Last day of the 2026 Venice Film Festival: awards and the Golden Lion today
Today, September 12, 2026, the 83rd Venice International Film Festival comes to a close. Here is our Caffè with Venezia da Vivere.
It is the day of verdicts at the Lido: this evening, the Golden Lion, the Silver Lions, the Volpi Cups, and the other official awards of Venice 83 will be presented.
The last day of the Film Festival concentrates the final screenings and the anticipation for the awards ceremony at the Lido. Other events dedicated to cinema at the Lido are also preparing their final showcases.
For example, in Riva di Corinto, Isola Edipo is preparing for the free concert by Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti. On the island of Lazzaretto Vecchio, Venice Immersive is also drawing to a close; it is the XR – Extended Reality section of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, an international project dedicated to immersive media: virtual, mixed, and augmented reality, 360° videos, installations, and digital worlds. Read WHO MAKES CINEMA IN VENICE.
After eleven days of films, meetings, red carpets, and days spent in the theaters, attention now turns to the names that will take the stage in the Sala Grande.
Venezia da Vivere, together with the correspondents from VeneziaCinema and several friends accredited to the Festival, has also attempted to make its own predictions.
Today the Venice 83 Awards Ceremony
The final red carpet with the juries and the award-winning artists is scheduled to begin at approximately 5:30 PM.
As happens every year, arrivals at the Lido could already provide some indication of the winners before the official announcement.
The Awards Ceremony, hosted by Greta Scarano and Nicolas Maupas, will begin at 7:00 PM in the Sala Grande.
Access to the Sala Grande is by invitation. The public will be able to follow the ceremony from the Palabiennale, before the screening of the closing film.
The closing film: Dio ride with Pierfrancesco Favino
Closing Venice 83, out of competition, will be Dio ride by Giovanni Veronesi, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, Silvio Orlando, Alma Noce, Francesco Gheghi, and Maurizio Lombardi.
The film tells the story of Friar Leopoldo da Casamacchia, a 17th-century preacher who recounted the Gospel in the vernacular and spoke of a merciful God, close to the people.
The following gained by the friar eventually created difficulties for the Church of the time.
Hugo Pratt and Venice at Critics’ Week
The final day also offers an appointment directly linked to the city.
The International Film Critics’ Week presents today, with a special screening, Il desiderio di essere inutile: Hugo a Venezia by the Swiss director Stefano Knuchel.
It is the third chapter of the trilogy the director has dedicated to the life of Hugo Pratt, following Hugo in Africa (2009) and Hugo in Argentina (2021).
The film traverses Venice, the Pacific Ocean, and Switzerland, following the life of the creator of Corto Maltese.
Sala Casinò, 2:00 PM.
Who will win the Golden Lion? Predictions by Venezia da Vivere
Now that we have reached the final day, we can try to organize the impressions gathered during the Festival.
Among the correspondents of Venezia da Vivere, VeneziaCinema, and other accredited guests, one of the titles mentioned most often is Wild Horse Nine by Martin McDonagh.
The director has already won the award for best screenplay twice in Venice, while the Golden Lion is still missing from his career.
Among the other films tipped for the main awards are Look Back by Hirokazu Koreeda and Possible Love by Lee Chang-dong.
Other titles that have left a mark and could receive recognition are Ink, DAU, and Bunker.
Volpi Cup: the most cited names
For the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, one of the names we have gathered most often is John Malkovich, the star of Martin McDonagh’s film.
Appreciated performances also include Rodney Hicks, the lead in Have You Ever Killed Anyone, Mr. Nelson? by Shinya Tsukamoto, and Teodor Currentzis, the lead in DAU by Ilya Khrzhanovsky.
The race for the Volpi Cup for Best Actress appears more open.
Among the names noted are Mathilde Arcel for Woman Unknown, Penélope Cruz for Bunker, Kate and Rooney Mara for Bucking Fastard, Vanessa Scalera for Il fuoco che ti porti dentro, and the very young Miyu Sasaki for Look Back.
Miyu Sasaki could also compete for the Marcello Mastroianni Award, dedicated to an emerging young actor or actress.
Possible winners of Orizzonti
In the Orizzonti section, titles that have gathered the most consensus include Moragheb (Falling House) by the Iranian Mohsen Gharaei and La ragazza con la Leica by Alina Marazzi.
The Italian entries Una storia by Anna Foglietta and I figli della scimmia by Tommaso Landucci were also well-received.
Last day of the Venice 83 Film Festival, today we will know who won
In a few hours, the official verdicts of the 83rd Venice Film Festival will arrive.
We will see how close the predictions gathered in recent days come to the juries’ decisions and who will enter the roll of honor of the 2026 Venice Film Festival.
Follow Venezia da Vivere and VeneziaCinema for the winners, the awards, and the latest stories from the Lido.
Article by Pietro Gallina, VeneziaCinema.
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Veneziacinema.com is Pietro Gallina‘s project featuring articles on cinema in Venice, along with the podcast Venezia Cinema in brief: short daily episodes voiced by Danilo Maggi, dedicated to films and events at the Lido, available for free on Spotify.
Article by Pietro Gallina (VeneziaCinema.com). Photos by Igor Serdyukov, Rossana Viola, and Settimo Cannatella.
