The Official Venice Film Festival 2026 Line Up
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Takashi Miike, Werner Herzog and Danny Boyle among names returning for Venice....
The official line-up for the 2026 Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, revealing an exciting list of acclaimed artistic directors planning to deliver some more spectacular feature films.
Among the submissions are Danny Boyle’s Ink, set as the festival opener and the director’s 15th feature after 2025’s 28 Years Later, and Casey Affleck’s gothic horror Company. Japan’s Hirokazu Koreeda will make his second festival appearance in 2026 with Look Back, joining South Korea’s Lee Chang-dong, who returns to filmmaking after eight years with Possible Love.
Having landed a previous Venice win for Screenwriting thanks to 2022’s The Banshees of Inisherin, Martin McDonagh will make an appearance with Wild Horse Nine, and Lance Oppenheim will pivot from documentary filmmaking to fiction with the Chris Hansen-based biopic Primetime. Italian legend Nanni Moretti will also return to Venice after 37 years with Succederà Questa Notte.
German filmmaking giant Werner Herzog will deliver Bucking Fastard, his 21st directed feature, while Wim Wenders will platform his documentary, From Inside Out — The Architecture Of Peter Zumthor. Italian artist Luca Guadagnino will be credited for his seven-hour-long doc Joie De Vivre, while an Oasis documentary will be submitted under Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace.
Included among the line-up is Japan’s transgressive icon Takashi Miike with Shumei — The Living Legacy Of Kabuki.
As for the women filmmakers, Maggie Gyllenhaal will appear with her short film Flesh Impact, while Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Muller follow with their film They’re Here. Additionally, Italy’s Alina Marazzi will return from a ten-year-break with La Ragazza Con La Leica. When it comes to a woman taking on the competition for the Golden Lion, May El-Toukhy stands alone with her drama, Woman Unknown.
The festival will close with Giovanni Veronesi’s Dio Ride.
Read more about film festivals here
Venice Film Festival 2026 Line-up
In Competition
- Un Peu Avant Minuit by Nicolas Pariser
- L’Estranea by Paolo Strippoli
- Mr Nelson, Did You Kill People? by Shinya Tsukamoto
- Bunker by Florian Zeller
- Ink by Danny Boyle
- Company by Casey Affleck
- A Bit Of Light by Ali Asgari
- Ritorno A Buenos Aires by Marco Bechis
- Un Bon Petit Soldat by Stephane Brize
- Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro by Edoardo De Angelis
- Woman Unknown by May el-Toukhy
- Bucking Fastard by Werner Herzog
- A Place To Heal by Cedric Kahn
- Dau by Ilya Khrzhanovsky
- Look Back by Hirokazu Koreeda
- Possible Love by Lee Chang-Dong
- Wild Horse Nine by Martin McDonagh
- Succederà Questa Notte by Nanni Moretti
- Primetime by Lance Oppenheim
- The Echo Chamber by Andrea Pallaoro
Orizzonti
- I Figli Della Scimmia by Tommasco Landucci
- A Day In The Life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra by Jacqueline Lentzou
- Oasis by Jannis Lenz
- Until The Day Ends by Jelena Maksimovic
- La Moula by Jerome Pierrat
- Lovers In The Blue Night by Anuparna Roy
- Un Détour Par Diane by Ann Sirot and Raphael Balboni
- The Color Of The Sun by Xavier Tera
- Eklipse by Manuel Wetscher
- Big Little Things by Michelle Zhou
- La Ragazza Con La Leica by Alina Marazzi
- The Burning Giants by Phuttiphone Aroonpheng
- What Belongs To Others by Grzegorz Debowski
- Una Storia by Anna Foglietta
- La Città Dei Vivi by Edoardo Gabbriellini
- Moragheb by Mohsen Gharaei
- Too Much Sugar by Robert Greene
- The Difficult Bride by Rubaiyat Hossain
- La Maison du Vent by Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
Venice Open — Out Of Competition, Fiction
- No Paradise If You Are Killed By A Woman by Halkawat Mustafa
- Arrested Memory by Sabu
- The Basics Of Philosophy by Paul Schrader
- Un Bon Avocat by Tristan Seguela
- Jupiter by Alexandre Smia
- Dio Ride by Giovanni Veronesi
- Nessum Dolore by Giani Amelio
- Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors by Lav Diaz
- Father Joe by Barthelemy Grossmann
- Scherzetto by Mario Martone
- Place To Be by Kornel Mundruczo
Venice Open — Out Of Competition, Film on Films
- Nino — Un Film Su Nino Rota by Walter Fasano
- The Pervert’s Guide To Utopias by Sophie Fiennes
- Joie De Vivre by Luca Guadagnino
- Twist And Shoot Mister Suzuki by Yves Montmayeur
- Intermission by Yonfan
- Juso Per Ferie by Karen Di Porto
Venice Open — Out Of Competition, Non-Fiction
- Shumei — The Living Legacy Of Kabuki by Takashi Miike
- Queer Edward II by Theo Rollason
- Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace
- Dust by Tsai Ming-Liang
- Everest: The Other Side by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin
- From Inside Out — The Architecture Of Peter Zumthor by Wim Wenders
- Be Brave by Francesco Carrozzini
- What Love Builds by Russell Crowe
- Burgundy by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw
- Musk by Alex Gibney
- The Road To Jericho by Amos Gitai
- Citizen Osama by Ahmed Hassouna
- Union Town by Barbara Kopple
- Holy Wood Dust by Victor Kossakovsky
- Letters From The Silenced Country by Andrei Kutsila
- Biografia De Jorge Luis Borges by Mariano Llinás
- My Undesirable Friends: Part 1 — Exile by Julia Loktev
- Boatbuilders by Luke Lorentzen
- Imperium by Sergei Loznitsa
Venice Open — Out Of Competition, Series
- Peccato by Valerio Vestoso
Venice Open — Out Of Competition, Short Films
- They’re Here by Laura Poitras and Rachel Lauren Muller
- Wild Asparagus by Avi Mograbi
- Flesh Impact by Maggie Gyllenhaal
Venice Spotlight
- Furies by Rami Kodeih
- Guria by Levan Koguashvili
- Ground Floor by Gabor Reisz
- Eu Contez by Alina Serban
- Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing by Erik Shirai
- Conversations With The Sea by Muayad Alayan
- Hombre Al Agua by Gael García Bernal
- Serpenti by Roberto De Paolis Maino
Special Screening
- Dai Nostri Inviati by Giuseppe Giannotti, Enrico Salvatori and Nicoletta Berardi
The 2026 Venice Film Festival will be running from 2nd-12th September.
SUPPORT INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM!
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
About the Author
