NEED TO KNOW
The 2026 Venice Film Festival lineup was announced July 23
Among the titles to watch are Wild Horse Nine, Bunker, Bucking Fastard, Musk and Ink
The festival debuted a new category this year to highlight documentaries premiering out of competition
The 2026 Venice Film Festival lineup is here!
On July 23, the Venice Film Festival revealed the roster of films that will feature in the 83rd Biennale. The festival, to be held on the city’s island, the Lido, spotlights famous faces like Rooney and Kate Mara, Robert Pattinson, Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz across a range of highly-anticipated projects this year.
Standout titles in the festival’s competition category — which will vie for the coveted Golden Lion — include Wild Horse Nine, Martin McDonagh’s black comedy starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell; psychological thriller Bunker from director Florian Zeller, starring spouses Cruz and Bardem; and drama Bucking Fastard, the first on-screen collaboration between the Mara sisters, from director Werner Herzog.
Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich in ‘Wild Horse Nine.’Credit: Searchlight Pictures/Diego Araya Corvalán
Also in the category are Pattinson’s Primetime, a feature on journalist Chris Hansen from Lance Oppenheim; Ink, the biographical drama centered on Rupert Murdoch starring Jack O’Connell; and Le Chang-dong’s Possible Love, a melodrama starring Jeon Do-yeon and Sul-Kyung-gu.
Ink will start off the festival with its world premiere on Sept. 2, with Italian historical drama Dio Ride (which is playing out of competition) wrapping up the event on Sept. 12.
Debuting out of competition are Father Joe, a crime thriller film starring Kiefer Sutherland and Al Pacino; lauded Filipino filmmaker Lav Diaz’s Makikiraan Po (Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors); and Paul Schrader’s The Basics of Philosophy.
The festival has launched a new category this year, called Venice Open Non Fiction, dedicated to documentaries not competing at the biennale. Among the most intriguing projects debuting within the category is Alex Gibney’s Musk, tracing the life of the titular SpaceX founder and trillionaire in an almost four-hour film.
Penélope Cruz in ‘Bunker.’Credit: Sony Pictures Classics
Another is Francesco Carrozini’s Be Brave, featuring the tale of fashion mogul Renzo Rosso but which controversially relied primarily on generative AI to be brought to fruition, while They’re Here (from Laura Poitras and Rachel Mueller) features new glimpses of the anti-ICE protests in Minnesota in the first year-plus of Donald Trump’s second presidency.
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The competition’s jury will be led by Maggie Gyllenhaal, who, as president, will choose the competition’s winner and recipient of the Golden Lion.
The 2026 Venice Film Festival will be held from Sept. 2 to Sept. 12.
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