Photo: Indigo Film Versus Save Story Save this story Save Story Save this story The 2026 Venice Film Festival will be splashy—but it could have been a whole lot splashier. There are a number of hotly-anticipated titles that were once expected to sail to the Lido this September, but now, it turns out, will not be in attendance: Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Tom Cruise-led Digger ; Aaron Sorkin’s The Social Reckoning with Jeremy Strong as Mark Zuckerberg; David Fincher’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood spin-off, The Adventures of Cliff Booth starring Brad Pitt; Tom Ford’s Cry to Heaven , featuring Adele’s acting debut; and Tony Gilroy’s Pedro Pascal-fronted awards hopeful Behemoth! , to name but a few.
Still, the line-up for the 83rd showcase—due to run from September 2 to 12, with Maggie Gyllenhaal serving as the jury president, and George Clooney and 93-year-old screen legend Ellen Burstyn set to receive the festival’s lifetime achievement awards—is a star-studded one. There are pacy thrillers, head-spinning romps, and, as is always the case at Venice, several headline-grabbing documentaries. (The latter includes a Laura Poitras co-directed short about ICE, Academy Award-winning documentarian Alex Gibney’s four-hour study of Elon Musk, a seven-hour Bernardo Bertolucci documentary from Luca Guadagnino, and an account of Oasis’s recent reunion tour, as told by both Gallagher brothers.) These are the 10 films you need to look out for.
The one (seemingly) ironclad awards behemoth on this roster is Martin McDonagh’s pitch-black comedy. His last two dramas, 2022’s The Banshees of Inisherin and 2017’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri , both parlayed a Venice premiere into awards glory, collecting two Oscars and 16 nominations between them—and this one is equally starry and pertinent. Unfolding amongst the mysterious, monumental statues of Easter Island, in the run-up to the 1973 Chilean coup, it follows two freewheeling CIA agents (John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell) with plans to overthrow the national government. When they become entangled with a pair of rebellious students (Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas), all hell breaks loose. Parker Posey, Steve Buscemi, and Tom Waits fill out the supporting roles.
The First Couple of Spanish cinema, Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, are back with their latest collaboration, and it should be a corker. Oscar-winning filmmaker Florian Zeller ( The Father , The Son ) has placed them at the center of his new family saga: a psychological thriller about an architect who is commissioned to construct an impenetrable, top-secret bunker by a billionaire tech mogul. It’s a project that consumes his life, strains his marriage, and prompts the slow unravelling of his family. Expect taut writing and characteristically explosive performances, including from supporting players Paul Dano, Stephen Graham, and Patrick Schwarzenegger.
Photo: Courtesy Bucking Fastard It’s been a long, hard road for Werner Herzog. His latest oddity—a hallucinatory head-scratcher about codependent twin sisters (Rooney and Kate Mara, marking the first time the real-life siblings will be on screen together)—was offered a spot on the Cannes line-up earlier this year, but the auteur turned it down, given said slot wouldn’t allow him to compete for the Palme d’Or. Now, he’s in contention for the Golden Lion instead. This is the bonkers tale of Jean and Joan Holbrooke, who speak in unison, have the same dreams, love the same man (Orland…