Venice declares everything, Telluride declares nothing: two opposite ways of opening the season

The autumn festival season opens with two events that handle the same resource in diametrically opposite ways: what the public knows before entering the theater.

At the Lido, the 83rd International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art, directed by Alberto Barbera, runs from September 2 to 12, 2026. The program published by Biennale di Venezia counts 135 films in total, twenty of which are in the main competition. The composition of the competition is known in detail: five Italian titles, the return of Nanni Moretti after thirty-seven years of absence from the competition with “Succederà questa notte”, and only one work directed by a woman, “Woman Unknown” by Danish director May el-Toukhy. This is a fact that concerns the entire selection mechanism, not the single edition: out of twenty available slots, one.

Also in Venice, the Golden Lions for lifetime achievement go to George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn, and the section structure is changing: Venezia Spotlight is born, eight works, taking the place of Orizzonti Extra (MYmovies). The access system, too, has been made public in advance: bookings for accredited attendees open on August 27, with further windows on the 29th and the 31st (Venezia Eventi). Those going to the Lido know in advance what they will see and at what time they need to join the digital queue to secure it.

In Colorado, the opposite rule applies. The 53rd edition of the Telluride Film Festival runs from September 4 to 7 and features as guest director the British-American actress, screenwriter, and director Rebecca Hall, who takes part in the programming choices. According to the festival’s custom, those choices — and the entire lineup — remain secret until the eve of the opening. The festival announces more than fifty programs distributed, exceptionally this year, across eleven theaters and venues; passes for the edition are reportedly all sold out. Julie Huntsinger, the festival’s director, described Hall as “a singular, brilliant person” (transl. from English).

The two models respond to different needs. Venice is an event on an industrial scale: 135 titles, an international market for attention, logistics that must sort through thousands of people and that, to function, need to be published weeks in advance. Telluride sells four days in a mountain location with limited capacity: scarcity is structural, and secrecy about the program does not reduce demand, given that passes had already sold out before it was even known which films would be screened. The public buys the selection criteria, not the individual title.

There is also a matter of scheduling: Telluride’s four days fall within the Mostra’s eleven days. The two events compete, in the same early-September days, for international critics, distributors, and available premieres. With one non-negligible practical difference: at Venice, comparison among the competing works is possible right now, because the list exists; at Telluride, any assessment of the edition’s content is currently impossible, and this newspaper is not in a position to anticipate which films will be shown.

A note on sources. All the data on Venice trace back to the official announcement by the Biennale, later picked up by other program listings; for Telluride, the information currently available comes from a single source, the festival itself, and there is no independent confirmation of the number of venues or of the passes having sold out.

The calendar stands as follows: the Mostra opens on September 2 and closes on the 12th, with bookings for accredited attendees already underway since August 27; Telluride occupies four days, from the 4th to the 7th, and its program will become verifiable only on the eve of the opening.