by Alex Billington
July 23, 2026
Source: La Biennale
The Venice Film Festival, known officially in Italian as Mostra Internazionale d’Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, has officially announced its selection of films playing at the historic film festival in 2026. Celebrating their 83rd year (the oldest fest in the world) in 2026, Venezia is serving up a rather intriguing selection of new films to enjoy–though this year’s line-up is quite unimpressive and lacking any real excitement. Venice 2026 runs from September 2nd to September 12th in just a few months. A few of the highlights include some major premieres that have been on our radar: Danny Boyle’s new film Ink on creating a tabloid newspaper in the UK; Werner Herzog’s latest film Bucking Fastard starring both of the Mara sisters; Koreeda’s manga movie Look Back; The Father director Florian Zeller’s Bunker, Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine; Alex Gibney’s Musk doc; and others that seem promising. Along with, of course, many of other movies to discover when they premiere on the Lido in Venice in a few months. I’ll be there again as always for this fall festival to watch and report back on all the new films. I’m already looking forward to diving into screenings all day, every day, to find the best of the best. Full Venice 2026 list below.
Here’s the complete selection of 2026 films directly from Venice, including the director for easy reference.
OPENING NIGHT FILM:
Ink – dir. Danny Boyle
COMPETITION (VENEZIA 83):
Company – dir. Casey Affleck
A Bit Of Light – dir. Ali Asgari
Ritorno A Buenos Aires – dir. Marco Bechis
Un Bon Petit Soldat – dir. Stephane Brize
Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro – dir. Edoardo De Angelis
Woman Unknown – dir. May el-Toukhy
Bucking Fastard – dir. Werner Herzog
A Place To Heal – dir. Cedric Kahn
Dau – dir. Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Look Back – dir. Hirokazu Koreeda
Possible Love – dir. Lee Chang-Dong
Wild Horse Nine – dir. Martin McDonagh
Succederà Questa Notte – dir. Nanni Moretti
Primetime – dir. Lance Oppenheim
The Echo Chamber – dir. Andrea Pallaoro
Un Peu Avant Minuit – dir. Nicolas Pariser
L’Estranea – dir. Paolo Strippoli
Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? – dir. Shinya Tsukamoto
Bunker – dir. Florian Zeller
OUT OF COMPETITION (FICTION):
Dio Ride – dir. Giovanni Veronesi
Nessum Dolore – dir. Giani Amelio
Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors – dir. Lav Diaz
Father Joe – dir. Barthelemy Grossmann
Scherzetto – dir. Mario Martone
Place To Be – dir. Kornel Mundruczo
No Paradise If You Are Killed By A Woman – dir. Halkawat Mustafa
Arrested Memory – dir. Sabu
The Basics Of Philosophy – dir. Paul Schrader
Un Bon Avocat – dir. Tristan Seguela
Jupiter – dir. Alexandre Smia
OUT OF COMPETITION (NON-FICTION):
Be Brave – dir. Francesco Carrozzini
What Love Builds – dir. Russell Crowe
Burgundy – dir. Michael Dweck & Gregory Kershaw
Musk – dir. Alex Gibney
The Road To Jericho – dir. Amos Gitai
Citizen Osama – dir. Ahmed Hassouna
Union Town – dir. Barbara Kopple
Holy Wood Dust – dir. Victor Kossakovsky
Letters From The Silenced Country – dir. Andrei Kutsila
Biografia De Jorge Luis Borges – dir. Mariano Llinás
My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile – dir. Julia Loktev
Boatbuilders – dir. Luke Lorentzen
Imperium – dir. Sergei Loznitsa
Shumei — The Living Legacy Of Kabuki – dir. Takashi Miike
Queer Edward II – dir. Theo Rollason
Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger – dir. Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace
Dust – dir. Tsai Ming-Liang
Everest: The Other Side – dir. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
From Inside Out — The Architecture Of Peter Zumthor – dir. Wim Wenders
OUT OF COMPETITION (FILM ON FILMS):
Juso Per Ferie – dir. Karen Di Porto
Nino — Un Film Su Nino Rota – dir. Walter Fasano
The Pervert’s Guide To Utopias – dir. Sophie Fiennes
Joie De Vivre – dir. Luca Guadagnino
Twist & Shoot Mister Suzuki – dir. Yves Montmayeur
Intermission – dir. Yonfan
HORIZONS (ORIZZONTI):
La Ragazza Con La Leica – dir. Alina Marazzi
The Burning Giants – dir. Phuttiphone Aroonpheng
What Belongs To Others – dir. Grzegorz Debowski
Una Storia – dir. Anna Foglietta
La Citta Dei Vivi – dir. Edoardo Gabbriellini
Moragheb – dir. Mohsen Gharaei
Too Much Sugar – dir. Robert Greene
The Difficult Bride – dir. Rubaiyat Hossain
La Maison Du Vent – dir. Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
I Figli Della Scimmia – dir. Tommasco Landucci
A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra – dir. Jacqueline Lentzou
Oasis – dir. Jannis Lenz
Until The Day Ends – dir. Jelena Maksimovic
La Moula – dir. Jerome Pierrat
Lovers In The Blue Night – dir. Anuparna Roy
Un Détour Par Diane – dir. Ann Sirot, Raphael Balboni
The Color Of The Sun – dir. Xavier Tera
Eklipse – dir. Manuel Wetscher
Big Little Things – dir. Michelle Zhou
VENICE SPOTLIGHT:
Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing – dir. Erik Shirai
Conversations With The Sea – dir. Muayad Alayan
Hombre Al Agua – dir. Gael Garcia Bernal
Serpenti – dir. Roberto De Paolis Maino
Furies – dir. Rami Kodeih
Guria – dir. Levan Koguashvili
Ground Floor – dir. Gabor Reisz
Eu Contez – dir. Alina Serban
So that’s the line-up for Venice 2026, which seems like a very off year for Venice. There are so many highly anticipated films just completely missing from the selection (Digger, Cliff Booth, Tenzing, etc). And what they have programmed seems very lackluster and expected, including many old time directors they just can’t help bringing back again. This is also the first time in many years that the Main Competition selection only features one woman in the entire line-up, whereas last year they had six female filmmakers playing in this section. I’m still hopeful that many of these films playing in Venice will be exciting discoveries anyway. I’m looking forward to watching this new Casey Affleck film Company, which I don’t know much about, along with Bunker starring Javier Bardem & Penelope Cruz. I’m also interested in this Everest: The Other Side mountain doc, along with The Echo Chamber from the same director of Monica previously. As for everything else playing, we’ll have to wait and see how it all shakes out in September. The 2026 fall festival season is just around the corner and hopefully it will still be strong even with my reservations. I’m ready to return to Venice again and to start screening and discovering everything worthwhile this year. Viva cinema!
