Venice Film Festival unveils 83rd edition lineup with major auteurs and documentaries

Competition slate spans established auteurs

The 83rd Venice International Film Festival unveiled its main competition, with seven films selected for the Golden Lion race, according to reports citing ANSA. Casey Affleck directs "Company," starring Nick Nolte. Florian Zeller's "Bunker" features Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Lance Oppenheim directs "Primetime" with Robert Pattinson. Martin McDonagh's "Wild Horse Nine" stars Sam Rockwell. Werner Herzog directs "Bucking Fastard," starring sisters Kate Mara and Rooney Mara. Hirokazu Kore-eda's "Look Back" and Shinya Tsukamoto's "Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?" round out the announced competition entries.

Danny Boyle's "Ink" to open festival

The festival opens with Danny Boyle's "Ink," a drama about Rupert Murdoch's 1969 acquisition of the struggling British tabloid The Sun. Guy Pearce, last at Venice in 2024 with "The Brutalist," plays Murdoch, with Jack O'Connell as editor Larry Lamb. The film is based on a script by James Graham, adapted from his original award-winning stage play.

Documentary programme anchors 83rd edition

Festival director Alberto Barbera noted that documentaries represent a huge part of the 2026 programme. Highlights include Alex Gibney's long-gestating four-hour "Musk," about tech entrepreneur Elon Musk, described as one of the year's most eagerly anticipated documentaries. Russell Crowe's "What Love Builds" chronicles the European, US, UK and Australian tours of his band Indoor Garden Party. "Everest: The Other Side," directed by Oscar winners Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, follows ski mountaineers Hilaree Nelson and Jim Morrison on an attempt to climb and ski the direct North Face of Mount Everest. Barbara Kopple's "Union Town" profiles New York delivery workers, Julia Loktev's "My Undesirable Friends Part II – Exile" continues her coverage of Russia's crackdown on independent journalists, and Laura Poitras's short "They're Here," co-directed with Rachel Mueller, features unseen footage of Minnesota protests against federal ICE raids.

Music premieres and Australian features

Noel and Liam Gallagher will travel to Venice to present "Don't Look Back in Anger," which follows the recent Oasis reunion world tour and is touted as containing the brothers' first joint interviews in over 25 years. The film is the brainchild of "Peaky Blinders" creator Steven Knight and is directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace, the duo behind "Shut Up and Play the Hits" and "Meet Me in the Bathroom." Hungarian filmmaker Kornel Mundruczo's Sydney-shot "Place to Be" screens out-of-competition and stars Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi, Pamela Anderson, David Wenham and Murray Bartlett. Burstyn, 93, will also receive a career tribute at the festival. In the Giornate degli Autori sidebar, Sydney-based Polish-born filmmaker Kuba Dorabialski makes his debut with "Agata the Writer," starring Mia Wasikowska as a Polish-Australian satirical novelist who travels from Sydney to Sarajevo.

Festival runs September 2-12

The 83rd Venice International Film Festival will take place September 2 through September 12, 2026, on the Lido, with the Golden Lion awarded to the best film in competition.