(L to R) Daniel Blumberg, Kaouther Ben Hania, Shahrbanoo Sadat Courtesy of the Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival has set the international jury for its 83rd edition.
Joining jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal to pick this year’s Golden Lion winner are Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To, French director Xavier Giannoli, Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat, British composer Daniel Blumberg and film scholar Francesco Casetti.
Gyllenhaal was announced as jury president in April. The actress-turned-director made her feature debut in Venice with The Lost Daughter in 2021, winning the festival’s best screenplay award.
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Ben Hania returns to Venice after winning the Silver Lion Grand Jury prize last year for The Voice of Hind Rajab, which was also nominated for an Oscar.
Blumberg, won the Oscar and BAFTA for his score for Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, which premiered on the Lido in 2024, winning best director en route to 10 Oscar nominations and three wins. Blumberg has also composed music for Pompei: Below The Clouds and The Testament of Ann Lee.
Sadat, who has lived in Hamburg since leaving Afghanistan following the fall of Kabul in 2021, opened this year’s Berlin Film Festival with her feature No Good Men. She is currently developing a five-film cycle based on the writings of longtime collaborator Anwar Hashimi.
To returns to the Lido nearly two decades after serving on the Venice jury in 2008. Four of his films — Throw Down, Exiled, Mad Detective and Life Without Principle — have premiered in Venice.
Giannoli has had three features in competition in Venice: Superstar (2012), Marguerite (2015), and Lost Illusions (2021). His latest feature, Les Rayons et les ombres, premiered earlier year.
Casetti is Sterling Professor of Humanities and Film and Media Studies at Yale University and the author of several books on cinema and media theory, including The Lumière Galaxy and Screening Fears: On Protective Media.
The 2026 jury will award the festival’s main competition prizes, including the Golden Lion for best film, the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize, the Silver Lion for best director, the Coppa Volpi awards for best actress and actor, the Special Jury Prize, best screenplay and the Marcello Mastroianni Award for a breakthrough performer.
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