The program for the 83rd Venice Film Festival has been presented. Clooney Golden Lion along with Ellen Burstyn. From September 2 to 12, the Lido welcomes great authors, Italian cinema, international stars, and new forms of storytelling, from music to immersive experiences.
On Thursday, July 23, at 11 AM, via live streaming on the Biennale website and on Facebook, X, and YouTube, Alberto Barbera and President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco will present the program of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, held at the Venice Lido from September 2 to 12, 2026.
The 2026 Film Festival has taken shape in recent days. The International Jury of the Competition will be chaired by Maggie Gyllenhaal. The opening film, the world premiere of Ink by Danny Boyle, and the closing film, Dio ride by Giovanni Veronesi, have been announced. Among the restored titles of Venice Classics are works by Luis Buñuel, John Cassavetes, Alexander Kluge, Ernst Lubitsch, and Roman Polanski.
The program will be presented today. The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement goes to George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn.
The Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement to George Clooney
The award recognizes Clooney as an actor, director, and producer. But for Venice, and for those who follow the Festival closely, George Clooney is almost a friend. He arrives, greets, jokes, stops for photographers and the public, and plays along with the Festival. Clooney’s relationship with Venice has lasted for nearly thirty years and spans cinema, private life, and red carpets.
For this reason, Venezia da Vivere has chosen to tell his story through the photographs of Rossana Viola, a permanent presence on the Festival’s red carpets, Pietro Gallina, and Settimo Cannatella, and with the portrait by Jacopo Ascari, illustrator and friend of Venezia da Vivere, who lives between Venice and Milan and uses drawing to build a narrative of the city’s places, faces, and characters.
Clooney and Venice, a story that began in 1998
The first Venetian moment for George Clooney was in 1998. He arrived at the Festival with Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight, alongside Jennifer Lopez, just as he was becoming an international star. In 2005, Clooney returned to the Lido for one of the fundamental milestones of his career: he presented Good Night, and Good Luck, a film in which he served as director, screenwriter, actor, and producer.
The Darsena, the first thermometer of the Festival
Those who follow the Film Festival know it: the Darsena is the thermometer of the Festival. It is the point where the stars arrive before press conferences, photocalls, and red carpets. It is the place of the first images, glances, greetings, and looks still in full light. At the Darsena, one often understands the tone of the day—whether a star stops, greets, smiles, arrives in a hurry, or already steps into their public persona for the evening.
The photocall and the star’s public face
After the Darsena comes the photocall. More orderly, frontal, closer to the grammar of the Festival. Here, Clooney works perfectly. One of Rossana Viola’s most beautiful images captures him like this: Clooney spreads his hands, winks, and smiles as if to say “I won.” It is a photograph from 2013, the year of Gravity, the Alfonso Cuarón film starring Sandra Bullock that opened the 70th Venice Film Festival.
The unexpected event in the Sala Grande
There is an episode that is part of the personal memory of the Festival.
It is 2009. In the Sala Grande, they are presenting The Men Who Stare at Goats, directed by Grant Heslov and starring George Clooney. The screening is interrupted. The lights come on. The audience waits while technicians try to restart the film.
I am in the hall. Everyone is looking at Clooney. He senses the moment and begins making faces and gestures to entertain the audience, joking with Director Barbera and turning a technical problem into a small comic scene, making the entire Sala Grande laugh.
It is 2009, Instagram does not exist, but communication happens through an equally effective medium: Twitter. I report the scene in real time, and in the press room, journalists discover the episode this way.
The Venetian wedding
In 2014, the relationship between Clooney and Venice moved beyond the confines of the Festival and became an international story. George Clooney and Amal Alamuddin chose Venice for their wedding. For a few days, the city became the center of global media attention: arrivals by boat, hotels, guests, photographers, dresses, glances, details.
The Suburbicon red carpet
In 2017, George Clooney returned to the Lido as a director with Suburbicon, a film starring Matt Damon, Julianne Moore, and Oscar Isaac. It is September 2. On the red carpet is Rossana Viola, while outside, among the crowd, is Pietro Gallina, photographer and journalist for Venezia da Vivere: his pen accompanies the public every day in the narrative of the Festival, the films, and how to experience the event.
Pietro is at a side barrier of the red carpet. Usually, actors stop in front of the entrance to sign a few autographs and take a few selfies with fans. Clooney, that evening, broke the mold and drove everyone wild.
“George walked the entire, and I mean entire, perimeter of the red carpet, where there were people, outstretched hands, and voices calling him. He shook hands, gave out smiles, and took a few selfies with a generosity and love for the Venice Film Festival that I would say is almost unique” – Pietro Gallina
Amal as the protagonist, George as the plus-one
Another moment changed the scene again. In 2023, at the DVF Awards in Venice, the protagonist was Amal Clooney, honored by Diane von Furstenberg for her work on human rights. This time, George was beside her as a “plus-one”.
George Clooney con Amal sul red carpet della Mostra del Cinema al Lido di Venezia. Foto di Rossana Viola
George Clooney con Amal sul red carpet della Mostra del Cinema al Lido di Venezia. Foto di Rossana Viola
George Clooney con Amal sul red carpet della Mostra del Cinema al Lido di Venezia. Foto di Rossana Viola
Brad Pitt, Wolfs, and the red carpet
In 2024, Clooney returned to the Lido with Brad Pitt for Wolfs, a Jon Watts film presented out of competition. The images at the Darsena capture them before the press conference, when the Festival is still work, waiting, arrivals, and photographers preparing for the day. Then comes the red carpet, and there Clooney and Pitt turn the walkway into a scene. They joke with the photographers, look for each other, swap roles, and photograph themselves along with the photographers. The star looks at those who look at him. The red carpet becomes a gift for the public.
Jay Kelly
In 2025, Clooney is back in Venice with Jay Kelly, directed by Noah Baumbach, alongside Adam Sandler and Billy Crudup. The coincidence today is almost narrative: in the film, he plays a movie star dealing with an existential crisis as he approaches a lifetime achievement award at an Italian festival.
The countdown to the 2026 Festival
Today, with the online presentation at 11 AM, the wait for the full program of the 83rd Festival ends. Alongside the already known names, the official selection will bring with it the titles in competition, the collateral sections, and the other protagonists of the 2026 edition.
For us at Venezia da Vivere, the countdown begins, together with those who experience the Festival every year, when cinema also becomes real life.
Article by Laura Scarpa. Cover photo by Rossana Viola. Images by Rossana Viola, Pietro Gallina, and Settimo Cannatella, drawing by Jacopo Ascari. The photo of Pascal Le Segretain is from Getty Images, featuring George with photographers Rossana Viola and Massimo Peca.
George Clooney con Amal sul red carpet della Mostra del Cinema al Lido di Venezia. Foto di Rossana Viola
George Clooney con Amal sul red carpet della Mostra del Cinema al Lido di Venezia. Foto di Rossana Viola
George Clooney con Amal sul red carpet della Mostra del Cinema al Lido di Venezia. Foto di Rossana Viola
