The selection for the Venice Film Festival (September 2-12) was unveiled today by artistic director Alberto Barbera and Biennale president Pietr
The selection for the Venice Film Festival (September 2-12) was unveiled today by artistic director Alberto Barbera and Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco.
Screen considers the key talking points from this year’s line-up, including a edged fall in female filmmakers, why studios and streamers might be skipping the festival, and the long run times in the non-fiction section.
Studios and streamers skip the Lido
Venice earned a reputation in recent years as a key awards-season launchpad for both US studio films and streamer movies. But that undoubtedly took a knock after Todd Phillips’ Warner Bros title Joker: Folie à Deux was savaged by critics after its Venice 2024 premiere.
As at Cannes, where studio movies were absent this year, major US players seem to be having second thoughts about the risks of premiering at major festivals. They are also likely considering the costs. It is much cheaper for a North American film to premiere at a North American festival. Instead, acquisitions teams will be on the ground to see which films go down well with Venice audiences, and whip out their chequebooks accordingly.
There are just a handful of studio/streamer titles at Venice this year, most of them international films such as the Disney-backed Oasis doc Don’t Look Back In Anger and South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong’s Netflix production Possible Love. Netflix also has US and Latin American rights to Danny Boyle’s Ink, an acquisition announced the day after the film was revealed as this year’s Venice opener, and Disney-owned Searchlight has worldwide rights to Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine.
It is a much thinner list than some Venice-watchers were originally anticipating – in the lead-up to the festival there had been talk of movies such as David Fincher’s Cliff Booth, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Digger, Fernando Meirelles’ Here Comes The Flood, Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning and Tony Gilroy’s Behemoth! possibly making an appearance.
Where are the women?
It is now eight years since Venice joined the major festivals in signing the 50/50 gender parity pledge in 2018 but the gap is growing wider on the Lido. Barbera has always claimed any disparity reflects the pool of submissions – and this year’s festival stats reveal that 75% of fiction films and 70% of non-fiction films submitted were by men. Yet many will still be questioning the continuing lack of female representation across the festival and the role the festival could play in helping to improve those submission stats.
In Competition, just one title out of 20 is directed by a woman: Woman Unknown from Danish-Egyptian director May El-Toukhy, who previously won acclaim for her 2019 Sundance audience award-winning Queen Of Hearts. That’s a gigantic drop from last year’s six female directors in Competition, and the lowest number for years.
In Venice Open (formerly out of competition), just nine of the 47 titles across all strands are made by women – all of them non-fiction, including documentaries The Pervert’s Guide To Utopia from Sophie Fiennes, and Barbara Kopple’s Union Town. However, Venice Open has made space for several male-directed documentaries about male subjects, including Luca Guadagnino’s seven-plus hour Joi De Vivre, about filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, and Alex Gibney’s four-hour Elon Musk profile Musk.
In Spotlight, just one of the seven films is directed by a woman – the aptly-titled I Matter, from Romanian Romany filmmaker Alina Seban.
Things improve (a little) in Venice Horizons, where eight of the 20 titles are by female directors. Among them is Lovers In the Blue Night from Anuparna Roy, who won the section’s best film and director prizes in 2025 with Songs Of The Forgotten Trees. The question will be asked why, given that pedigree, her sophomore feature was not considered for a competition slot.
Women also fare far better in the independently run Giornate degli Autori sidebar, which has a majority of female-directed films – 14 out of 25 – including works from Lili Horvat (My Notes On Mars), Maria Aparicio (Sadness Sometimes, Other Times Revolt) and Leah Domenach (Man’s Skin).
Transatlantic tightrope
For several years, Venice has held sway among the autumn festivals, securing some of the starriest titles but also the most awards-friendly, such as The Power Of The Dog, The Banshees Of Inisherin, Poor Things and The Brutalist. At first glance, this year’s lineup is less stacked in that regard, to the benefit – and perhaps because of – a solid North American showing at Toronto and (likely) Telluride.
Susanna White’s Prima Facie with Cynthia Erivo, Anton Corbijn’s A Talent For Murder with Helen Mirren, Jonathan Schey’s Everybody Wants To F*** Me with Taron Egerton, and Trudie Styler’s Up Against It starring Antonio Banderas are all UK titles having world premieres at Toronto.
Buzzy titles with a Canadian or international premiere at Toronto – indicating a Telluride world premiere – include the UK’s Elsinore starring Andrew Scott, and US titles such as Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut with Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti, and the Zellner brothers’ Alpha Gang with Cate Blanchett. None of them elected for a Lido launch, potentially leaving a deficit of starry, awards-aiming fare at the Italian festival.
Epic non-fiction run times
Venice’s non-fiction section, which is once again 19 titles after growing significantly before 2025, features some intimidatingly long running times.
Joining Gibney’s four-hour Musk, there is Mariano Llinas’ documentary about author Jorge Luis Borges and part two of Julia Loktev’s Undesirable Friends, about dissident Russian journalists, which both run longer than five-and-a-half hours, whilst Sergei Loznitsa’s Imperium comes in at a relatively spritely 176 minutes.
Three-hour-plus epics in the other sections include Yonfan’s 220-minute non-fiction essay Intermission about the history of Hong Kong through his own films, and the latest instalment in the Dau series, running 210 minutes and playing in competition.
“Long runtimes are characteristic of the [this year’s] documentaries,” noted Barbera in the press conference.
How many of these titles could end up being re-edited into series, and will any critics have time to review them?
Italian blend
Italian films have had a disappointing year so far on the international festival circuit: no majority Italian features played in official selection at either Berlin or Cannes 2026. So it’s hardly surprising that Venice – which always showcases a enormous number of Italian movies – has a line-up brimming with homegrown fare.
Among the 20-strong competition, five are from Italian filmmakers, including Nanni Moretti’s long-awaited return to Venice with It Will Happen Tonight. The legendary Italian director has stayed away since a rift with the festival in 1989 when his Red Wood Pigeon was omitted entirely from official selection.
Meanwhile, the Venice Horizons section opens with The Girl With The Leica by Alina Marazzi, one of four Italian movies in its lineup. Another seven Italian movies, and one series, are also playing out of competition.
Who are the stars?
Despite the downturn in gigantic US fare noted above, there will still be some star power on the Lido this year.
Barbera noted Robert Pattinson will be in Venice for Lance Oppenheim’s Primetime, alongside co-star Phoebe Bridgers. Florian Zeller’s Bunker features a starry cast including Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Paul Dano, with the likes of John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell (Wild Horse Nine), Kate and Rooney Mara (Bucking Fastard), Ellen Burstyn, Taika Waititi and Pamela Anderson (Place To Be), and Kiefer Sutherland and Al Pacino (Father Joe) likely to attend.
The selection of Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace’s Oasis documentary also throws up the intriguing prospect of the sight of the Gallagher brothers alighting onto the Lido from a vaporetto.
Listen to more reaction to the Venice lineup on The Screen Podcast below
