated by Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac on the Isola del Lazzaretto Vecchio.
With this edition, the Venice Film Festival confirms its role as a privileged platform for the international positioning of Italian cinema, bringing together established authors, new coproductions, and a body of research and restoration work that continues to enhance the country’s audiovisual heritage.
Source: La Biennale
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Locarno Film Festival 2026: The Magic of Cinema Returns to Piazza GrandeRelated Posts
The Biennale di Venezia has unveiled the official lineup of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, presented at a press conference by Biennale President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and Artistic Director Alberto Barbera. The full slate of titles set to take over the Lido from September 2 to 12 confirms the growing weight of Italian production within the international selection.
Opening the festival will be Ink, directed by Danny Boyle and starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce, and Claire Foy, with its world premiere set for September 2 in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema. Written by James Graham and adapted from his own stage play, the film traces Rupert Murdoch’s rise in the world of British tabloids; it marks Boyle’s competition debut at Venice, with international distribution handled by Studiocanal. Closing the festival, out of competition, will be Dio ride (“God Laughs”) by Giovanni Veronesi, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, Silvio Orlando, and Carlo Cecchi as Pope Innocent X, produced by Indiana Production, Piperfilm, and Ogi Film in collaboration with Netflix, with an Italian theatrical release set for October 29 through Piperfilm. The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement will go to George Clooney, honoring a three-decade relationship with the festival.
Italian cinema runs organically through the entire selection this year. In competition, where the race for the Golden Lion unfolds, five national titles stand out: Ritorno a Buenos Aires by Marco Bechis, with Adriano Giannini, an Italian-Brazilian coproduction; Il fuoco che ti porti dentro by Edoardo De Angelis, with Vanessa Scalera and Lino Musella; Succederà questa notte by Nanni Moretti, who returns to the Lido with an international cast including Louis Garrel, Jasmine Trinca, and the director himself, in an Italian-French-Spanish coproduction; The Echo Chamber by Andrea Pallaoro, with Luca Marinelli, Alicia Vikander, and Susan Sarandon, developed from an unfinished screenplay by Bernardo Bertolucci; and L’estranea by Paolo Strippoli, with Jasmine Trinca and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, a competition debut for a director rooted in genre filmmaking. The Out of Competition section brings two further leading figures of Italian cinema: Gianni Amelio with Nessun dolore (Alessandro Borghi, Valeria Golino, Valerio Mastandrea) and Mario Martone with Scherzetto (Toni Servillo, Serena Rossi). The same section also includes a project of particular significance for film scholarship, Joie de Vivre, Luca Guadagnino’s monumental 435-minute work on Bernardo Bertolucci, part of the “Film on Films” strand and poised to become a reference point for the study of one of Italian cinema’s great masters. The film resonates with Pallaoro’s own use of Bertolucci’s unfinished material in competition, a testament to how the legacy of the director of Last Tango in Paris continues to engage new generations of filmmakers. Also in “Film on Films” is Nino – Un film su Nino Rota by Walter Fasano, a further contribution to the rediscovery of Italy’s great musical and authorial tradition. The national presence continues in Orizzonti, opened by La ragazza con la Leica by Alina Marazzi, an Italian-German coproduction, alongside in-competition entries Una storia by Anna Foglietta, La città dei vivi by Edoardo Gabbriellini, and I figli della scimmia by Tommaso Landucci. It extends to Venice Spotlight, with Serpenti by Roberto De Paolis Maino (Alessandro Borghi, Pietro Castellitto, Valeria Golino); to the Biennale College – Cinema program supporting emerging filmmakers, with Demetra in esilio by Maria Giovanna Cicciari; and to Venezia Classici, where the restorations include Col cuore in gola by Tinto Brass as the pre-opening film, Lo zio di Brooklyn by Ciprì and Maresco, Viaggio in Italia by Roberto Rossellini, Brutti, sporchi e cattivi by Ettore Scola, and La lunga notte del ’43 by Florestano Vancini.
The international jury will be chaired by Maggie Gyllenhaal, joined by director Kaouther Ben Hania, composer Daniel Blumberg, and scholar Francesco Casetti, Sterling Professor of Humanities and Film and Media Studies at Yale. The festival will also once again host Venice Immersive, the section dedicated to virtual reality and immersive experiences, curated by Liz Rosenthal and Michel Reilhac on the Isola del Lazzaretto Vecchio.
With this edition, the Venice Film Festival confirms its role as a privileged platform for the international positioning of Italian cinema, bringing together established authors, new coproductions, and a body of research and restoration work that continues to enhance the country’s audiovisual heritage.
Source: La Biennale
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Locarno Film Festival 2026: The Magic of Cinema Returns to Piazza Grande
