Overview

• The festival closes with a ceremony from 1700 GMT, where Alexander Payne’s jury will unveil winners from 21 competition titles including the Golden Lion.
• Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab earned an approximately 22–23 minute ovation using real emergency-call audio, and the director reported producers received waves of hostile emails after the premiere.
• The Gaza war shaped the atmosphere as thousands marched to the Lido entrance and organizers cited about 2,000 signatories on an open letter urging a denunciation of Israel’s offensive.
• Key contenders discussed by critics include The Smashing Machine starring Dwayne Johnson, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia, Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite, and Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, with Netflix backing several entries.
• Venice Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco publicly dismissed speculation about replacing artistic director Alberto Barbera, signaling leadership continuity.