#BiennaleCinema2026 - #Venezia83 - Competition
Official Awards - 83rd Venice International Film Festival
The - #Venezia83 - Jury - chaired by Maggie Gyllenhaal and composed of - Kaouther Ben Hania - Daniel Blumberg - Francesco Casetti - Xavier Giannoli -Shahrbanoo Sadat - Johnnie To - having viewed all - 21 films in competition - announced the following awards at the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido di Venezia.
Golden Lion - Best Film
Kvinde Ukendt - Woman Unknow - by - May el-Toukhy
Denmark - Sweden - Latvia
Actress Mathilde Arcel - - credits Andrejs Storkins - courtesy la Biennale di VeneziaKvinde Ukendt - Woman Unknown
Marie, a young nanny, is about to marry her wealthy older employer, Christian, but hides a shameful secret from her past. During WWII, she had a relationship with a German soldier, and now she must protect her new status as the war-torn world threatens to expose her secret.
Coppa Volpi - Best Actress
Mathilde Arcel
Kvinde Ukendt - Woman Unknown - by - May el-Toukhy
Kvinde Ukendt - Woman Unknown
Mathilde Arcel
Ga-Neung-Han Sa-Rang - Possible Love - by - Lee Chang-Dong
South Korea
Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-Jeong - courtesy la Biennale di Venezia
Ga-Neung-Han Sa-Rang - Possible Love
A story of two married couples – a laid-off worker and his spouse and a documentary filmmaker and her spouse – crossing paths to film a documentary and facing their different lives and hidden desires.
Silver Lion - Best Director
Ilya Khrzhanovsky - for the film - DAU
Germany - France - Sweden
DAU
Inspired by the physicists who built the Soviet atomic bomb - DAU - follows a brilliant Greek-born physicist from 1928 through four turbulent decades in the USSR. Drawn into state service to help create one of history’s deadliest weapons, Dau finds his life increasingly governed by ambition, surveillance, power and privilege. As he struggles for freedom through a series of affairs, he gradually loses himself and his capacity to love, in a story of personal compromise set against a society shaped by violence and ideology.
Photo - Jacopo Salvi - courtesy - Archivio Storico - La Biennale di Venezia
Coppa Volpi - Best Actor
John Malkovich
John Malkovich
Wild Horse Nine - by - Martin McDonagh
UK - USA - Chile
Wild Horse Nine
Shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, CIA agents Chris and Lee are dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island by their bureau chief, MJ. Among the Island’s iconic statues, and as the longtime partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies, Chris’s newfound bond with a pair of rebellious students threatens to send everyone’s trip to this remote paradise sideways.
John Malkovich - Sam Rockwell
Award - Best Screenplay
Stéphane Brizé, Coralie Amédéo, Olivier Gorce
Un Bon Petit Soldat - A Good Little Soldier - by - Stephane Brize
France
Credits - Christine Tamalet 2026 - Gaumont France 3 - courtesy La Biennale di Venezia
At 43, Carla is a successful and deeply devoted executive who has built her career at the expense of her family life. Newly appointed HR manager at a major corporation, she must balance employee well-being with the demanding performance goals set by her boss. When she uncovers a case of toxic management, Carla is forced into a series of compromises that threaten to push her to the breaking point.
Alba Rohrwacher
Special Jury Prize
NAZA - by - Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
UK
credit - The Guardian - courtesy - La Biennale di Venezia
NAZA
Shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, the film reveals in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
Marcello Mastroianni Award - Best Young Actor or Actress
Malou Khebizi
in the film - 15/18 - A Place to Heal - by - Cedric Kahn
France
15/18 - A Place to Heal
At 17, Lucia is brought by police to an adolescent psychiatric ward she knows all too well, where she reunites with her friend Eloïse and meets a new group of troubled teenagers. Led by Etienne, the medical team cares for the patients and their families while struggling with the pressures of an overstretched department. Amid fragile bonds, moments of hope and laughter emerge, until the arrival of a mysterious new patient, Enzo, threatens to turn everything upside down.
Malou Khebizi
Head Chair - #Venezia83 - Jury
Maggie Gyllenhaal
"In the end, the Mostra is that beam of light. It brings together masters and first-time filmmakers, restored classics and films just coming into being, memory and the future. Cinema – the most industrial of all the arts, akin to the forge of Hephaestus – is the unknown god. That is why, year after year, we return to the Lido: to see, in that irreducible outpost of the shared experience of darkness, whatever cinema chooses to illuminate. Always on the wings of imagination."
Pietrangelo Buttafuoco
President - La Biennale di Venezia
Alberto Barbera
Director - 83rd Venice International Film Festival
Debora Rossi and Alberto Barbera
“Wow! I not only get to travel to one of my top most favorite cities in the whole world. I get to return home carrying a Golden Lion in my arms! The Lifetime Achievement Award from the Venice Film Festival! I feel so honored— so happy — so filled with gratitude! Wow indeed!”
Ellen Burstyn
“I’ve had so many extraordinary moments in Venice. This festival is without question my favorite and to be given the Golden Lion is a tremendous honor.
It also probably means I’m old, but I’ll take it”.
Golden Lion - Life Achievement Award
George Clooney
All photographs - unless otherwise stated - are screenshots
#Venezia83 - Official Awards Ceremony
