Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Venice Film Festival Announces Line Up Now that The Bezos Wedding Is Over: Bigelow, Baumbach, Safdie, Schnabel, van Sant

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First Toronto, now Venice.

Here’s the line up. Lots of hype around everything. What will actually stick? We’ll see. Opening night film is Paolo Sorrentino, “La Grazia,” all Italian cast. A foreign film entry? Probably. Lots of excitement about Kathryn Bigelow, Luca Guadagnini, Noah Baumach, Gus van Sant, Julian Schnabel, Benny Safdie.

Is there an Oscar nominee in here? We’ll see.

Next up, Telluride.

COMPETITION

“La Grazia,” Paolo Sorrentino (opening film)
“The Wizard of the Kremlin,” Olivier Assayas
“Jay Kelly,” Noah Baumbach
“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” Kaouther Ben Hania
“A House of Dynamite,” Kathryn Bigelow
“Ri Gua Zhong Tian” (“The Sun Rises on Us All”), Cai Shangjun
“Frankenstein,” Guillermo del Toro
“Elisa,” Leonardo di Costanzo
“À Pied d’Oeuvre,” Valérie Donzelli
“Silent Friend,” Ildikó Enyedi
“The Testament of Ann Lee,” Mona Fastvold
“Father Mother Sister Brother,” Jim Jarmusch
“Bugonia,” Yorgos Lanthimos
“Duse,” Pietro Marcello
“Un Film Fatto Per Bene,” Franco Maresco
“Orphan,” László Nemes
“L’Étranger,” François Ozon
“Eojjeol Suga Eopda” (“No Other Choice”), Park Chan-wook
“Sotto Le Nuvole,” Gianfranco Rosi
“The Smashing Machine,” Benny Safdie
“Nühai” (“Girl”), Shu Qi

OUT OF COMPETITION — FICTION

“Chien 51,” Cédric Jimenez (closing film)
“Boşluğa Xütbə” (“Sermon to the Void”), Hilal Baydarov
“L’Isola di Andrea,” Antonio Capuano
“Il Maestro,” Andrea di Stefano
“After the Hunt,” Luca Guadagnino
“Hateshinaki Scarlet,” Mamoru Hosoda
“Den Sidste Viking” (“The Last Viking”), Anders Thomas Jensen
“In the Hand of Dante,” Julian Schnabel
“La Valle Dei Sorrisi,” Paolo Strippoli
“Dead Man’s Wire,” Gus Van Sant
“Orfeo,” Virgilio Villoresi

OUT OF COMPETITION — SERIES

“Portobello” (Ep. 1-2), Marco Bellocchio
“Un Prophète” (Ep. 1-8), Enrico Maria Artale
“Etty” (Ep. 1-6), Hagai Levi
“Il Mostro” (Ep. 1-4), Stefano Sollima

OUT OF COMPETITION — NON-FICTION

“Kabul, Between Prayers,” Aboozar Amini
“Ferdinando Scianna – Il Fotografo Dell’Ombra,” Roberto Andò
“Marc by Sofia,” Sofia Coppola
“I Diari di Angela – Noi Due Cineasti. Capitolo Terzo,” Yervant Gianikian and Angela Ricci Lucchi
“Ghost Elephants,” Werner Herzog
“Baba Wa Al-Qadhafi” (“My Father and Qaddafi”), Jihan K
“The Tale of Sylian,” Tamara Kotevska
“Nuestra Tierra,” Lucrecia Martel
“Remake,” Ross McElwee
“Kim Novak’s Vertigo,” Alexandre Philippe
“Cover-Up,” Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus
“Broken English,” Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth
“Zapiski Nastoyashego Prestupnika” (“Notes of a True Criminal”), Alexander Rodnyansky and Andriy Alferov
“Director’s Diary,” Aleksander Sokurov
“Hui Jia” (“Back Home”), Tsai Ming-liang

OUT OF COMPETITION — FILM & MUSIC
“Nino. 18 Giorni,” Toni D’Angelo
“Piero Pelù. Rumore Dentro,” Francesco Fei
“Newport and the Great Folk Dream,” Robert Gordon and Joe Lauro
“Francesco de Gregori Nevergreen,” Stefano Pistolini

OUT OF COMPETITION — SHORTS

“Origin,” Yann Arthus-Bertrand
“Boomerang Atomic,” Rachid Bouchareb
“How to Shoot a Ghost,” Charlie Kaufman

HORIZONS

“Mother,” Teona Strugar Mitevska
“Komedie Elahi” (“Divine Comedy”), Ali Asgari
“Hiedra,” Ana Cristina Barragan
“Il Rapimento di Arabella,” Carolina Cavalli
“Estrany Riu” (“Strange River”), Jaume Claret Muxart
“Hara Watan” (“Lost Land”), Akio Fujimoto
“Grand Ciel,” Akihiro Hata
“Rose of Nevada,” Mark Jenkin
“Late Fame,” Kent Jones
“Milk Teeth,” Mihai Mincan
“Pin de Fartie,” Alejo Moguillansky
“Otec” (“Father”), Tereza Nvotova
“En El Camino,” David Pablos
“Songs of Forgotten Trees,” Anuparna Roy
“Un Anno di Scuola,” Laura Samani
“The Souffleur,” Gastón Solnicki
“Barrio Triste,” Stillz
“Human Resource,” Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit
“Funeral Casino Blues,” Roderick Warich

VENICE SPOTLIGHT

“Hijra,” Shahad Ameen
“Un Cabo Suelto,” Daniel Hendler
“Made in EU,” Stephan Komandarev
“Motor City,” Potsy Ponciroli
“La Hija de la Española,” Mariana Rondón and Marité Ugás
“À Bras-Le-Corps,” Marie-Elsa Sgualdo
“Calle Malaga,” Maryam Touzani
“Ammazzare Stanca,” Daniele Vicari


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Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman is the founder and editor-in-chief of Showbiz411. He wrote the FOX411 column on FoxNews.com from 1999 to 2009 and previously edited Fame magazine and wrote the "Intelligencer" column at New York magazine. His bylines have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Vogue, Details, and the Miami Herald. He is a voting member of the Critics Choice Awards (Film and Television branches), and his movie reviews are tracked by Rotten Tomatoes. is articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. With D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus, he co-produced the 2002 documentary "Only the Strong Survive," which screened at Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.

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