I’m at the 2026 Venice Film Festival – I can’t wait for these 8 movies

The 2026 Venice Film Festival begins today, attracting a glut of the industry’s A-list talent to the Italian coastal city to premiere their latest movies.

Last year, the festival screened the likes of Dwayne Johnson’s Oscar audition The Smashing Machine and radical musical The Testament of Ann Lee, as well as Guillermo del Toro’s fantastical Frankenstein and Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone’s latest collaboration Bugonia, both of which ended up with multiple Academy Awards nominations.

This year, after rather a muted Cannes Film Festival with no major Hollywood studios taking part (although films like Fjord and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma making their mark), it seems like Venice has attracted the lion’s share of buzzy titles looking to make a splash at one of the world’s most prestigious festivals.

Danny Boyle and Martin McDonagh are premiering their next films here, with Robert Pattinson, Al Pacino and even Liam and Noel Gallagher expected to walk the red carpet during the festival.

On the ground and reporting from the Lido once again in 2026, here are my picks as a film critic of the movies I’m most looking forward to seeing.

It’s a hard-fought (with myself) 10, but let’s dive in…

Ink

Danny Boyle’s latest film, Ink, is adapted by James Graham from his own 2017 hit West End play of the same name and delves into the birth of British tabloid culture.

Jack O’Connell plays The Sun’s former editor Larry Lamb while Guy Pearce is Rupert Murdoch, the Australian businessman and magnate who purchases it while it’s a failing publication from its parent paper, The Mirror, in 1969.

Both were seen as misfits but went on to make The Sun the best-selling newspaper in the world, introducing features such as the controversial Page 3 glamour models.

Co-starring Claire Foy as a fictional Fleet Street reporter, Boyle has said he ‘felt compelled and privileged’ to make Ink because of the way The Sun ‘challenged the establishment and remade our world for the modern era’.

Having seen the play, the film adaptation of Ink has the pedigree to be an awards contender, and that’s before considering the talent that Boyle – pivoting here from his return to the 28 Days Later franchise – and his cast bring themselves.

I can’t wait to see O’Connell continue his run of firecracker performances after playing vampire Rennick in Sinners and the sadistic Sir Lord Jimmy Crystal in 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple.

Primetime

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Another British actor on what appears to be a generational run is Robert Pattinson, coming in hot with his next film in 2026 after The Drama with Zendaya and his scene-stealing as the villainous Antinous in The Odyssey.

Pattinson has already wowed fans with his vocal transformation in the trailer for Primetime, a thriller in which he plays real-life TV presenter and journalist Chris Hansen, known for hosting the popular US programme Dateline’s To Catch a Predator.

Primetime dramatises the show, which became a phenomenon in the US, in which Hansen would confront potential adult internet predators with a camera crew after luring them to a sting house to have sex with the help of volunteers posing as minors.

Written and directed by documentarian Lance Oppenheim as his narrative feature film debut, Primetime also stars Merritt Wever, Skyler Gisondo, Phoebe Bridgers and Anna Faris.

Oppenheim has stated that Hansen ‘pioneered a spectacle of punishment – the moment moral outrage became must-see TV’. Meanwhile, Hansen has said he’s yet to see the movie, having walked out of a screening after refusing to sign a non-disclosure agreement. But his company has since bought advertising before every screening of the movie.

Off-screen drama aside, Pattinson as a paedophile hunter in a tense new A24 movie is a juicy prospect.

Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger

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Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger provides front-row access to the headline-grabbing (and longed-for) reunion between musical brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher of Oasis.

The band’s tour Live ’25 were their first shows together since a backstage altercation between the brothers in Paris in 2009 saw Noel abruptly quit.

For those not lucky enough to get tickets to the shows last year (me included), this documentary takes audiences on the full journey, even capturing the actual moment of reconciliation between the Gallaghers on camera after 15 years of estrangement.

It also features the siblings’ first joint interviews in over 25 years, as well as never-before-filmed rehearsals in the lead-up to their tour.

Written by Peaky Blinders and James Bond scribe Steven Knight and directed by Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern, Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger also has star power behind the scenes.

But for the fans, it’s all about the unpredictability of the Gallaghers and getting to see them off stage (and off X) together in reflective moods (well, maybe!). And perhaps learn a little more about the rumoured gigs for 2027, as well as enjoying the sight of them swaggering down the red carpet.

Wild Horse Nine

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Filmmaker Martin McDonagh’s last movie, The Banshees of Inisherin, was one of the triumphs of 2022, premiering at Venice and winning prizes for actor Colin Farrell and McDonagh (for screenplay) immediately.

It then went on to bag nine Oscar nominations and pick up three Golden Globes and four Baftas. So anticipation for McDonagh’s next black comedy Wild Horse Nine is high.

Starring Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich as CIA agents dispatched to Easter Island just before the 1973 Chilean coup, the paranoia of the period and veteran agent Chris’ (Malkovich) friendship with a pair of rebellious students ‘threatens to send everyone’s trip to this remote paradise sideways’.

Wild Horse Nine also stars Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey and Tom Waits.

The trailer has already promised plenty of McDonagh’s trademark cracking comedy, as well as showing off his ear for dialogue – as performed by two offbeat Hollywood veterans.

This could be one of those comedies that goes all the way to the Oscars.

Bucking Fastard

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If prizes were awarded to film titles alone, then Werner Herzog’s latest would walk away with it, hands down, thanks to Bucking Fastard.

But this film’s cheeky title isn’t the only quirky thing about it as it centres on twin sisters who speak in unison and, in search of an imaginary land where true love is possible, start digging a tunnel through a mountain range. As you do.

It stars Rooney Mara and Kate Mara as the intertwined siblings, Joan and Jean Holbrooke, based on real-life twins Freda and Greta Chaplin, who were both hit with a restraining order by a man they were involved with in the 1980s; it’s the Maras first onscreen collaboration.

Bucking Fastard also has Orlando Bloom and Domhnall Gleeson in supporting roles.

It was reported that the movie was originally offered a premiere at Cannes earlier this year, but Herzog declined it as it was not offered a competition slot. At Venice, it’s competing, with Herzog last year awarded an honorary Golden Lion.

Bucking Fastard is probably this year’s most bonkers offering at Venice – and I can’t wait.

Bunker

Another family collaboration, Bunker stars real-life couple Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem as a wife and husband whose relationship is put in jeopardy when he accepts the job of building a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire.

A psychological thriller written epecially for the main couple by Florian Zeller, the film also stars the intriguing supporting ensemble of Adolescence star Stephen Graham, Paul Dano and Patrick Schwarzenegger.

It’s a fascinating topic, tackling, as Zeller says, ‘fear of the future, ecological threats, rising social inequality and rampant individualism’ – but all based around the uncomfortable question at the heart of the billionaire’s brief… does he know something we don’t?

Cruz is hot off her fabulous performance in The Invite, while Bardem is returning in Dune: Part Three in December. Together they are likely to make a must-watch movie.

Place to Be

Place to Be has an endearing odd couple relationship at its heart, played out by esteemed actress Ellen Burstyn and Taika Waititi, who we’re most used to seeing in the director’s chair.

Burstyn is the no-nonsense Brooke, who strikes up an unexpected friendship with middle-aged divorcé Nelson (Waititi), who is travelling from Chicago to New York, when he helps her return a lost racing pigeon to its owner.

From Pieces of a Woman filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó, Place to Be also stars Pamela Anderson, Murray Bartlett, Édgar Ramírez and Maika Monroe.

Given Burstyn’s impressive CV includes The Exorcist, Interstellar and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, and the fact Waititi generally restricts his acting roles to his own projects, I’m cautiously optimistic that Place to Be could give us something really special.

Burstyn is also due to receive an honorary Golden Lion for lifetime achievement during this edition of Venice, alongside George Clooney, as well as appear in Marilyn Monroe short film Flesh Impact.

Possible Love

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Possible Love is one of a very small, select bunch of films heading to Venice this year with Netflix’s backing after the streamer’s mammoth slate in 2025.

From director Lee Chang-dong, this Korean drama follows two married couples – a laid-off worker and his spouse, and a documentary filmmaker and her spouse – as they cross paths on a project, and later grapple with their hidden desires.

Based on real-life worker layoffs and government crackdowns on strikes in Lee’s home country, Possible Love stars Parasite actress Cho Yeo-jeong and Secret Sunshine actress Jeon Do-yeon.

The result has already been picked as South Korea’s official entry for the best international feature film category at the Oscars, while Lee has previously won the Silver Lion at Venice.

His 2018 film Burning was also the first Korean film to make the Oscars’ nine-film shortlist for best foreign language film, so Lee is well placed for a major breakthrough with Western audiences – and this could be it.

The 83rd Venice Film Festival runs from Wednesday, September 2 – Saturday, September 12, 2026.

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