VENICE, Italy
The water taxis are already running hot on the Lido, the red carpet is being unrolled outside the Palazzo del Cinema, and on Wednesday evening the 83rd Venice International Film Festival will open the way it always does: with a world premiere, a great deal of tailoring, and the unspoken understanding that whatever wins here has a decent shot at winning everything else.
This year the opener is Danny Boyle's 'Ink,' screening Wednesday, September 2 in the Sala Grande — and, notably, screening in competition rather than in the safe out-of-competition slot most opening films occupy. It is a statement of confidence, and it sets a combative tone for a festival that runs through September 12.
The Film That Opens It
'Ink' is adapted by James Graham from his own multi-award-winning stage play, and it dramatizes one of the most consequential media stories of the twentieth century: Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of The Sun and the newsroom revolution that followed. Jack O'Connell plays Larry Lamb, the editor Murdoch installed to remake the paper. Guy Pearce plays Murdoch. Claire Foy appears in support.
The choice is not accidental. A festival opening with a film about a proprietor bending a newspaper to his will, in a year when questions about media ownership and political pressure are live in half a dozen countries, is making a point about its own appetite for trouble. Boyle, who has spent a career oscillating between crowd-pleaser and provocateur, is an apt person to make it.
The Competition
Twenty-one films are competing for the Golden Lion, and the marquee names are formidable. Florian Zeller brings 'Bunker,' an end-times drama starring Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem. Martin McDonagh arrives with 'Wild Horse Nine,' featuring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell. Werner Herzog is here with 'Bucking Fastard,' a film he pointedly pulled from Cannes after being offered only an out-of-competition berth. And Lee Chang-dong returns with 'Possible Love,' his first feature since 2018's 'Burning' — arguably the single most anticipated title on the Lido.
Maggie Gyllenhaal presides over the main competition jury, joined by Kaouther Ben Hania, composer Daniel Blumberg, film scholar Francesco Casetti, Xavier Giannoli, Shahrbanoo Sadat and Johnnie To. It is an unusually cinephile jury — heavy on directors, light on box-office logic — which historically tends to produce surprising verdicts.
Away from the competition, George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn will each receive a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. Clooney is also here as a producer on 'Furies.' Robert Pattinson, Rooney Mara and, in one of the more unlikely Lido sightings of recent memory, Noel and Liam Gallagher are all expected on the island.
The Argument Nobody Can Sidestep
And then there is the number that has followed this lineup since the day it was announced: one.
One woman directs a film in this year's competition, out of twenty-one. Last year the figure was six of twenty-one. Artistic director Alberto Barbera has defended the selection, arguing that fewer films by women were submitted, that those submitted did not in his judgment meet the bar, and that quality must remain the sole criterion. He has consistently opposed gender quotas.
That answer has not landed well. The critique is not that Barbera should have promoted weaker films; it is that a festival with Venice's power to confer legitimacy is also a participant in the pipeline it claims merely to observe. Strong work by women directors exists in this year's program — May el-Toukhy's 'A Woman Unknown,' Nathalie Álvarez Mesén's period horror 'The Wolf Will Tear Your Immaculate Hands' with Alexander Skarsgård, Rubaiyat Hossain's supernatural drama 'The Difficult Bride,' Sian Heder's awards-season contender 'Being Heumann.' Most of it sits in sidebars rather than in the section that hands out the Golden Lion.
The politics do not stop at the competition slate. The inclusion of the Israel-Gaza documentary 'NAZA' and of the Russian film 'DAU' has drawn attention, and an open letter signed by Nobel laureate Annie Ernaux, Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters, and filmmakers including Matteo Garrone and Isabel Coixet has urged the Biennale to take concrete action in support of Palestine.
The festival's handling of the pressure has been, at best, uneven. Organizers first scrapped the traditional opening-day jury press conference — an unusual move widely read as an attempt to spare jurors from political questioning — then reversed course days later and reinstated it, citing resolved scheduling issues. Whichever explanation you believe, the jury will now face a room full of reporters who have had a week to sharpen their questions.
Why Venice Matters More Than It Used To
It is easy to dismiss festival coverage as expensive people looking at each other on a beach. But Venice has quietly become the most reliable predictor of the awards season that follows. Its September slot sits perfectly ahead of Telluride, Toronto and the long autumn campaign, and studios now design release calendars around a Lido premiere. A film that plays well here on Wednesday can be in the Oscar conversation by Thanksgiving.
That is precisely why the composition of the competition is not an academic dispute. The films selected here are the films that get the oxygen. The ones that aren't, largely don't.
What This Means for You
Practically: the next ten days will tell you most of what you need to know about the movies you'll be hearing about all winter. Keep a note of the reception for 'Possible Love,' 'Bunker' and 'Being Heumann' in particular — those are the titles most likely to travel from the Lido into the wider conversation.
And if you care about who gets to make films at scale, watch what Venice does next year rather than what it says this year. Barbera's position is defensible as a description of what landed on his desk. It is much less defensible as a description of a festival's responsibility.
The Bottom Line
The 83rd Venice Film Festival opens Wednesday with a film about a man who bought a newspaper and remade it in his own image. Over the following eleven days it will hand out a Golden Lion, launch an Oscar race, and continue arguing with itself about who gets to tell stories at all. It is, in other words, in fine form.
