Venice 83, twenty films in competition from September 2 to 12

The 83rd International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art takes place at the Venice Lido from September 2 to 12, 2026, organized by the Biennale di Venezia under the direction of Alberto Barbera. The main competition brings together twenty feature films, all presented in world premiere.

The opening is set for Wednesday, September 2 in the Sala Grande with “Ink” by Danny Boyle, a competition film starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy. The screenplay is drawn from the play of the same name by James Graham and reconstructs the acquisition of the British tabloid The Sun by Rupert Murdoch: a story of media ownership that the festival places front and center, in a year in which media concentration remains a matter of debate in several countries. The closing, out of competition, falls on September 12 with “Dio ride” by Giovanni Veronesi, starring Pierfrancesco Favino and Silvio Orlando, screened after the awards ceremony.

The list of directors in competition signals the geographical breadth of the selection more than any statement of intent: alongside Europeans Werner Herzog and Nanni Moretti are Japan’s Hirokazu Kore-eda and South Korea’s Lee Chang-dong, together with Irish-British Martin McDonagh and American Casey Affleck. For East Asian cinema, this amounts to a double presence in the main competition, not a mere appearance in the collateral sections.

The two Honorary Golden Lions go to George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn. The opening and closing evenings are hosted by Greta Scarano and Nicolas Maupas.

The structural novelty of this edition concerns the architecture of the sections: Venice Spotlight takes the place of Orizzonti Extra and offers eight selected works. It is a label change that affects the path of films not included in the main competition, since it redefines the showcase in which a title can be placed and therefore its visibility to distributors and critics.

A clarification on the available material. The three outlets consulted for this piece publish the same program released by the Biennale di Venezia; for the purposes of source counting they count as a single origin, and at the time of publication no independent confirmation of that program has been found. The titles, dates and attributions reported here are therefore those announced by the organization, not yet verified by a second independent source. Festival programs of this scale are moreover subject to changes up to the last day: any changes to schedules, venues or attendees will be flagged in an update.

Some elements that weigh in the economic assessment of a festival remain outside the data available in the dossier: number of accreditations, edition budget, composition of the international jury. On these points we publish no estimates.

The operational calendar is nonetheless defined: eleven days of screenings, twenty titles in competition, the awards ceremony on September 12 before the final scheduled screening.

Sources: VisitLido — 2026 Mostra program; VeraClasse — program and tickets; Venezia da Vivere — the 2026 edition. The three sources draw on the official Biennale di Venezia program and count as a single origin.