2026 Venice Film Festival: Dates, What to Watch, and the DAU Controversy
The 2026 Venice Film Festival runs Sept. 2–12. Here's what to watch, who's in the jury, and what's behind the DAU controversy involving Ukraine and festival
The 83rd Venice Film Festival runs from Sept. 2 through Sept. 12, 2026, with awards announced on the final night, according to an Associated Press roundup. Danny Boyle's "Ink" opens the festival, per the same report. A separate, non-AP source, visitlido.it, adds that the opening screening takes place in the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema on Wednesday, Sept. 2, and that Giovanni Veronesi's "Dio ride" is the closing film — details not confirmed in the AP account, so they should be treated as secondary until cross-checked against an official Biennale schedule.
Who's Leading the Jury and Who's Being Honored
Maggie Gyllenhaal is presiding over the main competition jury, which reportedly includes Kaouther Ben Hania, Daniel Blumberg, Xavier Giannoli, Shahrbanoo Sadat, and Johnnie To, according to the AP report. The same report says George Clooney is expected to receive a lifetime achievement award and is also credited as a producer on "Furies," while Ellen Burstyn is also described as receiving a lifetime achievement honor. These are reported expectations from the AP account rather than confirmations pulled from an official awards page, so treat them as reported rather than independently verified festival announcements.
What's in Competition
Only one film competing for the Golden Lion was directed by a woman — May el-Toukhy's "Woman Unknown" — per the AP roundup. The official selection reportedly includes two Palestinian films, Ahmed Hassouna's "Al Mowaten Osama" and Muayad Alayan's "Hiwar ma' albahr." These lineup details come from AP-sourced reporting; the supplied sources don't include a primary official selection table from La Biennale itself, so exact titles and categories should be checked against the festival's own program before finalizing viewing plans.
The DAU Controversy: What's Confirmed, What's Disputed
The center of this year's heaviest discourse is Ilya Khrzhanovsky's film "DAU," according to reporting from the AP. Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Culture, and the Embassy of Ukraine in Italy are reported to have questioned the film's inclusion in competition, characterizing it as "a project linked to the Russian state and its networks of influence." That characterization is attributed to Ukrainian government entities in the report; no direct official Ukrainian statement document is included among the sources reviewed here, so it should be read as a reported claim rather than a primary-sourced government statement.
Festival director Alberto Barbera responded by defending the film's selection, writing that "DAU" "is not a Russian film," is "not pro-Putin propaganda," and instead denounces totalitarian regimes and their intrusion into citizens' lives, per the same AP-based coverage. Barbera's remarks are quoted through the report rather than sourced from an official La Biennale statement page, so his position should be understood as reported rather than confirmed via primary festival documentation. Khrzhanovsky reportedly posted a lengthy rebuttal on Facebook, saying the film "should not be prematurely judged" and stating he opposes Russia's war against Ukraine and the political system that enabled it — again a claim relayed through reporting, not a document included in the sources reviewed.
What This Means for US Viewers
For readers deciding what to follow during opening week, the practical takeaways are the confirmed dates (Sept. 2–12) and the opening film ("Ink"), both grounded in AP reporting. Jury composition, award recipients, and competition lineup details are also drawn from that reporting rather than an official festival page included here, so they carry a reported-claim status rather than a confirmed one. The DAU dispute is best understood as an active, unresolved disagreement between Ukrainian officials and the festival's director — not a settled matter — with each side's characterization distinct and not yet reconciled by any single official document among the sources reviewed. Anyone following the story should expect it to develop as the festival proceeds, since neither side's full statement nor an official Biennale response page was available in the sources checked for this guide.