The 83rd Venice Film Festival has unveiled a competition lineup that leans heavily on celebrated auteurs and marquee talent, with the Lido set to host some of the most anticipated films of the awards season when it runs from September 2 to 12 [1][2].
Boyle Opens, Veronesi Closes
Danny Boyle's Ink will open the festival and compete for the Golden Lion — a rare double billing that signals the film's prestige ambitions [1]. The 1960s-set biographical drama stars Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch and Jack O'Connell as Larry Lamb, the founding editor of Murdoch's British tabloid The Sun, with Claire Foy also in the cast [2]. Netflix has acquired U.S. rights to the film [1].
Closing the festival on September 12 is Dio Ride — "God Laughs" in English — from Italian director Giovanni Veronesi, screening out of competition. Pierfrancesco Favino stars as a 17th-century Tuscan friar whose unusually joyful theology draws the wrath of the church [1][2].
A Competition Rich in Returning Masters
The main competition is anchored by a cohort of directors with deep Venice histories. Irish filmmaker Martin McDonagh, who won best screenplay Silver Lions at Venice for both Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) and The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), returns with Wild Horse Nine, a Film4-backed black comedy set on Easter Island on the eve of the 1973 Chilean coup [2]. John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play veteran CIA officers marooned far from the action, with Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey rounding out the cast. Searchlight Pictures, McDonagh's longtime distributor, will be hoping to replicate the awards momentum of his previous Venice launches [2].
French director Florian Zeller, last on the Lido with The Son in 2022, competes with Bunker, a psychological thriller starring Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz as a couple whose marriage fractures after he accepts a commission to build a bunker for a billionaire [2]. Stephen Graham, Paul Dano, and Patrick Schwarzenegger co-star. Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American rights [2].
Werner Herzog arrives in the main selection — having reportedly turned down an out-of-competition slot at Cannes — with Bucking Fastard, starring real-life siblings Rooney and Kate Mara in their first on-screen collaboration alongside Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson [2]. The film is still seeking a U.S. distributor, with Hanway Films handling international sales [2].
Asian Cinema Takes Center Stage
Two giants of Asian arthouse cinema will present new work in competition. Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda, fresh from a Cannes premiere with Sheep in the Box, brings a live-action adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto's coming-of-age manga Look Back to Venice [2]. South Korean director Lee Chang-dong returns to the Lido for the first time since winning the best director Silver Lion for Oasis in 2002, presenting Possible Love, a Netflix-backed melodrama starring Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, and Parasite's Cho Yeo-jeong [2].
Star Power and New Voices
Robert Pattinson headlines Primetime, the narrative feature debut of documentary filmmaker Lance Oppenheim, playing NBC newsman Chris Hansen of To Catch a Predator fame. Pattinson also serves as a producer on the film, which A24 is releasing in the United States [2].
Italian competition entries include The Echo Chamber from Andrea Pallaoro, adapted from the final screenplay written by the late Bernardo Bertolucci and starring Alicia Vikander [2]. Nanni Moretti, winner of the Palme d'Or for The Son's Room in 2001 and absent from Venice since 1989, returns with the romantic drama It Will Happen Tonight, starring Louis Garrel and Jasmine Trinca [2]. Also in competition are Casey Affleck's 1970s gothic mystery Company, starring Nick Nolte and Ben Mendelsohn, and A Bit of Light from Iranian director Ali Asgari [2].
Danish director May el-Toukhy makes her Venice competition debut with Woman Unknown, a post-World War II period drama — though her presence also underscores a persistent gender gap: she is the sole female director among 20 in competition this year, nearly a decade after artistic director Alberto Barbera signed the 50/50 by 2020 pledge on gender representation [2].
Out of Competition Highlights
The out-of-competition slate carries its own considerable weight. Alex Gibney's long-gestating Elon Musk documentary, Musk, running nearly four hours, will have its world premiere on the Lido [2]. Oasis: Don't Look Back in Anger, a Hulu Original directed by Dylan Southern and Will Lovelace and chronicling the band's 2025 reunion tour, will also premiere in Venice, with both Liam and Noel Gallagher expected to attend [2]. The film is set to open theatrically on IMAX and select screens on September 11 before streaming on Disney+ and Hulu [2].
Other notable out-of-competition titles include Paul Schrader's The Basics of Philosophy; Lav Diaz's Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors; and a Luc Besson-produced crime thriller, Father Joe, starring Kiefer Sutherland and Al Pacino [2]. Documentary highlights also include Julia Loktev's My Undesirable Friends Part II – Exile, Barbara Kopple's Union Town, and They're Here, a short from Laura Poitras and Rachel Mueller featuring footage of protests against President Trump's ICE raids in Minnesota [2].
Jury, Honors, and What's Missing
Maggie Gyllenhaal — director of The Lost Daughter and The Bride — will preside over the competition jury, becoming the third woman to do so in five years [1]. She is joined by Hong Kong director Johnnie To, Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat, French director Xavier Giannoli, The Brutalist composer Daniel Blumberg, and film academic Francesco Casetti [1]. George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn will each receive Golden Lion lifetime achievement awards [1][2].
Notably, both sources flag a lighter Hollywood studio presence than in recent editions [1], continuing a trend that has also been observed at Cannes. Whether the festival's strong auteur lineup can translate into the kind of broad awards-season momentum that Venice has generated in recent years remains to be seen.
What to Watch
The key questions heading into September: whether Ink can position itself as a serious Golden Lion contender after its opening-night spotlight; whether McDonagh can extend his remarkable Venice streak with Wild Horse Nine; and whether Lee Chang-dong's long-awaited return will reignite the conversation around Korean cinema on the international festival circuit. The gender representation debate, meanwhile, is unlikely to fade quietly into the background.