Summary
- The 83rd Venice Film Festival begins today, September 2, and runs through September 12, 2026
- Danny Boyle’s Ink opens the competition today
- George Clooney receives a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at today’s opening ceremony
- NAZA competes in Venezia 83
- Two Greek productions screen in Orizzonti
- 1. George Clooney and Ink at the opening ceremony
- 2. NAZA moves from reporting into the main competition
- 3. Lee Chang-dong’s major return
- 4. Werner Herzog directs the Mara sisters
- 5. DAU and Maria Nafpliotou’s Greek presence
- 6. Bunker confronts the fears of the technology elite
- 7. Two Greek productions in Orizzonti
- The programme’s European footprint
- The official programme presentation
- What we think
- Frequently asked questions
The 83rd Venice Film Festival begins today, September 2, with Danny Boyle’s Ink, honours George Clooney with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement and brings together major names, political documentary and a meaningful Greek presence on the Lido.
The Venice International Film Festival begins today and runs through September 12, 2026 under artistic director Alberto Barbera. The Venezia 83 Competition contains 21 world premieres, while Orizzonti, Venice Open, Spotlight, Classics, Immersive and Biennale College expand the programme beyond the main Golden Lion race.
This year’s interest extends beyond star power. The final schedule combines media history, Gaza, labour, nuclear science, fear among the technology elite and new Greek voices. These are the seven areas worth watching from day one.
1. George Clooney and Ink at the opening ceremony
The opening ceremony takes place today, September 2, at 7 pm in the Sala Grande. Laura Dern will deliver the laudatio for George Clooney, who receives the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement as an actor, director and producer. The award is confirmed in the Biennale’s final official schedule.
The festival then opens with Danny Boyle’s Ink. The 116-minute film stars Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy and examines the rise of a new kind of popular press in 1969, when Rupert Murdoch and Larry Lamb launched The Sun and changed the relationship between news, audiences and power.
2. NAZA moves from reporting into the main competition
Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s NAZA was added to the Venezia 83 Competition on August 24. The 80-minute British production from The Guardian and JW Films was shot at night on Tel Aviv rooftops. Its official synopsis says it examines the systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Its premiere is scheduled for September 10 in the Sala Grande. PTTL previously covered the Gaza documentary’s addition to the Venice programme. Entering the main competition means it is not merely a topical special screening but competes equally for the festival’s principal awards.
3. Lee Chang-dong’s major return
South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong presents Possible Love, a 164-minute drama about two married couples whose lives intersect through the making of a documentary. The cast includes Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong, with music by Jung Jaeil.
The film connects private desire with job insecurity and social conflict in South Korea. Lee says mass layoffs and the violent suppression of a strike were its starting point. It premieres in the Sala Grande on September 6.
4. Werner Herzog directs the Mara sisters
In Bucking Fastard, Werner Herzog writes and directs Kate and Rooney Mara as sisters who speak in unison, love the same man and share the same dreams. Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson co-star, while Herzog’s long-time collaborator Peter Zeitlinger serves as cinematographer.
The 109-minute Irish-American production screens in the Sala Grande on September 3. Its subject — twins, shared identity and the reactions of society, the press and the courts — gives Herzog material balanced between the strange, anthropological and mythical.
5. DAU and Maria Nafpliotou’s Greek presence
Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s DAU is the largest and perhaps most demanding entry: 195 minutes plus a 15-minute intermission, combining material shot fifteen years ago with new scenes to complete a project more than two decades in the making. It follows a Greek-born physicist from 1928 through four turbulent decades in the Soviet Union and the creation of the atomic bomb.
Greek actor Maria Nafpliotou appears in the large cast alongside Teodor Currentzis, Radmila Shchogolieva and Anatoly Vasiliev. Although the film is a German, French and Swedish production, its Greek element is double: the central scientist’s background and Nafpliotou’s participation.
6. Bunker confronts the fears of the technology elite
Florian Zeller directs Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem in Bunker, a dramatic thriller about an architect hired to build a survival bunker for a technology billionaire. The decision raises ethical questions and destabilises a seventeen-year marriage.
The film links fear of the future, ecological threats, inequality and extreme individualism with a personal story. Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger also star. Greek editor Yorgos Lamprinos provides another connection to Greece. The official Sala Grande premiere is on September 8.
7. Two Greek productions in Orizzonti
The strongest direct Greek presence is in Orizzonti. Jacqueline Lentzou’s feature Mia mera sti zoi tis Tzo: Kefalaio Faidra (A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra) is an 88-minute Greek-German-French production in the Greek language, starring Evita Andriopoulou, Eleni Vergeti and Anastasia Gouliamou. Public screenings are scheduled for September 8 in the Sala Darsena and September 9 at Astra 2.
The same section includes Stavros Markoulakis’s short Tropikos tou thrinountos gkeko (Tropic of the Mourning Gecko). The 19-minute Greek-French-Dutch production was photographed by Giorgos Valsamis and screens, among other dates, on September 12 at Astra 1.
The programme’s European footprint
Even the most international entries have a strong European production base. Ink is a UK-France-US co-production, Bunker comes from France and Spain, DAU from Germany, France and Sweden, and Bucking Fastard connects Ireland and the United States. Venice therefore functions not only as a showcase for stars but as a meeting point for production, sales and distribution before the European winter season.
The second Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement will go to Ellen Burstyn, while Luca Guadagnino receives the Cartier Glory to the Filmmaker Award on September 8 before his documentary Joie de vivre. The masterclass programme also includes Clooney, Burstyn, Chloé Zhao with Łukasz Żal, Luc Besson and Guadagnino.
The official programme presentation
The Biennale has published its full official programme presentation, running more than two hours and setting out the selection and context for this year’s festival.
What we think
Venice 2026 balances the event — Clooney, Boyle, Herzog, Cruz and Bardem — with films that push the conversation towards politics and images of power. For Greek audiences, the value is not limited to Nafpliotou and Lamprinos: two Greek productions in Orizzonti create a tangible presence for artists in front of and behind the camera. NAZA remains the work most likely to turn current events into the festival’s central confrontation.
Frequently asked questions
When does the 2026 Venice Film Festival take place?
The 83rd Venice International Film Festival begins today, September 2, and runs on the Lido through September 12, 2026.
Which film opens the festival?
Danny Boyle’s Ink opens the competition today, September 2, in the Sala Grande.
When will George Clooney be honoured?
Clooney receives the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement today, September 2, at 7 pm, with a laudatio by Laura Dern.
What are the main Greek entries?
Orizzonti includes Jacqueline Lentzou’s A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra and Stavros Markoulakis’s Tropic of the Mourning Gecko. The main competition also includes Maria Nafpliotou in DAU and Greek editor Yorgos Lamprinos on Bunker.
Which section includes NAZA?
Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s documentary is in the Venezia 83 Competition and screens in the Sala Grande on September 10.
