Robert Pattinson, Penélope Cruz, Alicia Vikander and Oasis Lead All-Star Venice Lineup

Venice, it seems, has done it again.

The line-up for the 2026 Venice Film Festival, unveiled on Thursday, looks like another star-studded affair featuring plenty of titles with strong award-season potential. Bold-faced names including Robert Pattinson, Penélope Cruz, Alicia Vikander and, according to artistic director Alberto Barbera, Oasis rockers Noel and Liam Gallagher, will be heading to the Lido this year.

The 83rd Biennale will also feature new features from festival faves, including Werner Herzog, Hirokazu Koreeda, Lee Chang-dong, Nanni Moretti, and Martin McDonagh.

Irish director McDonagh, who has won two best screenplay Silver Lions in Venice, for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) and The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), returns to competition with Wild Horse Nine. John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell star in the black comedy as a pair of veteran CIA officers who, ahead of the 1973 Chilean coup, are sent far from the action to Easter Island. Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey co-star.

Three Billboards and Banshees both received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, with the former won acting Oscars for stars Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell. McDonagh’s house studio, Searchlight Pictures, will be hoping for a similar run for Wild Horse Nine after its Venice launch next month.

French director Florian Zeller, last on the Lido in 2022 with The Son, returns to competition with Bunker. The psychological thriller stars Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz as a couple whose marriage buckles after he, a celebrated architect, accepts a commission to build a bunker for a billionaire. Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger co-star. Sony Pictures Classics has picked up Bunker for North America. FilmNation Entertainment is handling international sales.

Robert Pattinson will hit the Lido red carpet for the world premiere of Primetime, the feature debut of documentary director Lance Oppenheim (Some Kind of Heaven), playing NBC newsman Chris Hansen, whose To Catch a Predator format becomes a media sensation. Pattinson is also a producer on the film, which A24 is releasing stateside and selling worldwide.

Legendary German director Werner Herzog, whose documentary Ghost Elephants screened out of competition in Venice last year, arrives in the main selection this year with Bucking Fastard. Herzog reportedly turned down an out-of-competition slot in Cannes for his new feature, which stars siblings Rooney and Kate Mara in their first on-screen collaboration. Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson co-star. Hanway Films is selling Bucking Fastard international, with Gersh is handling U.S. sales. The film is still hunting for a domestic distributor.

Danish director May el-Toukhy (Queen of Hearts) will make her Venice debut in competition with Woman Unknown. The period drama, set just after World War 2, stars Mathilde Arcel as Marie, a young nanny and housemaid who is set to marry her boss, the wealthy older widower, Christian (Carsten Bjørnlund). But Marie’s past — her shameful affair with a German soldier during occupation — threatens to catch up with her. TrustNordisk is handling world sales.

May el-Toukhy is the sole female director, one out of 20, in Venice competition this year. Nearly a decade after Barbera signed the 50/50 by 2020 pledge to improve gender representation in Venice, it’s hard to see much evidence of progress.

Among the most prominent Italian titles in competition is The Echo Chamber from director Andrea Pallaoro (Monica). Adapted from the final screenplay written by the late, great Bernardo Bertolucci (The Last Emperor, The Conformist), the film stars Alicia Vikander and as Anne and Leo, lovers trapped in a bond they can neither escape nor relinquish. Paradise City is selling the title worldwide with UTA co-repping North America.

In a more surprising move, Cannes darling Nanni Moretti will be returning to the Lido. Moretti’s It Will Happen Tonight, a romantic drama starring Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca, will premiere in competition. The Italian auteur, winner of the Palme d’Or for The Son’s Room (2001), was last in Venice with Palombella rossa back in 1989. Playtime and Pan-Européenne are handling world sales for It Will Happen Tonight.

Two of Asia’s most acclaimed directors, Hirokazu Koreeda and Lee Chang-dong, will present their latest features, Look Back and Possible Love, respectively, in competition.

Japanese auteur Koreeda, fresh of the Cannes competition premiere of Sheep in the Box, arrives on the Lido with his live-action adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s beloved coming-of-age manga, already adapted as an animated feature by Kiyotaka Oshiyama in 2024.

Eight years afterBurning, Lee Chang-dong, the elder statesman of Korean arthouse cinema is heading to Venice with a new melodrama, backed by Netflix and starring Korean screen royalty Jeon Do-yeon and Sul Kyung-gu opposite Zo In-sung andParasite‘s Cho Yeo-jeong. The film marks Lee’s first Venice appearance since 2002, when he won the best director Silver Lion for Oasis.

Also in competition for the Golden Lion this year are Casey Affleck’s 1970s-set gothic mystery Company starring Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn, and A Bit of Light from Iranian director Ali Asgari.

Venice previously announced that Danny Boyle’s Ink, a biographical drama starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy, about Rupert Murdoch and his British tabloid empire, will open this year’s festival, on Sept. 2. Dio Ride, an Italian period drama from director Giovanni Veronesi starring Pierfrancesco Favino (Maria, Rush) will close the fest on Sept. 12, screening out of competition.

Also playing out of competition, in a new section titled Venice Open Non Fiction, are some of the most hotly-anticipated docs of this year. Alex Gibney’s long-gestating Elon Musk documentary Musk, clocking in at nearly 4 hours, an will have its world premiere on the Lido. As will Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger, a Hulu Original film from Peaky Blinders‘ Steven Knight directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace (Shut Up and PlaytheHits) following the band’s triumphant 2025 reunion tour. Barbera said both Liam and Noel Gallagher would be on hand for the film’s premiere in Venice.

Oasis: Don’t Look Back In Anger will open theatrically on IMAX and select theaters on Sept. 11 before streaming on Disney+ and Hulu later this year.

Other can’t-miss docs in Venice this year include My Undesirable Friends Part II – Exile, Julia Loktev’s follow-up to her 2025 film tracing Russia’s crack down on independent journalists; and Union Town from two-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple (Harlan County U.S.A., American Dream). Another doc certain to attract attention is Be Brave by Italian director Francesco Carrozzini. It ⁠tells the ​story of Renzo Rosso, the founder of fashion group Diesel, but was made almost ​entirely using artificial intelligence.

The festival will also screen They’re Here, a documentary short from Laura Poitras (Citizenfour, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed) and Rachel Mueller which features never-before-seen footage of the protests in Minnesota against President Trump’s controversial ICE raids.

Maggie Gyllenhaal(The Lost Daughter, The Bride!) will head up this year’s Venice competition jury as president, picking the winner of the Golden Lion for best film. As previously announced, Gyllenhaal will also screen Flesh Impact, her short tribute to Marilyn Monroe, starring Dakota Johnson and Ellen Burstyn.

Burstyn, who also stars in Kornel Mundruczo’s out of competition title Place to Be, will receive a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at this year’s festival. As will George Clooney, a Lido regular.

Among the titles screening out of competition in Venice this year are Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors, the latest from Filipino auteur Lav Diaz (Season of the Devil); Paul Schrader’s new film, The Basics of Philosophy; and the Luc Besson-produced crime thriller Father Joe, from director Barthelemy Grossman starring Kiefer Sutherland and Al Pacino.

Announcing the lineup on Thursday, artistic director Barbera began with the Venice Spotlight sidebar, whose highlights include Conversation With the Sea from Palestinian director Muayad Alayan, and Hombre Al Agua from Mexican star Gael Garcia Bernal. The Spotlight line up looks like a particularly political one this year, with other highlights including Ground Floor from Hungarian director Gabor Reisz, which Barbera described as a metaphor for the Victor Orban “dictatorship;” and I Matter, from director Alina Serban, the first film from a Roma director to screen in the section.

Politics of another kind reared its head at Thursday’s presentation, when Venice Biennale chairman Pietrangelo Buttafuoco slammed a recent decision by the European Commission to withdrawing a €2 million ($2.3 million) grant to the Biennale’s arts exhibition this year. The move was in response to Russia being allowed to participate in the event for the first time since the full scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The umbrella Biennale organization oversees not just the Venice Film Festival but revolving exhibitions on art, architecture, dance, music and theatre.

Comparing the European Commission to “wolves” and the Biennale to “lambs,” Buttafuoco condemned the move said as “a political decision, not certainly a legal decision, and certainly not a cultural decision” and accused the European body of “abandoning us.” Buttafuoco said he would not bow to EU pressure, claiming that would undermine “the autonomy and freedom of expression” of the Biennale.

Buttafuoco said the pulled funds would also impact activities at the Venice festival, including support for the Biennale College film fund and the Venice Production Bridge initiatives.

Among the highlights of Venice’s main sidebar, the Orizzonti or Horizons section are Lovers in the Blue Night, the new film from India’s Anuparna Roy, whose Songs of Forgotten Trees won best director in the section last year; and Too Much Sugar, the new documentary from Procession director Robert Greene.

It remains to be seen if this year’s Biennale will live up to its initial promise. Venice last year included several high-profile premieres, but many —Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite —were award season flops. The only 2025 Venice title to go on to score at the Oscars was Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, which picked up 9 Academy Award nominations, winning three, for Best Costume Design, Best Production Design and Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling. Bugonia, from Yorgos Lanthimos, another Venice world premiere, picked up three Oscar nominations but won none. Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, which won Venice’s Silver Lion last year, was nominated for Best International Feature but lost out to Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value.

Venice 2026 line up below:

Venice Competition

Ink, dir. Danny Boyle (Opening Film)

Company, dir. Casey Affleck

A Bit of Light, dir. Ali Asgari

Ritorno a Buenos Aires, dir. Marco Bechis

Un Bon Petit Soldat, dir. Stephane Brize

Il Fuoco Che Ti Porti Dentro, dir. Edoardo de Angelis

Woman Unknown, dir. May el-Toukhy

Bucking Fastard, dir. Werner Herzog

15/18 A Place to Heal, dir. Cedric Kahn

Dau, dir. Ilya Khrzhanovsky

Look Back, dir. Hirokazu Koreeda

Possible Love, dir. Lee Chang-dong

Wild Horse Nine, dir. Martin McDonagh

It Will Happen Tonight, dir. Nanni Moretti

Primetime, dir. Lance Oppenheim

The Echo Chamber, dir. Andrea Pallaoro

Un Peu Avant Minuit, dir. Nicolas Pariser

L’Estranea, dir. Paolo Strippoli

Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?, dir. Shinya Tsukamoto

Bunker, dir. Florian Zeller

Venice Spotlight

Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing, dir. Erik Shirai (Opening Film)

Conversation With the Sea, dir Muayad Alayan,

Hombre Al Agua, dir. Gael Garcia Bernal

Serpenti, dir. Roberto de Paolis Maino

Furies, dir. Rami Kodeih

Guria, dir. Levan Koguashvili

Ground Floor, dir. Gabor Reisz

I Matter, dir. Alina Serban

Orizzonti Competition

La Ragazza con la Leica, dir. Alina Marazzi (Opening Film)

The Burning Giants, dir. Phuttiphong Aroonpheng Thai

What Belongs to Others, dir. Grzegorz Debowski

Una Storia, dir. Anna Foglietta

La Citta dei Vivi, dir. Edoardo Gabbriellini

Falling House, dir. Mohsen Gharaei

Too Much Sugar, dir. Robert Greene

The Difficult Bride, dir. Rubaiyat Hossain

La Maison du Vent, dir. Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu

I Figli Della Scimmia, dir. Tommaso Landucci

A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra, dir. Jacqueline Lentzou

Oasis, dir. Jannis Lenz

Until the Day Ends, dir. Jelena Maksimovic

La Moula, dir. Jerome Pierrat

Lovers in the Blue Night, dir. Anuparna Roy

Un Detour par Diane, dir. Ann Sirot, Raphael Balboni

The Color of the Sun, dir. Xavier Tera

Venice Open – Films on Film

Juso Per Ferie, dir. Karen di Porto

Nino – Un Film su Nino, dir. Walter Fasano

The Pervert’s Guide to Utopias, dir. Sophie Fiennes

Joie de Vivre, dir. Luca Guadagnino

Twist and Shoot Mister Suzuki, dir. Yves Montmayeur

Intermission, dir. Yonfan

Venice Open – Non Fiction

Be Brave, dir. Francesco Carrozzini

What Loves Builds, dir. Russell Crowe

Burgundy, dir. Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw

Musk, dir. Alex Gibney

The Road to Jericho, dir. Amos Gitai

Citizen Osama, dir. Ahmed Hassouna

Union Town, dir. Barbara Kopple

Holy Wood Dust, dir. Victor Kossakovsky

Letters from the Silenced Country, dir. Andrei Kutsila

Biografia de Jorge Luis Borges, dir. Mariano Llinas

My Undesirable Friends Part II – Exile, dir. Julia Loktev

Boatbilders, dir. Luke Lorentzen

Imperium, dir. Sergei Loznitsa

Shumei – The Living Legacy of Kabuki, dir. Takashi Miike

Queer Edward II, dir. Theo Rollason

Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger, dirs. Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace

Dust, dir. Tsai Ming-liang

Everest: The Other Side, dirs. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chan

From Inside Out – The Architecture of Peter Zumthor, dir. Wim Wenders

Venice Open – Fiction

Dio Ride, Giovanni Veronesi (Closing Film)

Nessun Dolore, dir. Gianni Amelio

Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors, dir. Lav Diaz

Father Joe, dir. Barthelemy Grossman

Scherzetto, dir. Mario Martone

Place to Be, dir. Kornel Mundruczo

No Paradise if You Are Killed by a Woman, dir. Halkawt Mustafa

Arrested Memory, dir. Sabu

The Basics of Philosophy, dir. Paul Schrader

Un Bon Avocat, dir. Tristan Seguela

Jupiter, dir. Alexandre Smia