Screen profiles the titles in the Venice Film Festival’s 2026 Critics’ Week sidebar. The festival runs September 2-12.
Before The War (Fr-It)
Dir. Tommaso Usberti
A young man’s toxic masculinity and casual racism is challenged by his encounter with a Kosovan immigrant in the first feature by Italo French director Usberti, set in the agricultural heartlands of the Po Valley. Starring the writer/director’s brother Piero, the film is co-produced by French company L’Heure d’Été (whose Before The War opened the 2026 Cannes Acid sidebar) and Milan-based MIR Cinematografica.
Contact The Party Film Sales sales@thepartysales.com
The End Of Times (Col)
Dirs. Bibiana Rojas Gomez, Juan David Cardenas
This documentary from Colombian lead producer Bruma Cine and co-producers Allegro Films and A Fuego Lento follows Salomé as she views decades of family videos to understand her mother’s sadness, and uncovers a past marked by exploitation and violence. Production took place in Buga in west Colombia, and the project participated in VdR-Rough Cut Lab, winning awards in Buenos Aires International Documentary Film Festival’s LINK WIP lab and Cartagena International Film Festival’s work-in-progress sidebar. Luis Esguerra Cifuentes serves as producer.
Contact: Luis Esguerra Cifuentes, Bruma Cine
Giaffa The Great (It)
Dir. Marco Santi
A middle-aged nonentity seizes the chance to emerge from obscurity by apeing the words and gestures of a fashionable stage actor in Santi’s debut feature, a co-production between 10D Film and Andromeda Film. Shot on location in Italy’s Piedmont, the psychological thriller stars Edoardo Pesce, best known to international audiences for his supporting role in Matteo Garrone’s Dogman.
Contact: True Colours
The H@llow Man (Tun)
Dir. Kamel Laaridhi
A former lighting technician at archaeological sites, Tunisian filmmaker Laaridhi has directed shorts including 2015’s Sniper, and produced Ala Eddine Slim’s 2016 The Last Of Us, which also launched in Venice Critics’ Week. He moves into the feature space with a story set in a dystopian Tunisia in 2059, when humans live with a technology that controls memory and emotions. One man consults a hypnotherapist, who creates the emotions others can no longer feel. Tunisia is a growing presence on the international scene, with festival prizes at Venice and Marrakech last year, and Kaouther Ben Hania on this year’s Competition jury.
Contact: Inside Production
London (Braz)
Dirs. Victor Di Marco, Marcio Picoli
This drama follows a disabled queer person who makes a living through erotic performances at a fetish club. The story confronts society’s taboos surrounding bodies outside the binary and no-disabled conventions. This is the first feature film produced by Proa & Popa Producoes and directed by Di Marco and Picoli. The company and the directing duo began their partnership with 2020 short film Victor’s Body.
Contact: The Open Reel
Meteorite (Col)
Dir. Sebastian Martinez
Visual artist Martinez’s feature debut centres on two Colombian friends who hatch a plot to smuggle mobile phones into a regional prison and spend the day visiting the adjacent theme park on land once owned by drug lord Pablo Escobar. The co-production between Martinez and Mauricio S Burckhardt’s Haus Kino and Entre Acto, led by director Sebastian Munera and producer Valeria Mejia, received support from the government’s Colombian Film Development Fund and Medellin Film Commission. Meteorite won the 2025 Cartagena International Film Festival’s national work-in-progress award and the Latam Cinema Award in Malaga Film Festival’s work-in-progress section.
Contact: Haus Kino
Our Share Of Sand (UK-India-Greece)
Dir. Shalini Adnani
UK-based writer/director Adnani’s debut feature explores the life of a 12-year-old girl, returning to rural India to reconnect with her estranged father. Maya Mehta, Ellora Torchia and Zeeshan Ayyub star. Producers are Sara Bonakdar for Fifth Mirror Pictures, Heretic’s Giorgos Karnavas and Suitable Pictures’ Alan McAlex, alongside Balthazar de Ganay and Michael Graf, with financing from the BFI and Film4. The film was featured as part of the BFI and British Council’s 2026 Cannes Great 8.
Contact: Global Constellation
Rider (It)
Dirs. Roan Johnson, Davide Pavanello
Anglo Italian director Johnson returns to Venice to close Critics’ Week. Co-directed with musician and producer Davide Pavanello, aka Dade, Rider is a rap musical that follows the fateful New Year’s Eve of a Milanese delivery cyclist. It is a co-production between Movimenti Production, Red Joint, and fashion entrepreneur and Italian parliamentarian Mattia Mor’s Emotion Network. I Wonder Pictures releases in Italy on September 24.
Contact: Giorgio Scorza, Movimenti Production
Zoom In, Zoom Out (China)
Dir. Dong Jie
This debut follows a young game designer in search of his missing roommate. He meets the latter’s girlfriend and they follow a clue to navigate the blurred boundaries of reality and the virtual game space. Sun Yang and Zhao Tian’ai head the cast. Dong graduated from Beijing Film Academy and has worked as an editor on Summer Blur (Berlinale Generation KPlus grand prix winner) and Cannes title Are You Lonesome Tonight?, both from 2021.
Contact: m-appeal
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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