The International Jury for the 83rd Venice International Film Festival (September 2nd – 12th, 2026), organized by La Biennale di Venezia, has been selected. The decision was made by the Board of Directors of La Biennale, upon the recommendation of the Festival’s Artistic Director, Alberto Barbera.
Chaired – as previously announced on April 23rd – by American director, actress, screenwriter and producer Maggie Gyllenhaal, the International Jury of the Venezia 83 Competition will also include the following members: the Tunisian director and screenwriter Kaouther Ben Hania; the English composer and artist Daniel Blumberg; the Italian professor Francesco Casetti; the French director and screenwriter Xavier Giannoli; the Afghan director and screenwriter Shahrbanoo Sadat; the Hong Kong director and producer Johnnie To.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, American actress, director, producer, and screenwriter
This year, Gyllenhaal released her film “The Bride!“, which she wrote, produced, and directed. Previously, Gyllenhaal made her feature directorial debut with “The Lost Daughter.” The film went on to be nominated for three Academy Awards and to win three Independent Spirit Awards, four Gotham Awards, and the Venice Film Festival’s Award for Best Screenplay. Gyllenhaal received Golden Globe nominations for “Secretary” by Steven Shainberg in 2002 and for Laurie Collyer’s “Sherrybaby” in 2006. In 2009, she starred opposite Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart,” earning her an Oscar nomination. Gyllenhaal starred in the BBC/Sundance TV series “The Honorable Woman” (2014), for which she won a Golden Globe, and in the HBO series “The Deuce” (2017–2019), which she also produced.
Kaouther Ben Hania, Tunisian director and screenwriter
Her work moves between fiction and documentary, often exploring power, injustice, and the fragile place of the individual within oppressive systems. Her latest film, “The Voice of Hind Rajab,” was presented in Competition at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Her previous film, “Four Daughters,” won the L’Œil d’Or at Cannes and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Her earlier works include “The Man Who Sold His Skin,” nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, “Beauty and the Dogs,” and “Challat of Tunis.” With a singular cinematic language that blends realism, performance, and political urgency, Ben Hania has established herself as one of the most distinctive voices in contemporary world cinema.
Daniel Blumberg, British composer and artist, is based in London
His practice operates across songwriting, improvisation, drawing, and sound. He has released four solo albums on Mute – “Liv” (2014), “Minus” (2018), “On&On” (2020), and “Gut” (2023) – and composed scores for films including “The Brutalist” by Brady Corbet (2024), “Pompei: Below The Clouds” by Gianfranco Rosi (2025), and “The Testament of Ann Lee” by Mona Fastvold (2025). In 2025, he was awarded an Academy Award and a BAFTA for his score for “The Brutalist.” Blumberg is a visual artist who draws with silverpoint. His work has been exhibited at Balice Hertling Paris, Triennale di Milano, ICA London, Kunsthal Rotterdam, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, and KW Institute for Contemporary Art Berlin.
Francesco Casetti, Italian and American professor
He is Sterling Professor of Humanities and Film and Media Studies at Yale, where he has chaired both the Film and Media Studies Program and the Humanities Program, and is also affiliated with the School of Architecture. He has previously taught in Italy, where he served as President of the scholarly society of Film and Media Studies. Visiting professor at Paris 3 La Sorbonne Nouvelle, at the University of Iowa, and at Harvard; fellowships at the Otago University, at the Bauhaus University-Weimar, and at Freie Universtität Berlin; and awarded with the “Chair of Italian Culture” for a distinguished scholar at Berkeley. He was among the founders of “Filmmaker,” Milan, an initiative supporting young directors; he was a member of the Scientific Committee of the National Film School, Rome, and served on the Board of the Istituto Luce. Among his books are “Inside the Gaze” (1999), “Theories of Cinema 1945-1990” (1999), “Eye of the Century” (2008), “The Lumière Galaxy” (2015), and “Screening Fears: On Protective Media” (2023).
Xavier Giannoli, French director and screenwriter
Born in Paris, he studied literature before directing several short films, including “L’Interview,” which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1998. He went on to write and direct around ten feature films, including “Marguerite,” “Lost Illusions” (winner of the César Award for Best Film in 2022), and, this year, “Les Rayons et les ombres.” His films have been selected for numerous international festivals, including the Venice, Telluride, and Cannes Film Festivals. He also wrote and directed the series “Of Money and Blood” for Canal+, which was presented at the Venice Film Festival in 2023.
Shahrbanoo Sadat, Afghan filmmaker
She was born in 1991, and she is based in Hamburg, Germany, where she has lived since the fall of Kabul in 2021. She is developing an ambitious five-part film cycle inspired by the unpublished autobiographical manuscript of her longtime friend and collaborator, Anwar Hashimi. The first part, “Wolf and Sheep” (2016), premiered at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight, where it was nominated for the Camera d’Or and received the Art Cinema Award (CICAE). The second part, “The Orphanage” (2019), also screened in the Directors’ Fortnight. The third part, “No Good Men,” opened the Berlinale in 2026 and stars both Sadat and Hashimi. Sadat is regarded as a pioneering filmmaker who has contributed to the development of Afghan cinema through her films. Her work explores questions of identity, memory, representation, and gender, and is marked by a distinctive feminist perspective. Across her films, she foregrounds Afghan stories and experiences that are often overlooked in global film culture.
Johnnie To, Hong Kong director and producer
Johnnie To Kei-fung, born in 1955, is a renowned director and producer from Hong Kong. While deeply rooted in the local and greater Chinese film markets, his work has also garnered widespread international acclaim. Throughout his decades-long career, To has built an impressive, diverse filmography, though he is perhaps best known internationally for his mastery of action and crime genres. These films have earned him a dedicated cult following and significant critical recognition at major global film festivals. Often described as “multifaceted and chameleonic” due to his ability to traverse various tones and genres, To maintains a consistent directorial signature defined by an uncompromising approach to narrative, dramatic tension, and stylistic visual composition. Johnnie To served on the Venice jury in 2008. Four of his films premiered in Venice: “Throw Down” (2004), “Exiled” (2006), “Mad Detective” (2007, co-directed with Ka-Fai Wai), and “Life Without Principle” (2011).
The Jury of Venezia 83 will award the following official prizes to the feature films in Competition, with no joint awards allowed: Golden Lion for Best Film, Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize, Silver Lion for Best Director, Coppa Volpi for Best Actress, Coppa Volpi for Best Actor, Special Jury Prize, Award for Best Screenplay, and “Marcello Mastroianni” Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress.
The 84th Venice Film Festival will take place from September 2nd–12th, with the official lineup announced on July 23rd. Our very own Ema Sasic and Josh Parham will be attending in-person this year.
Are you excited for the 2026 Venice Film Festival? Are you planning to attend the festival this year? Which films do you think will be announced? Please let us know in the comments section below or on our X account.
