22/07/2026 - The line-up for the 23rd edition of the Venice Film Festival’s autonomous, parallel section has been unveiled, with 25 world premieres showcasing between 2 and 12 September

A world in motion where geographical borders increasingly coincide with interior ones is the theme running through the 23rd edition of Giornate degli Autori (unspooling in Venice from 2 to 12 September), which will present a selection built around displaced stories and characters who have been uprooted and forced to redefine their relationship with the places they inhabit and with others. Out of 1,036 submissions from 114 countries, artistic director Gaia Furrer has chosen 25 world premieres – 14 of which directed by women – which confirms the international outlook of a section which is continuing to foster dialogue between far-flung film cultures and new and established directors.

The spirit of this first edition without Giorgio Gosetti, who founded Giornate degli Autori in 2004, is in keeping with the original project: an independent space dedicated to discovery and freedom of vision. “We owe the very idea of this free space to Giorgio, to his belief in new cinematic languages, his affectionate determination to build a community of female and male filmmakers and spectators, year after year,” explains Gaia Furrer. “This year’s Giornate springs from the desire to honour this legacy by continuing to do what Giorgio taught us to do: to search, discover, make mistakes, be passionate, and place our trust in cinema and those who make it possible.”

Travel, migration, loss of memory, reframing of family bonds and the search for a new identity recur across many of the selected titles. Opening the competition (comprising ten titles) will be My Notes on Mars by Hungarian director Lili Horvát - who was previously selected for the Giornate in 2020 with Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time - in which a scientist who disappeared during a hike returns on the day of her own commemoration, remembering nothing of her former life. The theme of displacement runs through the rest of the competition too: in Nicola Sorcinelli’s debut feature, Balcanica, an Afghan father-and-son duo of musicians are forced to take the Balkan route after music is banned in their home country (the cast also stars Matilda De Angelis), while in Camouflage, by Mykyta Gibalenko, a young Ukrainian who has emigrated to Germany is forced to rebuild his life after the Russian invasion.

The selection also explores the reality of being uprooted without crossing any physical borders: in A veces me entra tristeza, otras veces rebelión by Argentine helmer María Aparicio, the meeting of two compatriots in Madrid results in a portrait of a generation marked by precariousness and uncertainty; Dear Ajayi by Nigerian director Damilola Orimogunje examines the clash between individual aspirations and family expectations through the story of two sisters in 1990s Nigeria; and in I Plant My Hand in the Garden, Boris Hadžija and Hoda Taheri turn their love story into an inquiry into the possibility of building a family outside traditional models, weaving together migration, queer identity and memory.

Many of the selected films sit on the edge between forms: documentary and fiction bleed into one another, filmmakers step directly into their own works, and biographies become opportunities for reinvention. This is the case for Agata the Writer by Kuba Dorabialski, where an Australian writer in Sarajevo grapples with the responsibility of reporting on a war she didn’t live through, and for Salón de Belleza by Nathalia Acevedo, which is an adaptation of the novel by Mario Bellatin in which a beauty salon becomes a place of care and refuge for marginalised bodies.

European cinema takes centre stage in the selection, not only in terms of numbers but also for its ability to reflect on the continent’s transformations. Robert Guédiguian returns with A Woman Today, starring his faithful collaborators Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin and Gérard Meylan and focusing on a woman who’s forced to rethink her idea of freedom after an episode of violence. Les Indes by Swiss duo Pauline Julier and Nicolas Chapoulier re-examines the birth of the modern European order via a 17th-century journey which takes the shape of an anti-heroic western.

The best film in competition will be honoured with the GdA Director’s Award, courtesy of an all-female jury composed of Spanish filmmaker Carla Simón (president), Italian director and editor Sara Fgaier and head of Beirut’s landmark arthouse cinema, Metropolis, Hania Mroué.

The gathering’s five Special Events will continue this exploration of the relationship between memory and the present. Francesca Archibugi reconstructs the public and private figure of one of the most radical voices in 20th-century Italian feminism, Carla Lonzi, through archives and testimonies in Carla Lonzi, A Feminist Story. Al Baraneya by Ashgan El-Hamus portrays a rural Egyptian community through the story of a family facing the prospect of epochal change, while Even if Hell Came by Samuele Rossi, set in the winter of 1944, recounts the story of a young partisan who finds himself isolated after an ambush. Between reality and fiction, The Massacre by Cosimo Messeri turns an existential crisis and an investigation sparked by app encounters into a broader tale about loneliness at work and in love. Lastly, El Fantasma by David Lamelas and Ignacio Masllorens, reflects on the difficulty of exploring an artistic life marked by absence.

Standing tall among the nine titles in Notti Veneziane - a showcase of Italian independent cinema assembled in collaboration with Isola Edipo - is the return of Roberta Torre with Scarpe rotte, which will open the section and which tells the story of two women (one played by Barbara Ronchi) in Rome during World War II, while works such as Auber 89 by Giuseppe Schillaci, The Legend of the Desert by Elisabetta Giannini and Southern Peasants by Alessandra Lancellotti probe the relationship between collective memory, place and identity. Also noteworthy are Memories of Lighting by Riccardo Giacconi, in which a radio journalist travels to a small town in central Italy to make an audio documentary about a murder that took place forty years earlier, and The Craft by Beppe Tufarulo, with Luigi Lo Cascio as a man who “fixes” the dead so families can continue to collect their pensions.

The closing film screening out of competition at this year’s Giornate is A Man's Skin by Léa Domenach, which is a queer and feminist musical comedy set in Renaissance Italy and starring Catherine Deneuve.

The full line-up is as follows:

Competition

My Notes on Mars – Lili Horvát (Hungary/Austria, opening film)
Salón de Belleza – Nathalia Acevedo (Mexico/France)
A veces me entra tristeza, otras veces rebelión – María Aparicio (Argentina/Spain)
Agata the Writer – Kuba Dorabialski (Australia/Bosnia and Herzegovina)
Camouflage – Mykyta Gibalenko (Germany/Ukraine)
A Woman Today – Robert Guédiguian (France/Italy)
I Plant My Hand in the Garden – Boris Hadžija and Hoda Taheri (Germany/Serbia/USA)
Les Indes – Pauline Julier and Nicolas Chapoulier (Switzerland/Spain)
Dear Ajayi – Damilola Orimogunje (Nigeria/Germany)
Balcanica – Nicola Sorcinelli (Italy/Serbia/Croatia)

Out of competition

A Man's Skin – Léa Domenach (France, closing film)

Special Events

Carla Lonzi, A Feminist Story – Francesca Archibugi (Italy)
Al Baraneya – Ashgan El-Hamus (Netherlands/Egypt/Belgium/Saudi Arabia)
El Fantasma – Ignacio Masllorens e David Lamelas (Argentina)
The Massacre – Cosimo Messeri (Italy)
Even if Hell Came – Samuele Rossi (Italy)

Miu Miu Women’s Tales

Avec Kim – Claire Denis (France, short film)
Discipline – Mona Fastvold (USA, short film)

Notti Veneziane

Scarpe rotte – Roberta Torre (Italy, opening film)
Anatomy of a Portrait – Francesco Clerici e Mattia Colombo (Italy)
The Cat Wakes Up and Yawns; Then Love – Federico Francioni e Samuele Sestieri (Italy)
Memories of Lighting – Riccardo Giacconi (Italy)
The Legend of the Desert – Elisabetta Giannini (Italy)
Capital Sunday - Sunday Gen – Giovanna Giuliani (Italy)
Southern Peasants – Alessandra Lancellotti (Italy)
Auber 89 – Giuseppe Schillaci (France/Italy)
The Craft – Beppe Tufarulo (Italy/Belgium/France)

(Translated from Italian)