Venice 83 closes: Golden Lion to 'Kvinde Ukendt', career award to Clooney and Burstyn

The 83rd Venice International Film Festival closed on Saturday, September 12, 2026, with the awarding of the Golden Lion for best film to ‘Kvinde Ukendt’ (Woman Unknown) by May el-Toukhy, a Danish, Swedish and Latvian co-production. The Competition jury, chaired by Maggie Gyllenhaal and made up of Kaouther Ben Hania, Daniel Blumberg, Francesco Casetti, Xavier Giannoli, Shahrbanoo Sadat and Johnnie To, chose a film set in the postwar period, starring Mathilde Arcel, which follows the story of a domestic worker who marries a wealthy widower.

The jury’s choice confirms a recent trend among major European festivals to reward historical narratives built around marginal female figures, capable of reading postwar social transformations through an intimate lens. The verdict comes at the close of a festival directed, as every year, by Alberto Barbera, held at the Lido from September 2 to 12.

In the Orizzonti section, dedicated to the more experimental proposals on the international scene, the award for best screenplay went to Tommaso Landucci and Damiano Femfert for ‘I Figli della Scimmia’, an Italian film directed by Landucci himself and starring Riccardo Scamarcio, Fausto Russo Alesi, Lidiya Liberman and Cristina Odasso. The recognition marks a significant moment for Italian cinema in a section that in recent years has often rewarded non-European productions. The award for best actress in the same section went instead to Laleh Marzban for ‘Falling House’ (original title Moragheb), directed by Mohsen Gharaei, an Iranian, American and German production: a recognition that confirms the vitality of independent Iranian cinema at major international festivals, despite the production difficulties that often accompany it.

Alongside the competitive awards, the Biennale this year presented two Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement, both to American performers. The first went to George Clooney, actor, director and producer, presented during the opening ceremony on September 2. The second honored Ellen Burstyn, with the award conferred on September 7 during the festival. The awarding of two Lifetime Achievement Lions in the same edition, rather than just one as has been the more recent custom, signals the artistic direction’s intention to highlight long and differing professional paths: on one hand, Clooney’s more recent and cross-disciplinary career spanning acting and directing, on the other, Burstyn’s trajectory, among the longest-running of American cinema performers.

Overall, the 2026 edition of the Festival presents a picture in which small- and medium-scale European cinema still finds room in the highest award, while the Orizzonti section confirms its role as an observatory for Italian and non-Western productions that struggle to find visibility in major distribution circuits. The career awards, given to two figures vastly different in generation and professional trajectory, round out an edition that alternated recognitions for emerging auteur cinema with tributes to paths already established within the American industry.

The news currently comes from a single source, the Venice Biennale, through the statements of the Competition jury and the Orizzonti jury; no independent confirmation is currently available.