Venice 83 calendar: opening with Danny Boyle's «Ink», closing entrusted to Veronesi

The official and complete calendar of public screenings for the 83rd International Film Festival has been published: the event will be held at the Venice Lido from 2 to 12 September 2026. The programme is reported by LaPresse and by the official selection carried by Visit Lido.

The sequence of the first two days is the most significant part, as it establishes the symbolic order of the edition. On Tuesday 1 September the pre-opening ceremony takes place, with the out-of-competition screening of «Col cuore in gola» by Tinto Brass. On Wednesday 2 September the official opening is set for 4 pm in Sala Darsena with «La ragazza con la Leica» by Alina Marazzi. At 7 pm, in Sala Grande, following the award to George Clooney, «Ink» by Danny Boyle is screened, with Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy.

The construction is worth noting. The festival opens with an Italian title in one hall, and links the internationally high-profile film to the presentation of a career achievement award in the other: the opening evening is thus divided into two distinct moments, with two different functions — selection on one side, celebration on the other.

The competition comprises twenty feature films, all presented in world premiere. The jury is chaired by Maggie Gyllenhaal. The number and the formula are the most concrete piece of information about the profile of the edition: twenty titles never seen elsewhere mean that the entire weight of the competition rests on the Lido, with no films that have already passed through other festivals.

Date	Event
1 September	Pre-opening, «Col cuore in gola» by Tinto Brass, out of competition
2 September, 4 pm	Opening, «La ragazza con la Leica» by Alina Marazzi
2 September, 7 pm	Award to George Clooney and «Ink» by Danny Boyle
5 September	«Succederà questa notte» by Nanni Moretti, in competition
12 September	Closing with «Dio ride» by Giovanni Veronesi

5 September is the date marking Nanni Moretti’s return to competition with «Succederà questa notte», after thirty-seven years of absence from the Venice competition. Thirty-seven years is an interval that also says something about the festival’s history: a director can go through an entire career elsewhere, and re-enter competition when the landscape of events has changed several times over.

The closing on 12 September is entrusted to «Dio ride» by Giovanni Veronesi. Here too the position matters: the closing film does not compete for the jury’s decision, which has already been made by that point, and its function is to see off the audience after the awards have been assigned.

A note on sources. The two sources used report the same object — the official calendar and selection of the Biennale — and should therefore be considered as drawing on the same underlying documentation, that of the organiser. We have no independent elements on the titles or times, nor are they needed: a festival programme is a document from the body that publishes it, and it is verifiable against the facts on the day indicated.

The information still missing concerns the rest of the twenty works in competition and the structure of the parallel sections across the eleven days. The first element verifiable with certainty is the timing of Wednesday 2 September: if at 7 pm in Sala Grande the award to Clooney precedes «Ink», the published schedule will have been followed.