Venice Film Festival 2026 Winners: Woman Unknown Takes Golden Lion
May El-Toukhy’s Drama Leads a Varied Group of Major Venice Honorees
The 83rd Venice International Film Festival ended with Woman Unknown, directed by Denmark’s May el-Toukhy, winning the Golden Lion for Best Film. The post-World War II drama also brought Mathilde Arcel the Volpi Cup for Best Actress, making it the most prominent title of the festival’s final awards ceremony.
The win gives el-Toukhy one of international cinema’s most important festival honors. Woman Unknown follows a nanny whose private history becomes increasingly difficult to contain. The film’s focus on identity, social standing, and consequences gave the jury a restrained but pointed work to recognize.
Venice remains an important starting point for filmmakers entering the fall awards season. Yet the festival’s value is not limited to awards campaigns. Its program brings together established directors, international productions, first features, documentaries, restored films, and boundary-pushing work that may not receive the same visibility in commercial theaters.
This year’s main competition jury was led by actor and filmmaker Maggie Gyllenhaal. Its selections reflected a broad range of filmmaking approaches, from intimate character studies to historical drama and politically engaged cinema. The awards also brought attention to artists from Denmark, South Korea, Germany, France, the United States, Chile, Britain, Lebanon, and elsewhere.
Major Competition Winners
The festival’s principal award winners are listed below:
Golden Lion for Best Film: Woman Unknown, directed by May el-Toukhy
Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize: Possible Love, directed by Lee Chang-dong
Silver Lion for Best Director: Ilya Khrzhanovsky for DAU
Special Jury Prize: NAZA, directed by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Mathilde Arcel for Woman Unknown
Volpi Cup for Best Actor: John Malkovich for Wild Horse Nine
Best Screenplay: Stéphane Brizé, Coralie Amedeo, and Olivier Gorce for A Good Little Soldier
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Emerging Performer: Malou Khebizi for A Place to Heal
Possible Love gave South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong the Grand Jury Prize. The recognition continues Venice’s role as a platform for directors whose work may be separated by language, geography, and production scale, but connected by strong individual points of view.
John Malkovich’s Best Actor award for Wild Horse Nine was another notable result. His win places a familiar American performer alongside a group of recipients whose films may have less immediate name recognition outside dedicated film audiences. That balance is part of what makes Venice’s awards useful. The festival can honor known talent while introducing viewers to new performers and directors.
Beyond the Main Competition
Venice’s parallel sections also honored emerging filmmakers and work outside the main competition. The Orizzonti section awarded Best Film to Un détour par Diane, directed by Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni. The prize recognizes a film from a program dedicated to new trends and different forms of cinematic expression.
The Luigi de Laurentiis Award for Best Debut Feature went to House of the Wind, directed by Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu. First-feature awards deserve attention because they often identify artists at an early stage, before distributors, awards groups, and mainstream audiences have fully caught up.
In the Venice Classics program, Florestano Vancini’s Long Night of 1943 received recognition as Best Restored Film. Restoration awards matter because cinema history depends on ongoing preservation work. A restored film returns older work to public discussion and makes it accessible to viewers who may be seeing it in a new context.
The festival also named A Few Moments of Happiness, directed by Shaden Safieddine Tazi, as Best Short Film. Short-form work has long been an essential part of festival culture, offering filmmakers a more immediate way to experiment with form, subject matter, and performance.
Honoring Career Achievement
Venice also presented Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement to Ellen Burstyn and George Clooney. Burstyn’s career has included major work across independent film, studio productions, television, and theater. Clooney has built a long career as an actor, director, producer, and public figure, with credits that span mainstream entertainment and politically focused filmmaking.
These awards recognize careers rather than a single title, but they also place current festival selections within a larger conversation about what long-term artistic work can look like. Venice uses its stage to recognize both established figures and artists still building their filmographies.