The Venice Film Festival’s 2026 Competition lineup includes new titles by Werner Herzog, Nanni Moretti, Hirokazu Koreeda and Martin McDonagh. The festival runs September 2-12.
Back To Buenos Aires (It-Braz)
Dir. Marco Bechis
Italian director Bechis grew up between Brazil and Argentina — where at the age of 20 he was kidnapped and imprisoned by the military regime. This is his third feature, after Garage Olimpo (1999) and Sons And Daughters (2001), to focus on Argentina’s Dirty War. Set in 2008, it tells the story of a victim of the regime (played by Adriano Giannini) who returns to Argentina after decades in Italy to testify against a group of former military officers. Fandango will release in Italy on September 17, shortly after the film’s Venice debut.
Contact: Fandango Sales
A Bit Of Light (Iran-Switz-It-Can-Turkey)
Dir. Ali Asgari
Iranian director Asgari makes his major festival competition bow with his sixth feature, after launching films in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard, Berlinale Panorama and twice in Venice’s Horizons section, including last year with Divine Comedy. Set in modern-day Iran, the film follows a disillusioned doctor set on ending his life after being arrested and having his practice shut down, who has one final day with his family. International co-producers include Switzerland’s Sunny Independent Pictures and Canada’s Good Measure Productions, both of which have supported Iranian filmmakers.
Contact: Salaud Morisset
Bucking Fastard (US-Ire)
Dir. Werner Herzog
Real-life sisters Rooney and Kate Mara make their on-screen debut together as inseparable twins who become obsessed with their next-door neighbour. Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson also star. Producers on the Ireland and Slovenia-shot film include Herzog’s frequent collaborator Ariel Leon Isacovitch. The German filmmaker has screened regularly at Venice and Cannes, and received the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement last year. He turned down a Cannes out-of-competition slot in favour of a trip to the Lido for his latest drama.
Contact: HanWay Films
Bunker (Fr-Sp)
Dir. Florian Zeller
Real-life husband and wife Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem lead the cast in Zeller’s thriller about an architect whose acceptance of a morally ambiguous project — building a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire — leads his wife to question their marriage. Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger also star. Bunker has sold widely ahead of its Venice premiere, including to Sony Pictures Classics for North America, Studiocanal for the UK, Pathé for France and X Verleih for Germany. Zeller’s debut The Father won the best actor Oscar for Anthony Hopkins in 2021, while The Son premiered at Venice in 2022. Bunker has its North America premiere at Toronto shortly after Venice. CAA Media Finance and WME co-rep North America.
Contact: FilmNation Entertainment (international)
Company (Can-US)
Dir. Casey Affleck
The Oscar-winning actor’s third directorial outing is a period piece exploring themes of vengeance and forgiveness, and centres on a married couple and a mysterious traveller telling a story that spans generations. Nick Nolte, Ben Mendelsohn, Adelaide Clemens and Scoot McNairy star and production wrapped earlier this year in British Columbia. The co-production hails from Image Nation Studios, Rabbits Black, Spooky Pictures, Artists Equity, Arcana Studio and Artemis Pictures. Gersh, Cinetic and Range Select represent sales for North America.
Contact: AGC International
Dau (Ger-Fr-Swe)
Dir. Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Khrzhanovsky, who renounced his Russian citizenship in 2024, is behind Dau, the latest in his epic multi-format project after Belinale 2020 premieres Dau. Natasha and Dau. Degeneration. A further nine features and two TV series are planned. Dau tells the story of a brilliant physicist over four decades, who is forced to use his genius to create the USSR’s atomic bomb — and who attempts to find happiness through a succession of affairs. It is billed as a portrait of one man and also of a society shaped by violence and ideology, and brings together recently filmed scenes with material shot more than 15 years ago
Contact: Coproduction Office
The Echo Chamber (It-Belg)
Dir. Andrea Pallaoro
Bernardo Bertolucci’s final, unfinished script was offered to the director of Hannah (2017) and Monica (2022) by producer Nicola Giuliano. Pallaoro then worked with the late Italian maestro’s co-writers Ilaria Bernardini and Ludovica Rampoldi to craft this intimate romantic chamber drama starring Luca Martinelli, Alicia Vikander and Susan Sarandon. The Italy-Belgium co-production pairs Indigo Film and Rai Cinema with Versus Production. UTA Independent Film Group is handling rights for North America.
Contact: Paradise City Sales (international)
The Fire Within You (It)
Dir. Edoardo De Angelis
Three years after opening the 2023 festival with Second World War submarine drama Comandante, Neapolitan director De Angelis is back with a comic family drama set almost entirely in a single apartment and centring on Italian actress Vanessa Scalera as a needy, difficult mother. Based on the novel of the same name by Antonio Franchini, the film is produced by Roberto Sessa’s Picomedia and is due to be released in Italy by 01 Distribution.
Contact: Fulvio Firrito, Rai Cinema International Distribution
A Good Little Soldier (Fr)
Dir. Stéphane Brizé
Brizé breezes into Venice with his 11th feature and fourth time in Competition after A Woman’s Life (2016), Another World (2021) and Out Of Season (2023). Alba Rohrwacher — a Volpi Cup winner in 2014 for Hungry Hearts — stars as a high-flying executive recruited as HR manager of a large insurance company, in order to rebuild its brand image. Vincent Lindon — 2024’s Volpi Cup for The Quiet Son — stars as her boss, and French studio Gaumont produces and handles sales.
Contact: Gaumont
Ink (UK)
Dir. Danny Boyle
Boyle’s festival opener is his first premiere in Venice, having taken Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours and Steve Jobs to Telluride. Ink explores the early days of Rupert Murdoch’s global media empire, with Guy Pearce playing the Australian media mogul. Jack O’Connell and Claire Foy also star. Olivier award-winning British playwright James Graham has written the script, based on his 2017 play of the same name. Boyle produces alongside House Productions and Media Res. Studiocanal has fully financed and is releasing theatrically in key territories including UK-Ireland and France, while Netflix has US and Latin America.
Contact: Studiocanal
It Will Happen Tonight (It-Fr-Sp)
Dir. Nanni Moretti
The last film by Italian filmmaker Moretti to debut on the Lido was 1989’s Palombella Rossa — and that was in Critics’ Week. Some claim the festival’s lack of enthusiasm for that political comedy made Moretti turn to Cannes, where every one of his subsequent films has premiered in Competition. After the director’s heart attack in April 2025 reportedly slowed post-production, It Will Happen Tonight will be released in Italy on December 3 and is based on a collection of short stories by Eshkol Nevo, an Israeli author Moretti previously adapted in Three Floors (2021). Described by festival artistic director Alberto Barbera as “a film about a love affair that lasts for years and years”, this is Moretti’s first not to feature himself in the lead role. Instead, Louis Garrel stars alongside Jasmine Trinca, who appeared in Moretti’s 2001 Palme d’Or winner The Son’s Room.
Contact: Playtime
Look Back (Japan)
Dir. Hirokazu Koreeda
Based on a manga by Tatsuki Fujimoto (Chainsaw Man), which was previously adapted as an acclaimed anime feature in 2024, Look Back centres on two aspiring manga artists who work together despite their different personalities. It stars Natsuki Deguchi and Aju Makita, both of whom appeared in Koreeda’s Netflix series The Makanai: Cooking For The Maiko House, and is produced by Daiju Koide at K2 Pictures. Koreeda is a Venice regular, with premieres including his narrative debut Maborosi in 1995 and 2017’s The Third Murder. A local release is set for September 11.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas
Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? (Japan-US-Thai-Viet)
Dir. Shinya Tsukamoto
This drama is inspired by the life of Allen Nelson, a Vietnam War veteran who suffered PTSD and later became an anti-war activist who frequently visited Japan. Rodney Hicks plays Nelson, leading a cast that includes Geoffrey Rush. It marks the latest in a series of war-related films by Tsukamoto that also includes Fires On The Plain (2014) and Shadow Of Fire (2023), both of which premiered at Venice. Producers include Christopher and Philippa Frey at US-based Cross Media International with Japan’s Kinoshita Group and Kino Films, which is set to open the film in Japan on September 11.
Contact: Kino Films
NAZA (UK)
Dirs. Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
Abraham and Szor, two of the four directors on Oscar 2025 best documentary winner No Other Land, make their Competition debuts with another non-fiction work about the ongoing crisis in the Middle East. Filmed at night from the rooftops of Tel Aviv, NAZA purports to unveil the calculated killing of civilians in Gaza by Israeli forces. The Zone Of Interest producer James Wilson and director Jonathan Glazer here reteam as producer and executive producer, having held the same roles on Kaouther Ben Hania’s Venice 2025 grand jury prize winner The Voice Of Hind Rajab. UK publication The Guardian also produced NAZA.
Contact: mk2 Films
One Minute To Midnight (Fr)
Dir. Nicolas Pariser
Melvil Poupaud stars as a 49-year-old man taking stock of his life and questioning his relationships with women, his daughter and ghosts from his past after the death of the biological father he never knew. The cast includes Chiara Mastroianni, Anaïs Demoustier, Golshifteh Farahani and Léonie Simaga. It is Pariser’s fourth feature after two Cannes Directors’ Fortnight premieres — The Green Perfume in 2022 and Alice And The Mayor in 2019 — and 2015’s The Great Game, which bowed at Locarno and earned France’s Louis Delluc prize.
Contact: Pyramide
A Place To Heal (Fr)
Dir. Cédric Kahn
Kahn’s 14th feature is set in an adolescent psychiatry unit in a French public hospital and focuses on a group of teenagers destabilised by the arrival of a new patient. It marks the French filmmaker’s debut in Venice’s Competition after Bar Des Rails played Critics’ Week in 1991 and Making Of landed an out of competition berth in 2023. He also co-stars alongside Sophie Guillemin, Jennifer Decker and a cast of rising talents including Zoé Monpart, Malou Khebizi and Kenji Peyran. Ad Vitam Films produces.
Contact: Charades
Possible Love (S Kor)
Dir. Lee Chang-dong
Korea’s Lee returns to the Lido 24 years after winning four awards including the best director Silver Lion with Oasis. His latest follows two married couples whose paths cross when a filmmaker sets out to document their lives. The drama reunites Lee with Jeon Do-yeon, who won best actress at Cannes in 2007 for Secret Sunshine, and Sul Kyung-gu, the lead of 2009’s Peppermint Candy and 2002’s Oasis. Lee won best screenplay at Cannes for Poetry in 2010 and the Fipresci prize with Burning in 2018. Possible Love is co-produced by Anonymous Content and Korea’s Nowfilm and Pinehouse Film. It will receive theatrical releases in key territories before heading to Netflix on November 6.
Contact: Netflix
Primetime (US)
Dir. Lance Oppenheim
Robert Pattinson, fresh from playing the villainous Antinous in Christopher Nolan’s summer smash The Odyssey, shifts gears in Primetime with a portrayal of Chris Hansen, the US Dateline correspondent who earned notoriety by tracking down suspected paedophiles on television. A24 holds worldwide rights to Oppenheim’s debut narrative feature and will release in the US on September 25. Pattinson and Brighton McCloskey produced the film for their company Icki Eneo Arlo, alongside Ari Aster, Fred Berger and Brian Kavanaugh-Jones.
Contact: A24
The Spiral (It-Fr-Belg)
Dir. Paolo Strippoli
A year after presenting hybrid horror The Holy Boy out of competition, Italian director Strippoli is back on the Lido, this time with a family drama based on a familiar fairytale premise: a mysterious stranger who helped save a child’s life years earlier is looking to cash in the debt. Italy’s Propaganda is producing alongside France’s Kazak Productions and Belgium’s Tarantula, with 01 Distribution releasing in Italy on October 8.
Contact: Le Pacte
Wild Horse Nine (UK-US-Chile)
Dir. Martin McDonagh
Venice stalwart McDonagh returns to the Lido after 2022 best screenplay and actor wins for The Banshees Of Inisherin. His new film is a dark comedy about CIA agents on assignment on Easter Island in 1973 shortly before the bloody Chilean coup that brought Augusto Pinochet to power. Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich star alongside Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey, Mariana di Girolamo and Ailin Salas. Producers Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, McDonagh and Anita Overland shot on Easter Island, Santiago and Utah from March to May 2025. Searchlight Pictures will release in the US on November 6.
Contact: Searchlight Pictures
Woman Unknown (Den-Swe-Lat)
Dir. May el-Toukhy
Buzz is strong around el-Toukhy’s third feature, set shortly after the Nazi occupation of Denmark, in which a young housekeeper with a secret prepares to marry her wealthy employer. It is the Danish Egyptian filmmaker’s first feature since Denmark’s 2020 Academy Award submission Queen Of Hearts, with interim projects including directing four episodes of The Crown. Nordisk Film Production leads production on the film, with co-producers including Zentropa; El-Toukhy is spearheading the return of the Dogma filmmaking initiative with those companies, separately from Woman Unknown.
Contact: TrustNordisk
Words by: Ben Dalton, Tim Dams, Elaine Guerini, Jeremy Kay, Rebecca Leffler, Geoffrey Macnab, Lee Marshall, Thea Middleton, David Opie, Michael Rosser, Matt Schley, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong
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