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The Venice Film Festival opens Wednesday with few Hollywood productions but a lineup heavy on indie films, documentaries, and A-list appearances, running until Sept. 12.
Director Danny Boyle, known for "Trainspotting" and "Slumdog Millionaire," opens the festival's main competition with "Ink," a biopic centered on right-wing media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
Murdoch, the 95-year-old Australian-born owner of Fox News, has recently been the subject of several biographies as well as a dramatization of his family's internal disputes in the HBO series "Succession."
Boyle's film focuses on Murdoch's entry into the U.K. media industry in 1969, when he purchased the tabloid The Sun.
Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney, whose previous work has examined U.S. military abuse and corruption, turns his attention to the world's richest man in "Musk," a nearly four-hour film about Elon Musk. Musk responded to the project last month on his platform X, calling it a "hit piece" and stating that the filmmaker is "incapable of anything else."
Actor Robert Pattinson will be among the festival's biggest names this year, appearing in "Primetime," a film by Lance Oppenheim inspired by the American television show "To Catch a Predator."
Pattinson plays the role of presenter Chris Hansen. Separately, George Clooney will receive a lifetime achievement Golden Lion award alongside actress Ellen Burstyn, known for "The Exorcist" and "Interstellar."
Major studios and streaming platforms, including Netflix and Amazon, are largely absent from this year's festival after arriving in 2025 with a slate widely viewed as underwhelming.
Their absence continues a pattern seen at Europe's two other leading film festivals, in Berlin and Cannes, which the same companies also skipped in 2026.
With Hollywood's presence reduced, independent and arthouse films are expected to draw greater attention. Among them are "Wild Horse Nine," a dark comedy from Ireland's Martin McDonagh starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell; "Company," directed by Casey Affleck; and "Bucking Fastard," from German filmmaker Werner Herzog, featuring sisters Kate Mara and Rooney Mara.
Acclaimed Asian directors Hirokazu Koreeda of Japan and Lee Chang-dong of South Korea are also competing, with "Look Back" and "Possible Love," respectively.
Brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher of the rock band Oasis, long known for their public disputes, are set to appear at the festival to promote a documentary chronicling their sold-out reunion tour last year. The film, titled "Don't Look Back in Anger," is produced by Steven Knight, creator of the series "Peaky Blinders."
Several films addressing Israel's war in Gaza are also featured at this year's festival. "NAZA," from two directors behind the Oscar-winning Israeli-Palestinian documentary "No Other Land," examines Israel's use of AI-assisted targeting systems in Gaza, where an estimated 73,000 Palestinians have been killed since 2023, according to the Gaza health ministry, mostly women and children.
Other films on the conflict include "Citizen Osama," which follows a photojournalist in Gaza, and "Road to Jericho," by Israeli director Amos Gitai, which documents Jewish extremist settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
Festival director Alberto Barbera faced criticism after the initial 20-film main competition lineup, announced in July, included only one film directed by a woman: "Woman Unknown," by May El-Toukhy.
Barbera said submissions from women directors were not strong enough to warrant inclusion, a comment that prompted an open letter from industry and advocacy groups. The later addition of "NAZA," co-directed by a woman, slightly improved the competition's gender balance.
Spanish actors Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, a real-life couple who met on the set of "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" in 2008, star together in French director Florian Zeller's "Bunker."
The film follows the pair as partners in a strained marriage whose relationship is tested by a lucrative business arrangement involving a billionaire, played by Paul Dano.
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