Venice Critics’ Week, the sidebar section of the Venice International Film Festival, selected by the national union of Italian film critics, unveiled its 2026 selection on Monday.
The selection of seven debut features is intended as a showcase for up-and-coming international auteurs.
Il Grande Giaffa (Giaffa the Great) from Italian director Marco Santi, the story of an ordinary man drawn into the dangerous illusion of a charismatic performer, will open the section, screening out of competition. Another Italian film, Rider, a star-crossed lovers’ musical set in contemporary Milan, from directors Roan Johnson and Davide Pavanello, will close the section.
The competition line-up includes two very different features from Columbia. The experimental documentary essay The End of Times from directors Bibiana Rojas Gómez and Juan David Cárdenas mixes found footage and AI-generated imagery to explore the legacy of historical violence in Latin America. Meteorite from Sebastián Múnera follows two young women on a journey through an extravagant amusement park built on the estate of the late drug lord Pablo Escobar.
Other competition entires include the dystopian sci-fi film The H@llow Man from Tunisian director Kamel Laaridhi; London, a drama set around a fetish community, from Brazilian directors Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli; and Zoom In, Zoom Out, the feature debut of Chinese director Dong Jie, which follows a young game designer searching through real and virtual worlds to find his missing roommate.
This year’s line-up is particularly political, something the organizers said was deliberate, noting that “a festival is not a neutral bubble” separate from the world. But while acknowleging “our cultural activism,” the film critics’ association said artistic and formal criteria were the priority in making the selection.
Critics’ Week runs Sept. 2-12 alongside the main Venice festival. Venice will announce its full 2026 lineup on July 23.
Check out the full Venice Critics’ Week lineup below.
Opening Film
Il Grande Giaffa, dir. Marco Santi (Italy)
In Competition
The End of Times, dirs. Bibiana Rojas Gómez, Juan David Cárdenas (Colombia)
The H@llow Man, dir. Kamel Laaridhi (Tunisia)
London, dirs. Victor Di Marco, Márcio Picoli (Brazil)
Meteorite, dir. Sebastián Múnera (Colombia)
Our Share of Sand, dir. Shalini Adnani (India, United Kingdom, Greece)
Prima Della Guerra, dir. Tommaso Usberti (France, Italy)
Zoom In, Zoom Out, dir. Dong Jie (China)
Closing Film
Rider, dirs. Roan Johnson, Davide Pavanello (Italy)