Overview

• Twenty-one titles compete for the Golden Lion, with awards to be unveiled at the closing ceremony beginning at 1700 GMT under Alexander Payne’s jury.
• The Voice of Hind Rajab drew an exceptional 22–23 minute standing ovation and heavy attention for its use of real emergency-call audio, as thousands protested outside and roughly 2,000 cinema insiders signed an open letter on Gaza.
• Reviewers highlighted additional contenders including Benny Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia, Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.
• Venice doubled as an early Oscars launchpad, showcasing high-profile premieres from Kathryn Bigelow, del Toro, Lanthimos, Safdie, and Olivier Assayas, alongside major star turns from Emma Stone, Dwayne Johnson, George Clooney, and Julia Roberts.
• Festival leadership steadied after Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco signaled continued support for long-serving artistic director Alberto Barbera.