Venice Film Festival Reveals 83rd Edition Lineup With Pattinson, Lav Diaz, and Oasis Documentary

Competition Slate and Opening Film

Venice Film Festival organizers announced the 83rd edition program on Thursday, July 23, with 20 films competing for the Golden Lion over the September 2-12 run. The competition opens with "Ink," Danny Boyle's drama about Rupert Murdoch's transformation of the British media. Robert Pattinson stars in "Primetime," Lance Oppenheim's feature about an American TV show that sought to expose pedophiles; Pattinson arrives fresh from playing the villainous Antinous in the current box-office champion "The Odyssey." Other competition titles include Martin McDonagh's dark comedy "Wild Horse Nine" with John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, Florian Zeller's "Bunker" pairing the Spanish couple Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz, and Werner Herzog's "Bucking Fastard" starring Kate Mara and Rooney Mara. Japan's Hirokazu Koreeda ("Shoplifters") and South Korea's Lee Chang-dong ("Burning") are also in the running.

Lav Diaz Returns Out of Competition

Filipino director Lav Diaz will screen "Makikiraan Po" (English title: "Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors") out of competition at Venice, the July 23 announcement confirms. Set in 1617 Philippines during Spanish colonization, the film follows a Spanish friar and encomendero (Bart Guingona) seeking to "tame" natives through Catholicism while overseeing church construction; his son Dungwen is played by Christian Bables. The cast also includes Isabel Sandoval, Yul Servo, Rafa Siguion-Reyna, Amado Arjay Babon, Hazel Orencio and Ronnie Lazaro, with Bianca Balbuena and Montgomery Blencowe producing. Diaz, whose Venice history includes the 2008 Orizzonti Grand Prize for "Melancholia" and the 2016 Golden Lion for "Ang Babaeng Humayo," had been widely expected to submit a different project called "Kawalan." The 1981 Philippines co-production "The Story of Woo Viet," starring Chow Yun-fat, will screen in the Classics section.

Hollywood Largely Absent

Major Hollywood studios and U.S. streamers including Netflix and Amazon have mostly bypassed Venice this year, extending a pattern seen at the Berlin festival in February and Cannes in May. European festivals have typically depended on Hollywood for mass-market titles alongside their core independent and arthouse selections. The Disney-produced Oasis documentary "Don't Look Back in Anger," chronicling the Manchester band's comeback tour, is a notable exception; festival director Alberto Barbera told reporters the Gallagher brothers have promised to appear in Venice. American director Alex Gibney has also delivered a four-hour Elon Musk documentary for the festival, which Barbera said traces "the whole career, the contradictions, and the power that is centralised in the hands of a single man."

Political Cinema Across Multiple Regions

The 2026 program leans overtly political, with multiple titles addressing state repression. Gabor Reisz's "Ground Floor" tackles Hungary, Andrei Kutsila's "Letters From The Silenced Country" covers Belarus, and Ali Asgari's "A Bit of Light" focuses on Iran. Several films examine violence in Israeli-controlled Palestinian territory, while Ahmed Hassouna's "Citizen Osama" follows a photojournalist documenting killing and destruction by Israeli troops in Gaza. "This year's program reinforces the idea of cinema as an extraordinary tool for learning about reality," Barbera said in unveiling the lineup.

Jury Leadership and Lifetime Honors

American actress Maggie Gyllenhaal ("The Lost Daughter") will preside over the main competition jury. Gyllenhaal will additionally present a short film about Marilyn Monroe starring Dakota Johnson and Ellen Burstyn. Venice regular George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn ("The Exorcist," "Interstellar") are set to receive lifetime achievement awards at the September festival.