Venice 83rd edition competition lineup unveiled
The 83rd Venice International Film Festival's lineup was unveiled by artistic director Alberto Barbera at a Rome press conference reported on July 23, 2026. The competition features 20 films vying for the Golden Lion, including Martin McDonagh's CIA black comedy "Wild Horse Nine" with Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich, Werner Herzog's "Bucking Fastard" starring sisters Rooney and Kate Mara, and Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Look Back," a coming-of-age story about two girls who dream of being manga artists. Florian Zeller returns with psychological thriller "Bunker," starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Nanni Moretti is back in Venice competition for the first time since 1989 with "Succederà questa notte" (It Will Happen Tonight), starring Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca. Casey Affleck directs "Company" with Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn, while Lance Oppenheim's debut feature "Primetime" stars Robert Pattinson as "To Catch a Predator" host Chris Hansen; A24 is releasing the film, on which Pattinson is also a producer. Italy fields five films in competition, including Andrea Pallaoro's "The Echo Chamber," adapted from the final screenplay by the late Bernardo Bertolucci, with Alicia Vikander and Luca Marinelli starring. Searchlight Pictures is handling "Wild Horse Nine"; Sony Pictures Classics has North America on "Bunker," with FilmNation handling international sales; and Hanway Films is selling "Bucking Fastard" internationally, with Gersh handling U.S. sales.
Opening film and jury
The festival will open on September 2 with Danny Boyle's "Ink," adapted from James Graham's stage play about Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of British newspaper The Sun; "Ink" also competes for the Golden Lion. The festival runs through September 12 on the Lido. Maggie Gyllenhaal leads the jury, with fellow jurors including filmmakers Kaouther Ben Hania, Johnnie To and Shahrbanoo Sadat, and composer Daniel Blumberg. Gyllenhaal's Marilyn Monroe-inspired short "Flesh Impact," featuring Dakota Johnson and 93-year-old Ellen Burstyn, will screen at the festival, where Burstyn will receive a lifetime achievement award. George Clooney, a Venice regular, is also set to receive a lifetime achievement award.
Sharp drop in female-directed competition films
Venice's main competition includes just one female-directed film, May el-Toukhy's period drama "Woman Unknown," the steepest decline in female representation in five years. Last year's edition featured six female-directed competition entries, including Kaouther Ben Hania's "The Voice of Hind Rajab" and Valérie Donzelli's "At Work." El-Toukhy previously won Sundance's Audience Award with "Queen of Hearts"; her new film stars Mathilde Arcel as a young housemaid whose wartime affair threatens to resurface as she prepares to marry her wealthy older widower employer. The Horizons section, also curated by Barbera, breaks its own record with eight of 19 films directed by women (roughly 42%), while the independently curated Venice Days sidebar has 14 female-directed films out of 25. Barbera has previously rejected quotas, attributing any imbalance to the submissions pool rather than the selection process.
Out-of-competition premieres and documentaries
Out-of-competition premieres include Alex Gibney's four-hour documentary "Musk" about Elon Musk and Julia Loktev's 355-minute "My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile," which follows Russian independent journalists after they leave the country. Other documentaries include 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' portrait of architect Peter Zumthor, Russell Crowe's autobiographical musical concert movie "What Love Builds," and Laura Poitras's short "They're Here" about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Minneapolis.
Sarajevo Film Festival competition programs
The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival, running August 14–21, unveiled four competition sections comprising 21 world premieres, six international premieres, one European premiere and 23 regional premieres. The narrative feature section includes nine South-East European films, among them Urša Menart's "Everything That's Wrong With You" (world premiere), Dina Duma's North Macedonian entry "Skateboarding Is Not for Girls" (European premiere), Sandra Wollner's "Everytime" and Visar Morina's "Shame and Money." The festival is positioned as South-East Europe's leading cinema showcase.
Karlovy Vary Promises section awards
At the 60th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, the Eurimages Co-production Development Award of €20,000 went to "Selamlik," a Swedish-Danish love story set against war, with the jury citing its resonance with current European geopolitical realities. A special €20,000 Eurimages award recognized the Ukrainian project "Reminiscence," led by a female creative team and exploring loss, grief and survival in modern-day Ukraine. The MIDPOINT & KVIFF Development Award went to North Macedonian film "They Bloom at Dawn," addressing human and family relationships during an environmental crisis, while the Connecting Cottbus, Rotterdam Lab and Marché du Film Producers Network awards focused on emerging producers.
Next milestones: The 83rd Venice Film Festival opens September 2, 2026, with the Golden Lion awarded at the close of the festival on September 12. The 32nd Sarajevo Film Festival runs August 14–21, 2026.
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