Politics Take Center Stage at Venice Film Festival

The Venice Film Festival is preparing for a red carpet filled less with awards-season glamour than with political conflict. Its 83rd edition opens September 2 with Danny Boyle’s “Ink,” a drama about Rupert Murdoch’s 1969 takeover of Britain’s The Sun, the event that preceded the rise of his right-wing media empire.

Across 11 days on the Lido, filmmakers will address Israel and Gaza, Russia’s war in Ukraine, the CIA-backed coup in Chile under Augusto Pinochet, immigration raids in Minneapolis and the influence of Elon Musk. Artistic director Alberto Barbera has described the 2026 festival as Venice’s “most political” edition ever.

The competition includes “NAZA,” a documentary by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, the Israeli filmmakers behind “No Other Land.” It examines Israeli military killings of Palestinian civilians in Gaza. Julia Loktev’s “My Undesirable Friends Part II: Exile” follows Vladimir Putin’s crackdown on independent journalism, while Andrei Kutsila’s “Letters From the Silenced Country” explores repression in Belarus.

Alex Gibney’s four-hour documentary “Musk” will also premiere. Musk has already denounced the film, without having seen it, as a “hit piece.” Laura Poitras will present “They’re Here,” a short documentary made with Rachel Lauren Mueller from previously undisclosed footage of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation in Minneapolis.

The shift marks a change for Venice, which under Barbera had cultivated a reputation as a destination for movie stars and Oscar campaigns. Political films and the arguments around them were more closely associated with Berlin and, to a lesser extent, Cannes. But the Berlinale’s political reputation has suffered after disputes over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict dominated recent editions. Venice has instead spent the past two years leaning into controversy and political filmmaking.

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Hit piece.