The Venice Film Festival has announced a 20-film Golden Lion competition led by Danny Boyle’s Ink, alongside major premieres starring Robert Pattinson, Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Rooney Mara, Kate Mara, John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell. The 83rd festival will run from September 2 to September 12, 2026, on the Venice Lido.
Beyond the competition, the program includes Alex Gibney’s nearly four-hour Elon Musk documentary, an Oasis reunion film, a seven-hour Bernardo Bertolucci documentary and new nonfiction work from Laura Poitras, Wim Wenders, Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi.
Ink opens Venice with Murdoch and tabloid power
Danny Boyle’s Ink will receive its world premiere on September 2 in the Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema. It will open the festival while also competing for the Golden Lion.
Adapted by James Graham from his stage play, the film revisits Rupert Murdoch’s 1969 acquisition of The Sun and his decision to place editor Larry Lamb in charge of transforming the newspaper into a mass-market British tabloid.
Guy Pearce portrays Murdoch, Jack O’Connell plays Lamb and Claire Foy appears as Jules Davies. The opening-night details and principal cast are confirmed by the official Venice Film Festival announcement.
The 20 films competing for the Golden Lion
- Ink — Danny Boyle
- Company — Casey Affleck
- A Bit of Light — Ali Asgari
- Ritorno a Buenos Aires — Marco Bechis
- Un Bon Petit Soldat — Stéphane Brizé
- Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro — Edoardo De Angelis
- Woman Unknown — May el-Toukhy
- Bucking Fastard — Werner Herzog
- A Place to Heal — Cédric Kahn
- Dau — Ilya Khrzhanovsky
- Look Back — Hirokazu Kore-eda
- Possible Love — Lee Chang-dong
- Wild Horse Nine — Martin McDonagh
- It Will Happen Tonight — Nanni Moretti
- Primetime — Lance Oppenheim
- The Echo Chamber — Andrea Pallaoro
- Un Peu Avant Minuit — Nicolas Pariser
- L’Estranea — Paolo Strippoli
- Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? — Shinya Tsukamoto
- Bunker — Florian Zeller
The lineup includes filmmakers returning after long absences. Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love is his first feature since Burning in 2018, while Nanni Moretti will present his first Venice competition film since 1989.
May el-Toukhy is the only woman directing a film in the 20-title competition. That represents a notable decline from 2025, when six female directors competed for the Golden Lion.
Robert Pattinson leads a group of unusual star vehicles
Robert Pattinson stars in and produces Primetime, Lance Oppenheim’s fiction-feature debut. Pattinson portrays television journalist Chris Hansen as the To Catch a Predator format develops into a media phenomenon.
In Florian Zeller’s psychological thriller Bunker, Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz play a married architect and publisher whose relationship comes under pressure after a millionaire commissions a building designed to survive a nuclear attack. Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger also feature.
Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard places real-life sisters Rooney Mara and Kate Mara together on screen, with Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson in supporting roles.
Martin McDonagh returns with Wild Horse Nine, a dark comedy starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA officers sent to Chile around the period preceding the 1973 coup. Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and Parker Posey complete its prominent ensemble.
Elon Musk and Oasis bring nonfiction attention
Alex Gibney’s Musk will have its world premiere in the out-of-competition nonfiction program. The documentary, running for approximately four hours, examines the life and influence of Elon Musk. Its placement means it is part of the official selection but is not eligible for the Golden Lion.
Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, follows the band’s 2025 reunion. Artistic director Alberto Barbera said Liam and Noel Gallagher had confirmed plans to attend its Venice premiere. The documentary is scheduled to reach IMAX and selected cinemas on September 11 before a later Disney+ and Hulu release.
Other major nonfiction selections include Russell Crowe’s What Love Builds, Barbara Kopple’s Union Town, Wim Wenders’ architecture documentary From Inside Out and the mountaineering film Everest: The Other Side from Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin.
Luca Guadagnino’s Bernardo Bertolucci documentary Joie de Vivre runs for about seven hours. Julia Loktev’s 355-minute My Undesirable Friends Part II – Exile continues her account of independent Russian journalists living outside their country.
Laura Poitras and Rachel Mueller will present the short documentary They’re Here, featuring previously unseen footage connected to ICE activity and protests in Minneapolis.
Jury, lifetime honours and the closing film
Maggie Gyllenhaal will preside over the international competition jury. She will be joined by Kaouther Ben Hania, Daniel Blumberg, Francesco Casetti, Xavier Giannoli, Shahrbanoo Sadat and Johnnie To.
The jury will award the Golden Lion for best film along with prizes for directing, screenplay and acting on September 12. Gyllenhaal will also screen her Marilyn Monroe-inspired short Flesh Impact, starring Dakota Johnson and Ellen Burstyn.
George Clooney and Burstyn will receive separate Golden Lions for lifetime achievement. These honorary awards are distinct from the competitive Golden Lion selected by the jury.
Giovanni Veronesi’s Dio Ride, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, Silvio Orlando, Alma Noce and Francesco Gheghi, will close the festival out of competition after the awards ceremony on September 12.
Why the Venice premieres matter after September
Venice is the first major stop in the autumn festival calendar, placing its premieres before the Toronto International Film Festival and the most active phase of Hollywood’s awards campaign. A strong reception can help a film attract distribution, reviews and early awards momentum, although a prestigious premiere does not guarantee commercial or Oscar success.
The long route from festival debut to Academy recognition can be understood by comparing this lineup with the films that secured 2026 Oscar nominations. Festival response is only one factor, with distribution strategy, theatrical reception and later industry voting all influencing the final field.
The outcome of that process can differ significantly from early festival expectations, as demonstrated by the major films and performances honoured at the 2026 Oscars. Venice 2026 begins the next cycle with fewer conventional studio releases and a stronger focus on auteur cinema, political history, media influence and ambitious nonfiction.
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