2026 Venice: Lee Chang-Dong, Werner Herzog & Martin McDonagh in Golden Lion Comp

As we had mentioned in our predictions piece over the weekend, the competition skews heavily dude-centric this year, with May El-Toukhy‘s Woman Unknown being the only female-directed entry among twenty films, while acquisition prospects are boosted by high-profile titles such as Casey Affleck‘s Company and Werner Herzog‘s Bucking Fastard.