The Venice Film Festival has revealed the lineup for its 83rd edition, setting the stage for another September on the Lido filled with premieres, returning auteurs and a notably male-heavy competition.
Running from September 2 to 12, the 2026 festival will introduce Florian Zeller’s thriller “Bunker”, Martin McDonagh’s black comedy “Wild Horse Nine” and Lee Chang-dong’s long-awaited “Possible Love”, alongside a selection that, compared with recent editions, contains less studio and streaming fare. Artistic director Alberto Barbera announced the programme this morning, with 20 films competing for the festival’s top prizes.
McDonagh returns to Venice with “Wild Horse Nine”, a CIA drama set in the period immediately preceding the 1973 Chilean coup. Backed by Film4 and set for release through Searchlight Pictures, the film brings John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell and Steve Buscemi to the Lido. McDonagh previously premiered “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” and “The Banshees of Inisherin” at the festival.
Zeller’s “Bunker” brings its own heavyweight cast, with Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger appearing in a story centred on an architect whose marriage begins to fracture after he accepts a commission from a billionaire to design a private bunker. Zeller previously competed in Venice with “The Son” and won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for “The Father” in 2021.
Another major return comes from South Korea, where Lee Chang-dong presents “Possible Love”, his first feature since 2018’s acclaimed “Burning”. Produced by Netflix, the film follows the intersecting lives of two married couples, with Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong leading the cast.
The Asian presence in competition continues with Hirokazu Kore-eda’s live-action adaptation of the bestselling manga “Look Back”, following two girls pursuing their ambitions of becoming manga artists. Shinya Tsukamoto also joins the competition with “Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?”, starring Rodney Hicks, Geoffrey Rush and Tatyana Ali and drawing on the experiences of an African American Vietnam War veteran.
Werner Herzog returns after receiving Venice’s Lifetime Achievement Award last year with “Bucking Fastard”, starring real-life sisters Rooney Mara and Kate Mara in a story based on the lives of inseparable twins.
The gender imbalance within the competition is particularly stark this year. Danish-Egyptian filmmaker May El-Toukhy’s “Woman Unknown” is the only film among the 20 competition titles directed by a woman, compared with six female-directed films in last year’s 21-title competition.
Italy has five films in competition, including Nanni Moretti’s long-awaited return with the romantic comedy “It Will Happen Tonight”, starring Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca. Edoardo De Angelis, whose “Commandante” opened the festival in 2023, returns with “Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro”, while Andrea Pallaoro presents “The Echo Chamber”, featuring Alicia Vikander, Luca Marinelli and Susan Sarandon.
Barbera also highlighted the unusually long running times across this year’s selection. The most substantial competition title is Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s 210-minute “Dau”, the latest chapter in his expansive “Dau” project. Khrzhanovsky renounced his Russian citizenship in 2024.
Casey Affleck arrives with his third directorial feature, “Company”, a genre film starring Nick Nolte. Iranian filmmaker Ali Asgari returns to Venice for the third time with “A Bit Of Light”, centred on opponents of the Iranian regime waiting for a political change that never arrives.
French cinema is represented by Stéphane Brizé’s “A Good Little Soldier”, starring Alba Rohrwacher and Vincent Lindon, alongside Cédric Kahn’s “A Place To Heal”, set inside an adolescent psychiatric unit within a French public hospital.
Venice 2026 Goes Beyond Competition
The out-of-competition documentary selection continues the festival’s tendency towards major personalities and large-scale subjects. Among the titles are Russell Crowe’s music documentary “What Love Builds”, Alex Gibney’s Elon Musk portrait “Musk”, Sergei Loznitsa’s “Imperium”, Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace’s Oasis documentary “Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger”, and Takashi Miike’s “Shumei – The Living Legacy of Kabuki“.
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the filmmaking team behind “Free Solo”, return with “Everest: The Other Side”, while Wim Wenders presents “From Inside Out – The Architecture of Peter Zumthor”.
The documentary programme also includes two films dealing directly with the Israel-Gaza war: Amos Gitai’s “The Road to Jericho” and Ahmed Hassouna’s “Citizen Osama”.
The fiction titles screening out of competition include Paul Schrader’s “The Basics Of Philosophy”, starring Jack Huston, Bill Pullman and Sofia Boutella, and Kornél Mundruczó’s “Place to Be”, featuring Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi and Pamela Anderson.
The Venice Horizons section will open with Alina Marazzi’s 1930s-set Italian drama “La Ragazza Con La Leica”, one of four Italian films selected for the section.
As previously announced, Danny Boyle’s “Ink” will open the festival in competition. The film stars Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, with Netflix holding US and Latin American rights.
The competition jury will be led by Maggie Gyllenhaal, alongside Kaouther Ben Hania and Daniel Blumberg. Gyllenhaal will also present her short film “Flesh Impact” out of competition, with Ellen Burstyn, Dakota Johnson and Stellan Skarsgård among its cast.
With its 2026 programme, Venice is once again assembling a festival where established filmmakers, returning auteurs and ambitious new projects converge on the Lido.
The first premieres arrive September 2, with the festival running through September 12.
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