Alberto Barbera presided over a lengthy press conference Thursday morning, during which he announced the stacked lineup for this year’s Venice Film Festival, which runs from 2-12 September. Scroll down for the full list of titles.
The lineup is expansive, with several big names returning to the festival across its many strands. However, studio titles are notably absent, continuing the trend from Cannes, which studios also largely skipped.
In competition, Casey Affleck will debut Company, his latest film as a director. The film has previously been described as a “gothic horror”. South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-Dong returns to feature filmmaking with Possible Love, his first film since Burning (2018). Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda lands at Venice with Look Back, his second festival title of 2026. The filmmaker was also at Cannes in May with Sheep in the Box.
Martin McDonagh returns to Venice with Wild Horse Nine, his first feature since The Banshees of Inisherin, which won Best Screenplay and Actor at Venice in 2022 before landing 9 Oscar noms. Veteran Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti returns to Venice with a film for the first time since 1989. The feature is Succederà Questa Notte and stars Louis Garrel.
Out of Competition, Paul Schrader will screen a new project titled The Basics Of Philosophy starring Jack Huston and Sofia Boutella. The film is said to follow a repressed philosophy professor who has been grappling with lingering guilt over a decision from his past when the victim suddenly returns to his life. Venice regular Luca Guadagnino will be on the Lido this year but not with his Open AI feature Artificial. The Italian filmmaker will instead screen his long-gestating Bernardo Bertolucci documentary Joie De Vivre. The film runs seven hours long. Wim Wenders is also out of competition with a doc on the Swiss architect Peter Zumthor. Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace’s doc of the comeback of rock band Oasis, titled Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger, will also debut on the Lido.
Elsewhere, Laura Poitras will debut a short she shot with Rachel Mueller titled They’re Here. The film features never-before-seen footage of the protests in Minnesota against Trump’s controversial ICE raids. As previously announced, Maggie Gyllenhaal, who is heading this year’s Competition jury, will screen a Flesh Impact, a tribute to Marilyn Monroe on her centennary. The film stars Dakota Johnson and Ellen Burstyn. Italian filmmaker Alina Marazzi will debut her first feature in a decade. The project is titled La Ragazza Con La Leica, Georgian filmmaker Levan Koguashvili returns with Guria, a black and white feature set in the western Georgia. Former Red Sea Film Festival head Kaleem Aftab is among the film’s producers.
The festival has already announced that this year’s opening title will be Danny Boyle’s Rupert Murdoch biopic Ink. The film, starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, will screen on September 2 in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido.
Boyle directs the feature from a screenplay written by James Graham (Dear England), based on his Tony-nominated play Ink. O’Connell stars as The Sun newspaper editor Larry Lamb with Pearce as Rupert Murdoch. Claire Foy is Jules Davies.
Announcing the title earlier this summer, Barbera described the title as an “account of publisher Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of the daily newspaper The Sun, which he entrusted to the unscrupulous Larry Lamb, turning it into Britain’s best-selling tabloid at the expense of its rival, The Mirror.”
The festival’s closing title will be Dio ride, written and directed by Giovanni Veronesi (The King’s Musketeers). The film will screen out of competition. Pierfrancesco Favino, Silvio Orlando, Alma Noce, Francesco Gheghi, Maurizio Lombardi, Paolo Rossi and Carlo Cecchi star in the film.
George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn will be the recipients of the Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion for lifetime achievement this year. Gyllenhaal will be joined on the Competition jury by Kaouther Ben Hania, Daniel Blumberg, Francesco Casetti, Xavier Giannoli, Shahrbanoo Sadat, and Johnnie To.
The festival will run from September 2 – 12.
Competition
Ink
Dir: Danny Boyle
Company
Dir: Casey Affleck
A Bit Of Light
Dir: Ali Asgari
Ritorno A Buenos Aires
Dir: Marco Bechis
Un Bon Petit Soldat
Dir: Stephane Brize
Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro
Dir: Edoardo De Angelis
Woman Unknown
Dir: May el-Toukhy
Bucking Fastard
Dir: Werner Herzog
A Place To Heal
Dir: Cedric Kahn
Dau
Dir: Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Look Back
Dir: Hirokazu Koreeda
Possible Love
Dir: Lee Chang-Dong
Wild Horse Nine
Dir: Martin McDonagh
Succederà Questa Notte
Dir: Nanni Moretti
Primetime
Dir: Lance Oppenheim
The Echo Chamber
Dir: Andrea Pallaoro
Un Peu Avant Minuit
Dir: Nicolas Pariser
L’Estranea
Dir: Paolo Strippoli
Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?
Dir: Shinya Tsukamoto
Bunker
Dir: Florian Zeller
Orizzonti
La Ragazza Con La Leica
Dir: Alina Marazzi
The Burning Giants
Dir: Phuttiphone Aroonpheng
What Belongs To Others
Dir: Grzegorz Debowski
Una Storia
Dir: Anna Foglietta
La Citta Dei Vivi
Dir: Edoardo Gabbriellini
Moragheb
Dir: Mohsen Gharaei
Too Much Sugar
Dir: Robert Greene
The Difficult Bride
Dir: Rubaiyat Hossain
La Maison Du Vent
Dir: Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
I Figli Della Scimmia
Dir: Tommasco Landucci
A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra
Dir: Jacqueline Lentzou
Oasis
Dir: Jannis Lenz
Until The Day Ends
Dir: Jelena Maksimovic
La Moula
Dir: Jerome Pierrat
Lovers In The Blue Night
Dir: Anuparna Roy
Un Détour Par Diane
Dir: Ann Sirot, Raphael Balboni
The Color Of The Sun
Dir: Xavier Tera
Eklipse
Dir: Manuel Wetscher
Big Little Things
Dir: Michelle Zhou
Venice Open — Out Of Competition, Fiction
Dio Ride
Dir: Giovanni Veronesi
Nessum Dolore
Dir: Giani Amelio
Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors
Dir: Lav Diaz
Father Joe
Dir: Barthelemy Grossmann
Scherzetto
Dir: Mario Martone
Place To Be
Dir: Kornel Mundruczo
No Paradise If You Are Killed By A Woman
Dir: Halkawat Mustafa
Arrested Memory
Dir: Sabu
The Basics Of Philosophy
Dir: Paul Schrader
Un Bon Avocat
Dir: Tristan Seguela
Jupiter
Dir: Alexandre Smia
Venice Open — Out Of Competition, Film on Films
Juso Per Ferie
Dir: Karen Di Porto
Nino — Un Film Su Nino Rota
Dir: Walter Fasano
The Pervert’s Guide To Utopias
Dir: Sophie Fiennes
Joie De Vivre
Dir: Luca Guadagnino
Twist And Shoot Mister Suzuki
Dir: Yves Montmayeur
Intermission
Dir: Yonfan
Venice Open — Out Of Competition, Non-Fiction
Be Brave
Dir: Francesco Carrozzini
What Love Builds
Dir: Russell Crowe
Burgundy
Dir: Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw
Musk
Dir: Alex Gibney
The Road To Jericho
Dir: Amos Gitai
Citizen Osama
Dir: Ahmed Hassouna
Union Town
Dir: Barbara Kopple
Holy Wood Dust
Dir: Victor Kossakovsky
Letters From The Silenced Country
Dir: Andrei Kutsila
Biografia De Jorge Luis Borges
Dir: Mariano Llinás
My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Exile
Dir: Julia Loktev
Boatbuilders
Dir: Luke Lorentzen
Imperium
Dir: Sergei Loznitsa
Shumei — The Living Legacy Of Kabuki
Dir: Takashi Miike
Queer Edward II
Dir: Theo Rollason
Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger
Dir: Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace
Dust
Dir: Tsai Ming-Liang
Everest: The Other Side
Dir: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
From Inside Out — The Architecture Of Peter Zumthor
Dir: Wim Wenders
Venice Open — Out Of Competition, Series
Peccato
Dir: Valerio Vestoso
Venice Open — Out Of Competition, Short Films
Flesh Impact
Dir: Maggie Gyllenhaal
Wild Asparagus
Dir: Avi Mograbi
They’re Here
Dir: Laura Poitras, Rachel Mueller
Special Screening
Dai Nostri Inviati
Dir: Giuseppe Giannotti, Enrico Salvatori, Nicoletta Berardi
Venice Spotlight
Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing
Director: Erik Shirai
Conversations With The Sea
Dir: Muayad Alayan
Hombre Al Agua
Dir: Gael Garcia Bernal
Serpenti
Dir: Roberto De Paolis Maino
Furies
Dir: Rami Kodeih
Guria
Dir: Levan Koguashvili
Ground Floor
Dir: Gabor Reisz
Eu Contez
Dir: Alina Serban
