Biennale Cinema 2026 - Roundup Of The 83rd Venice International Film Festival - Part 1
Dau (Ilya Khrzhanovsky)
A brief round up of films I watched at this year’s edition of the Venice Film Festival, including favourites, films I missed, and films I wish I skipped. More posts in the coming weeks.
Top 5 (alphabetical order):
Agata the Writer (Kuba Dorabialski)
Dau (Ilya Khrzhanovsky)
Possible Love (Lee Chang-dong)
Queer Edward II (Theo Rollason)
Sometimes Sadness, Sometimes Rebellion (María Aparicio) - and favourite film title this year
Also liked:
Bucking Fastard (Werner Herzog)
A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra (Jacqueline Lentzou)
A Good Little Soldier (Stéphane Brizé)
Ink (Danny Boyle)
Naza (Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor)
Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger (Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace)
Primetime (Lance Oppenheim)
Wild Horse Nine (Martin McDonagh)
A Woman Today (Robert Guediguian)
Woman Unknown (May el-Toukhy)
Honorable mentions:
Back to Buenos Aires (Marco Bechis)
A Bit of Light (Ali Asgari)
The Difficult Bride (Rubaiyat Hossain)
Furies (Rami Kodeih)
It Will Happen Tonight (Nanni Moretti)
Wanted to watch but couldn’t fit in my schedule:
The Color of the Sun (Xavier Tera)
Imperium (Sergei Loznitsa)
Wanted to watch but missed for other reasons:
Biografia de Jorge Luis Borges (Mariano Llinás) - 330 min long and wasn't showing in one of the comfortable cinemas
The Pervert’s Guide To Utopias (Sophie Fiennes) - Got the timing wrong
Want to watch after hearing good things:
From Inside Out – The Architecture of Peter Zumthor (Wim Wenders)
The Spiral (Paolo Strippoli)
Wanted to like more:
The Basics of Philosophy (Paul Schrader)
Bunker (Florian Zeller)
The Echo Chamber (Andrea Pallaoro)
Wish I skipped:
Conversation With the Sea (Muayad Alayan)
Demetra In Esilio (Maria Giovanna Cicciari)
The Road to Jericho (Amos Gitai)
Lots of tears:
Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger (Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace)
Watched in the presence of:
What Love Builds (Russell Crowe) - Russell Crowe attended the screening because it was the premiere and I was happy to see him in person, albeit briefly because he was surrounded by so many people and their phones.
Dubai mentioned:
Lovers in the Blue Night (Anuparna Roy)
Films with intermissions:
Dau (Ilya Khrzhanovsky)
Musk (Alex Gibney)
Everything I watched:
Competition
Back to Buenos Aires (Marco Bechis)
A Bit of Light (Ali Asgari)
Bucking Fastard (Werner Herzog)
Bunker (Florian Zeller)
Company (Ben Affleck)
Dau (Ilya Khrzhanovsky) SILVER LION – AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR
The Echo Chamber (Andrea Pallaoro)
A Good Little Soldier (Stéphane Brizé) AWARD FOR BEST SCREENPLAY: Stéphane Brizé, Coralie Amédéo, Olivier Gorce
Ink (Danny Boyle)
It Will Happen Tonight (Nanni Moretti)
Look Back (Hirokazu Koreeda)
Naza (Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor) SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
Possible Love (Lee Chang-dong) SILVER LION – GRAND JURY PRIZE
Primetime (Lance Oppenheim)
Wild Horse Nine (Martin McDonagh) COPPA VOLPI for BEST ACTOR: John Malkovich
Woman Unknown (May el-Toukhy) GOLDEN LION FOR BEST FILM + COPPA VOLPI for BEST ACTRESS: Mathilde Arcel
Orizzonti
A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra (Jacqueline Lentzou) ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR
The Difficult Bride (Rubaiyat Hossain)
Lovers in the Blue Night (Anuparna Roy)
Too Much Sugar (Robert Greene)
Until the Day Ends (Jelena Maksimović)
Orizzonti - Shorts
A Few Moments of Happiness (Shaden Safieddine Tazi) ORIZZONTI AWARD FOR BEST SHORT FILM
Paper Plane (Saoirse Ronan)
Biennale College Cinema
Demetra In Esilio (Maria Giovanna Cicciari)
Venice Spotlight
Conversation With the Sea (Muayad Alayan)
Furies (Rami Kodeih)
Venice Immersive
Bowie: Unseen | Unheard (Denis O’Regan, Nick Ryan, Joe Crossley)
Venice Classics
Deadly Sweet (Tinto Brass, 1967)
Illusions by Travel Streetcar (Luis Buñuel, 1954)
Those at Table 10 (Simón Feldman, 1960)
To Be Or Not To Be (Ernst Lubitsch, 1942)
Venice Open - Out of Competition - Fiction
The Basics of Philosophy (Paul Schrader)
Place to Be (Kornél Mundruczó)
Venice Open - Out of Competition - Non-Fiction
Musk (Alex Gibney)
Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger (Dylan Southern, Will Lovelace)
Queer Edward II (Theo Rollason)
The Road to Jericho (Amos Gitai)
What Love Builds (Russell Crowe)
Venice Open - Out of Competition - Short Films
Flesh Impact (Maggie Gyllenhaal)
Halayon / Wild Asparagus (Avi Mograbi)
They’re Here (Laura Poitras, Rachel Lauren Mueller)
Giornate degli Autori
Agata the Writer (Kuba Dorabialski)
Sometimes Sadness, Sometimes Rebellion (María Aparicio) GDA DIRECTOR’S AWARD
A Woman Today (Robert Guediguian) LABEL EUROPA CINEMAS AWARD
Settimana Internazionale della Critica
The End of Times (Bibiana Rojas Gómez, Juan David Cárdenas) IWONDERFULL SPECIAL MENTION
If Things Could Ever Talk (Giulia Cosentino) BEST TECHNICAL CONTRIBUTION AWARD