Venice 2026 Turns Political as Murdoch, Musk and Gaza Take the Lido

Venice also added NAZA to competition shortly before the festival. Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, two directors from No Other Land, examine systems behind Israel’s mass killing of civilians in Gaza, according to the film’s producers as quoted by The Hollywood Reporter. James Wilson produced, with Jonathan Glazer as an executive producer.

BGNES reports that NAZA examines Israel’s AI-assisted targeting systems. The same agency describes Citizen Osama as a portrait of a Gaza photojournalist and Road to Jericho as a film about extremist Jewish settlers in the occupied West Bank. Those descriptions point to a festival where the political subject is not a side note attached to prestige cinema; it is the subject.

Photos: Presidential Communications Office · Public domain · source; ManoSolo13241324 · CC0 · source

Putin, Soviet Power and the Cost of Silence

The former Soviet sphere supplies another cluster of films about repression. Julia Loktev’s My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile follows her 2024 film by examining Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on independent journalists. Belarusian filmmaker Andrei Kutsila’s Listy (Letters From the Silenced Country) is built from correspondence sent by five political prisoners.

Sergei Loznitsa’s Imperium concerns a film commissioned by the Italian Communist Party to glorify Soviet victory, only to expose contradictions in the process. Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s DAU is an experimental epic about Soviet life and authoritarianism that has already caused controversy ahead of its competition premiere.

Producer Alexander Rodnyansky, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, says Venice can place filmmakers with opposing political positions in conversation and honor artists willing to challenge their own governments. Irish producer Mike Downey adds that cinema has long pushed against authoritarian power, especially when regimes use film to manufacture consent.

Photos: Presidential Communications Office · Public domain · source; ManoSolo13241324 · CC0 · source

Capitalism Buckles, Labor Organizes, Billionaires Build Bunkers

Economic power gets its own set of pressure points. Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love follows the family of a laid-off worker and the affluent documentary filmmaker recording their story. In Stéphane Brizé’s Un bon petit soldat, Alba Rohrwacher plays an HR executive caught between toxic management and her boss, played by Vincent Lindon.

Barbara Kopple’s Union Town, shown out of competition, closes a documentary trilogy that began with Harlan County, USA and American Dream. Its focus is the growing labor movement in the United States.

Even the glossy titles carry political baggage. Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine casts John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA agents in Chile shortly before Augusto Pinochet’s U.S.-backed coup. Florian Zeller’s Bunker pairs Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem as spouses pulled apart by a billionaire’s plan for an underground nuclear shelter.

Venice’s Red Carpet Has Less Hollywood, More Argument

News24 reports that Hollywood studios have largely stayed away, while Netflix and Amazon are also absent after strong showings in 2025. Rising production costs and wider uncertainty have reduced the star wattage, even as George Clooney, Robert Pattinson, John Malkovich, Cruz and Rooney Mara are expected on the Lido. Oasis brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher are also due to present a documentary about their reunion tour.

That retreat leaves more room for independent and art-house films, but it also removes some of the machinery that usually turns Venice into an awards-season marketplace. The festival remains a major Oscar predictor: News24 notes that films first screened there supplied eight of the past 10 acting winners and eight of the past 13 directing winners.

Venice’s political arguments do not stop at the screen. Last year, The Voice of Hind Rajab drew a 22-minute ovation, Palestinian flags and chants of “Free Palestine,” while thousands protested on the Lido. The Venice4Palestine collective has issued another open letter this year, signed by Roger Waters, Annie Ernaux, Matteo Garrone and Isabel Coixet, calling for concrete action in support of Palestine.

Venice was founded under Benito Mussolini’s Fascist regime. In 2026, Barbera appears to be treating that history as a responsibility. The festival opens with Murdoch, puts Musk in the spotlight and asks its audience to sit with Gaza, repression and labor before the Golden Lion is handed out.