Venice 2026 Lineup: Boyle's Murdoch Drama 'Ink' to Open
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- Venice Film Festival will open its 83rd edition (Sept. 2–12) with the world premiere of Danny Boyle's "Ink," a 1960s-set biographical drama starring Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch and Jack O'Connell as Sun editor Larry Lamb; Netflix recently acquired U.S. rights.
- "Dio Ride," the latest film from Italian director Giovanni Veronesi, closes the festival out of competition, starring Pierfrancesco Favino as a 17th-century Tuscan friar whose joyful approach to God provokes the church.
- Maggie Gyllenhaal will preside over the competition jury — the third woman to do so in five years, following Isabelle Huppert, Julianne Moore, and Cate Blanchett — alongside jurors Johnnie To, Kaouther Ben Hania, Shahrbanoo Sadat, Xavier Giannoli, Daniel Blumberg, and Francesco Casetti.
- George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn will receive lifetime achievement awards at the festival.
- Cannes set a precedent earlier this year for a lighter Hollywood presence that Venice 2026 is expected to follow, though the festival still promises a robust awards-contender roster.
Why it matters: With Netflix now controlling U.S. distribution of the festival's opening-night competition title and Gyllenhaal becoming the third woman jury president in five years, Venice's 2026 slate hands its top competition launch to a single streamer and continues a near-equal gender split in jury leadership (four women in the past five years).
