Woman Unknown scoops Venice’s Golden Lion

by Camillo De Marco

12/09/2026 - VENICE 2026: The film by Danish director May el-Toukhy has also received the Volpi Cup for lead actress Mathilde Arcel; also among the award winners are Possible Love, Dau and NAZA

Woman Unknown scoops Venice’s Golden Lion

It can’t have been easy for the international jury at the 83rd Venice Film Festival, chaired by actress-director Maggie Gyllenhaal, to hand out the prizes, given the genuinely sky-high quality of the titles in this year’s competition. Despite the fact that it was not included on the press’s shortlist of films identified at the last minute as surefire winners, the Golden Lion went to Woman Unknown by Danish director of Egyptian heritage May el-Toukhy, which set tongues wagging after the announcement of the films in competition because it was the only one helmed by a woman, before the last-minute announcement of the inclusion of NAZA, co-directed by Rachel Szor. May el-Toukhy, who directed Queen of Hearts in 2019 and scooped the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, said that the movie, a co-production between Denmark, Sweden and Latvia, “fittingly talks about the invisibility of women”. The jury also opted to reward the performance by the lead actress, Mathilde Arcel, via the Volpi Cup.

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Meanwhile, Possible Love by Lee Chang-dong went home with the Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize. The South Korean helmer previously brought Burning to Cannes in 2018, which proved popular internationally. The movie previously won the FIPRESCI Award, which was announced earlier in the day (see the news).

Dau by Ilya Khrzhanovsky, a co-production involving Germany, France and Sweden, was destined to win the Silver Lion for Best Director. “A 20-year journey” was how the director defined it, dedicating the prize to the “Ukrainians who are fighting for their freedom”.

A Special Jury Prize went to the only documentary in competition, the aforementioned last-minute addition NAZA by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The most political movie at the Mostra was produced by British newspaper The Guardian and reveals the mechanisms behind Israel’s premeditated mass killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The directors condemned the first attempts to boycott the film.

The Best Screenplay gong went to A Good Little Soldier by Stéphane Brizé, who wrote the movie with Coralie Amédéo and Olivier Gorce. Contributing to the making of the film, starring Alba Rohrwacher and Vincent Lindon, was French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Christophe Dejours, an expert in subjugation mechanisms in the business world. France also collected the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Talent, which went to Malou Khebizi (who previously made a splash in Wild Diamond) for A Place to Heal by Cédric Kahn.

The Volpi Cup for Best Actor fell to US thesp John Malkovich for his turn in Wild Horse Nine by Martin McDonagh, which the festival audience adored.

In the competitive Orizzonti section, the Award for Best Film was handed to Diane in the Loop by Brussels-based helmers Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni. Best Director was deemed to be Greece’s Jacqueline Lentzou for A Day in the Life of Joe: Chapter Phaedra. The Special Jury Prize was bestowed upon House of the Wind by first-time Cameroonian director Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu. Best Actress went to Laleh Marzban for the Iranian feature Falling House by Mohsen Gharaei, while the male equivalent was presented to Riccardo Scamarcio for Children of the Monkey by Tommaso Landucci, which also took home the Best Screenplay Award.

Finally, the Lion of the Future - "Luigi de Laurentiis" Award for a Debut Film also went to House of the Wind, thus making Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu’s movie one of the main winners of this edition. The Cameroonian director dedicated his victory to the numerous women killed by their husbands in his country.

Here is the full list of award winners:

Competition

Golden Lion for Best Film
Woman Unknown - May El-Toukhy (Denmark/Sweden/Latvia)

Silver Lion - Grand Jury Prize
Possible Love - Lee Chang-dong (South Korea)

Silver Lion - Award for Best Director
Ilya Khrzhanovsky - Dau (Germany/France/Ukraine/Sweden)

Special Jury Prize
NAZA - Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor (UK)

Volpi Cup for Best Actress
Mathilde Arcel - Woman Unknown (Denmark/Sweden/Latvia)

Volpi Cup for Best Actor
John Malkovich - Wild Horse Nine (UK/USA/Chile)

Award for Best Screenplay
Stéphane Brizé, Coralie Amedeo, Olivier Gorce - A Good Little Soldier (France)

Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Talent
Malou Khebizi - A Place to Heal (France)

Orizzonti

Best Film
Diane In the Loop – Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni (Belgium/France)