A 4-hour Elon Musk documentary and a dark CIA comedy lead Venice Film
Festival lineup
[July 24, 2026]
By LINDSEY BAHR
A four-hour documentary about Elon Musk, Martin McDonagh's dark CIA
comedy “Wild Horse Nine” and films featuring Robert Pattinson, Penélope
Cruz and Javier Bardem are among the movies premiering at the Venice
Film Festival in September.
Alberto Barbera, the festival's artistic director, unveiled the lineup
Thursday for the 83rd edition of the festival, the first of many in a
busy fall film season that culminates in the Hollywood awards showdown.
Like the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year, the selection is
lighter on Hollywood studio films than in years past.
“Wild Horse Nine,” starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA
agents in Chile before the 1973 coup, is among the higher-profile titles
playing in competition. It will play alongside “Primetime,” in which
Pattinson stars as “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen. The broader
slate has anticipated documentaries like Alex Gibney's “Musk,” a
sweeping portrait of the billionaire, and Julia Loktev’s “My Undesirable
Friends: Part II — Exile,” which follows Russian independent journalists
after they leave the country. Similar to the first part, it runs 355
minutes.
The festival's main competition includes a diverse array of
international and American films, like Werner Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard,”
in which sisters Rooney and Kate Mara play identical twins.
Also on the program are Florian Zeller’s thriller “Bunker,” with Bardem
and Cruz playing a married couple, Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love,”
Stéphane Brizé’s “A Good Little Soldier” and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s “Look
Back,” a coming-of-age story about two girls who dream of being manga
artists. Casey Affleck will be in competition for the first time with
“Company,” starring Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn. Nanni Moretti also
returns for the first time since 1989.
Notable documentary premieres out of competition include “Oasis: Don't
Look Back in Anger,” Barbara Kopple’s “Union Town,” Elizabeth Chai
Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin's “Everest: The Other Side,” Luca Guadagnino’s
seven-hour Bernardo Bertolucci film “Joie de Vivre,” Wim Wenders' look
at architect Peter Zumthor, Russell Crowe’s autobiographical musical
concert movie, “What Love Builds,” and Laura Poitras’s short about U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis, “They're Here,”
which she co-directed with Rachel Lauren Mueller.
Barbera said he expects Noel and Liam Gallagher to attend on behalf of
the Oasis film, which was directed by Steven Knight and will be in
theaters on Sept. 11.
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This image released by Netflix shows, from left, Sul Kyung-gu, Jeon
Do-yeon, Cho Yeo-jeong, and Zo In-sung in a scene from "Possible
Love." (Netflix via AP)
 The festival is set to open on Sept.
2 with Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” an adaptation of James Graham’s stage
play which dramatizes the rise of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch. “Ink”
is also playing in the main competition and in the running for
awards such as the Golden Lion, a prize that is decided upon by a
jury led this year by filmmaker and actor Maggie Gyllenhaal. Other
jurors include filmmakers like Kaouther Ben Hania, Johnnie To and
Shahrbanoo Sadat, and composer Daniel Blumberg.
Gyllenhaal has a film playing as well: a Marilyn Monroe-inspired
short, “Flesh Impact,” in which Dakota Johnson and Ellen Burstyn
“give body and voice to the myth of Marilyn,” Barbera said. The
93-year-old Burstyn will also get a lifetime achievement award from
the festival.
Venice has in the last 15 years proved a desirable launching pad for
Oscar hopefuls, even if not everything breaks through. Last year’s
edition had plenty of star power in the lineup, with Julia Roberts,
George Clooney and Dwayne Johnson movies among the splashy
premieres. But the glow of the festival moment was short-lived: The
films, “After the Hunt,” “Jay Kelly” and “The Smashing Machine,”
were neither triumphant with audiences in theaters (“Jay Kelly” was
a Netflix release) nor with awards voters.
Still, there’s usually a best picture nominee in the slate: Last
year there were two in “Frankenstein” and “Bugonia.”
This year won’t be bereft of a Clooney moment either: The Venice
regular is getting a lifetime achievement award.
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