By Bryan Alkemeyer

What theme could unite films as diverse as a short alternative history about an elderly Marilyn Monroe, a feature about twin sisters who behave like a single person, and a seven-hour biography of the director Bernardo Bertolucci?

According to Alberto Barbera, Artistic Director of the Venice Film Festival, these and other films from this year’s selection all demonstrate “the idea of cinema as an extraordinary tool for the knowledge of reality.”

That demonstration, eagerly anticipated around the world, will unfold from September 2–12, 2026, at the 83rd Venice Film Festival. Filmmakers and other creatives expected to attend include George Clooney, Penélope Cruz, Luca Guadagnino, and two frontmen of the band Oasis, brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, who are subjects of a documentary screening out of competition.

Here’s (almost) everything you need to know to get ready for the world’s oldest film festival.

Guests of Honor

This year’s winners of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement are George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn.

George Clooney

Clooney may not need an introduction, but it’s delightful to review his accomplishments as an actor, director, screenwriter, and producer.

Before becoming beloved as Danny in Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Clooney charmed audiences as Dr. Doug Ross in ER, earning Emmy® nominations in 1995 and 1996 and Golden Globe® nominations in 1996, 1997, and 1998. A few years later, he won a Golden Globe® for starring in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000).

At Venice in 2005, Clooney won Best Screenplay as co-writer of Good Night, and Good Luck, which he also directed and acted in. His first Academy Award® came in 2006 for his supporting role in Syriana, as did another Golden Globe®. Then, Clooney won a Best Actor Golden Globe® for The Descendants in 2012 and a Best Picture Oscar® (as producer) for Argo in 2013.

Ellen Burstyn

After an acclaimed performance in The Last Picture Show (1971), Burstyn created her most memorable character: Chris MacNeil, the horrified yet resolute mother from The Exorcist (1973). Soon after, Burstyn won two prestigious lead acting awards: an Oscar® for Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) and a Golden Globe® for Same Time, Next Year (1978).

In 2001, Burstyn received a Film Independent Spirit Award for starring in Requiem for a Dream. The first of her two Emmys® came from a guest appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit; the second, from her supporting role in Political Animals (2012).

Burstyn reprised the role of MacNeil for The Exorcist: Believer (2023). Now, audiences will see her as Marilyn Monroe in Flesh Impact, premiering out of competition at Venice. The short is written and directed by Maggie Gyllenhaal.

The International Jury

Speaking of Maggie Gyllenhaal, the accomplished multi-hyphenate will serve as the president of the International Jury. She earned widespread acclaim for playing the title role in Secretary (2002), rose into the ranks of Oscar® nominees for her supporting role in Crazy Heart (2009), and won a Golden Globe® for starring in the BBC limited series The Honourable Woman (2015).

To date, Gyllenhaal’s most celebrated film is The Lost Daughter (2021). She not only directed the film but also wrote the screenplay, adapted from the novel by Elena Ferrante. The film, Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, won the Best Screenplay Award at Venice in 2021. Then, it won THREE Film Independent Spirit Awards in 2022: Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Screenplay.

Reflecting on the upcoming festival, Gyllenhaal remarked, “Venice has always supported truthful, singular voices.” She promised to carry on “that brave and necessary tradition.”

Her partners in that task are six fellow members of the International Jury. They are screenwriter and director Kaouther Ben Hania (The Voice of Hind Rajab), composer Daniel Blumberg (The Brutalist), film professor Francesco Casetti (Yale), screenwriter and director Xavier Giannoli (Of Money and Blood), director and actress Shahrbanoo Sadat (No Good Men), and director Johnnie To (Life Without Principle).

Films

Last year, the Golden Lion went to Father Mother Sister Brother, written and directed by Jim Jarmusch (Only Lovers Left Alive). But Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein and three other Golden Lion contenders earned Academy Award® nominations, with Frankenstein ultimately claiming Oscars® for Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, and Production Design.

We cannot predict the course of awards season – any more than Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) could anticipate the consequences of his scientific experiments. Of course, we would forge ahead if we could be sure of achieving results as appealing as Frankenstein’s creature, played by heartthrob Jacob Elordi. But rather than risk creating a true monster, we will simply tell you about a few films from the complete line-up that caught our eye.

Main Competition

Twenty-one features are competing for the Golden Lion, so we can’t cover them all! Besides Werner Herzog’s Bucking Fastard, the previously mentioned fantasia about un-individuated twins, we were intrigued by some films rooted more firmly in reality. We encourage you to look beyond our selected films, if you want a full rundown of this year’s competition.

It would be difficult to overlook Ink – but not just because it is opening the festival. Directed by Academy Award® winner Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire), the film is an adaptation of the Tony®-winning play by James Graham. Its subject is the founding of a global media empire when Rupert Murdoch (Guy Pearce) purchased The Sun and put it under the editorial oversight of Larry Lamb (Jack O’Connell).

In Florian Zeller’s Bunker, a wife (Penélope Cruz) increasingly resents her husband (Javier Bardem) for his work as an architect. He has agreed to help a tech oligarch build a refuge from the coming dystopia, and that strikes his wife as morally dubious. It’s something tech oligarchs actually want to do, as you can read in Douglas Rushkoff’s Survival of the Richest: Escape Fantasies of the Tech Billionaires!

During the Cold War, a CIA official (Steve Buscemi) deploys two agents (John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell) from Santiago to Easter Island in Wild Horse Nine, written and directed by Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin). The intelligence operation could have something to do with an impending military coup… but the two spies seem likely to compromise their mission by constantly bickering.

Other Films

The festival has much to offer outside the main competition. The Orizzonti section includes a mockumentary, La Moula, about a washed-up journalist investigating cocaine traffickers. Out of competition, the Oscar®-winning collaborators Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (Free Solo) are screening their latest documentary, Everest: The Other Side. As a final example, the festival will close with Dio Ride (God Laughs), a period drama about a 17th-century Tuscan friar who draws the ire of Rome… by making people laugh.

Viva il Cinema!

As Barbera explained at the official press conference, festival organizers curated the program of almost 200 films from 4,300 submissions, up from 4,200 submissions from 2025. These very carefully selected films represent reality yet “are never satisfied with being simple news.” Instead, they present “stories and narratives translated through the most powerful language that exists – that is, the language of cinema.”

To judge by Barbera’s remarks, viewers around the world should expect not just to be entertained but to be moved, challenged, and above all, changed by the films premiering at Venice 2026.  

We hope you are looking forward to another year in Venice!