Everything you need to know about the 2026 Venice Film Festival
[September 02, 2026]
By LINDSEY BAHR
VENICE, Italy (AP) — Some of Hollywood’s biggest stars are heading to
Venice, Italy, for the 83rd edition of the Venice Film Festival, which
kicks off on Wednesday.
Here’s a rundown of everything you need to know about the festival, the
Oscar buzz and who’s going.
The Venice Film Festival banks on star power
It’s one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, second
only to Cannes, and technically the oldest. Venice is also a reliably
starry affair, gathering some of the best films in international cinema,
and it often factors into the Oscars race.
The film festival was established in 1932, then a non-competitive event,
by the La Biennale di Venezia, hosting films like “Grand Hotel” and “It
Happened One Night.” By 1935, it decided to make it an annual event.
Suspicions that the festival was succumbing to fascist influences
actually led to the establishment of the Cannes Film Festival as an
alternative after the 1938 edition.
The Golden Lion award as we know it today wouldn’t be introduced until
1949. “Rashômon” won in 1951, and other winners throughout history
include “Belle de jour” in 1967, “Au revoir les enfants” in 1987,
“Brokeback Mountain” in 2005, “Somewhere” in 2010, “Poor Things” in 2023
and, last year, “Father Mother Sister Brother.”
Venice kicks off the fall film festival season
The festival kicks off on Wednesday and runs through Sept. 12, when the
awards will be announced. The opening night film is Danny Boyle’s “Ink,”
an adaptation of the acclaimed stage play about the early years of
Rupert Murdoch — played by Guy Pearce — and his acquisition of the daily
newspaper The Sun. Jack O’Connell and Claire Foy also star.
Who’s going this year
George Clooney is back to being a near-annual fixture. This time he’ll
be at the festival to pick up a lifetime achievement award. He’s also a
producer on “Furies.” Other stars expected include Noel and Liam
Gallagher of Oasis, Rooney and Kate Mara, Robert Pattinson, Penélope
Cruz, Javier Bardem, Pamela Anderson, Sam Rockwell, John Malkovich,
Louis Garrel, Cho Yeo-jeong and Ellen Burstyn, who is also getting a
lifetime achievement award.
Big films and docs draw attention
As far as awards are concerned, perhaps the most anticipated is Martin
McDonagh’s dark comedy “Wild Horse Nine,” starring Rockwell and
Malkovich as a pair of CIA agents before the 1973 Chilean coup.
McDonagh’s previous films “The Banshees of Inisherin” and “Three
Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” premiered at Venice and went on to
receive best picture nominations. There is also excitement about
Pattinson playing “To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen in
“Primetime,” Cruz and Bardem co-starring in Florian Zeller’s
psychological drama “Bunker,” the Mara sisters playing twins in Werner
Herzog’s “Bucking Fastard” and Lee Chang-dong’s first film in eight
years, “Possible Love.”
In the documentary category, Alex Gibney is bringing “Musk,” his nearly
four-hour investigation into the world’s richest man, and Julia Loktev
continues her sprawling portrait of independent Russian journalists in
“My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile.” “Oasis: Don’t Look Back in
Anger” also follows the Gallagher brothers during their 2025 reunion
tour.
Controversies are brewing
Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s film “DAU,” inspired by the lives of the Soviet
physicists working on the atomic bomb, has been at the center of some
heated discourse. Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of
Culture and the Embassy of Ukraine in Italy questioned its inclusion in
the festival, where it’s playing in competition, calling it a “project
linked to the Russian state and its networks of influence.”
Festival director Alberto Barbera defended its selection, writing in a
statement that it “is not a Russian film. It is not pro-Putin
propaganda. It is a film that denounces totalitarian regimes and their
intrusion into citizens’ lives to restrict their freedom.”
Khrzhanovsky also wrote a lengthy rebuttal on Facebook, writing that the
movie “should not be prematurely judged on the basis of false
associations, distorted chronology, or assumptions that contradict the
documented history of the project. I have been and remain opposed to
Russia’s war against Ukraine and to the political system that made this
war possible." The filmmaker renounced his Russian citizenship and is
currently a citizen of Germany, UK and Israel.
Earlier this year, geopolitical tensions spilled over into the Venice
Biennale contemporary art exhibition after the jury quit in protest over
the participation of Russia and Israel.
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George Clooney kisses the hand of his wife Amal during the 82nd
edition of the Venice Film Festival in Venice, Italy, Aug. 28, 2025.
(Photo by Alessandra Tarantino/Invision/AP File)
 The group Venice4Palestine, which
last year hosted a large scale protest during the festival, asked
that it “suspend all agreements with entities and institutions
linked to the Israeli government,” although it did not specify any
films. It also asked that the Palestinian flag be flown “throughout
the festival." There are two Palestinian films in the official
selection: “Al Mowaten Osama” by Ahmed Hassouna and “Hiwar ma’
albahr” by Muayad Alayan.
Among the narrative films, “To Catch a Predator"
host Hansen may be concerned about his portrayal in “Primetime,”
which is based on the 2007 Esquire article, “Tonight on Dateline,
This Man Will Die." He was not involved in the making of the film,
which was written by Ajon Singh and directed by Lance Oppenheim.
Also, out of 21 films in competition for the Golden Lion, only one
was directed by a woman, May el-Toukhy's “Woman Unknown.” The last
time the competition had only one woman, in 2018, the festival
committed to have at least half of the films in competition be
directed by women by 2020. It has yet to happen.
The festival holds court on an island
When people think of Venice, they usually think of landmarks like
the Ponte di Rialto and the Piazza San Marco. The festival takes
place elsewhere, on a nearly 7-mile (11-kilometer) barrier island
called the Lido, which is about a 20-minute ferry, or vaporetto,
ride away.
A military outpost in the 12th century, it transformed into a
seaside resort, a favorite of European aristocrats, by the end of
the 19th. The Venice Lido was the primary setting for Thomas Mann’s
novella “Death in Venice,” and Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film
adaptation.
Venice plays into the Oscar race
Barbera thinks Venice’s place in the Oscar race was solidified in
2013 when they hosted the premiere of “Gravity,” which went on to
win seven Oscars the following March, establishing Venice as a place
to launch a campaign. It’s only intensified as the membership of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has gotten more
international. Since 2014, the festival has hosted four best picture
winners — “Birdman,” “Spotlight,” “The Shape of Water” and “Nomadland.”
Last year, it hosted two best picture nominees in “Frankenstein” and
“Bugonia.”
Celebrities live it up on the islands
On the Lido, the only five-star hotel is the Hotel Excelsior, which
dates back to 1908. But there are many luxury hotels on the
different islands that offer a bit more privacy, away from the
frenzy of the festival and photographers.
Perhaps the most famous of the bunch is the Hotel Cipriani, on
Giudecca, home of one of Clooney’s favorite bars. Another favorite
is the Gritti Palace, where everyone from Brad Pitt to Elizabeth
Taylor has stayed. There is a St. Regis and the Aman Venice, where
George and Amal Clooney were married. The historic Hotel Danieli has
also recently reopened as a Four Seasons property after a major
renovation.
Stars travel by boat
The scattered hotels are also the reason you see so many celebrities
photographed on the Excelsior docks: They arrive to the festival,
including press conferences and premieres, by private water taxi.
Sometimes, they’re transported a very short distance from the
Excelsior to the red carpet in cars, generally from whichever car
company is sponsoring that year. Unlike on the main island of
Venice, motorized vehicles are allowed on the Lido, including buses
and private cars. But many festivalgoers prefer to bike.
The jury gets the final say
Actor and filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal is presiding over the main
competition jury, which includes Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben
Hania, English composer Daniel Blumberg, French filmmaker Xavier
Giannoli, Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat and Hong Kong filmmaker
Johnnie To. The award winners will be announced on Sept. 12.
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