The Venice Film Festival has revealed its 2026 award winners, with May el-Toukhy’s “Woman Unknown” taking home the prestigious Golden Lion for best film.
The Danish drama — which follows a young housemaid whose intimate relationship with a German soldier during World War II threatens her future — was the only film in competition solely directed by a woman.
In an emotional speech, el-Toukhy referenced the lack of female filmmakers, something that jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal called out on the festival’s very first day. “There’s a systemic problem,” she said in a press conference. “It’s harder for women to get films financed.”
“Thank you to the jury for this great honour — and to you, Maggie, especially for using your voice and shining a light on the lack of equal opportunities for female filmmakers in our industry,” el-Toukhy said. “This film has been incredibly challenging to make financially, logistically, emotionally. And what kept me going was the urgent need to illuminate the unknown women of our common history, to make them known. And especially tonight, I feel like I succeeded in doing just that.”
Earlier in the evening, “Woman Unknown” star Mathilde Arcel was awarded the Volpi Cup for best actress. The Danish actress immediately earned some new fans with her adorably awkward speech, lifting up her prize before saying, “Um, I’m going to put this down for a second. It’s super heavy!”
“This is my first lead role in a movie and it’s my first time at a film festival and my first time to win a film award,” Arcel gushed with tears in her eyes. “So I’m extremely honored and feel very lucky to get to do that here in Venice with you, people who I think are the most amazing filmmakers and actresses and actors in the world, I’ve looked up to my entire life. I would pinch myself, but if it’s a dream, I really don’t want to wake up.”
John Malkovich won the Volpi Cup for best actor for his performance as an eccentric CIA agent in “Wild Horse Nine,” which has already scored Oscar buzz for the 72-year-old actor. Though he couldn’t be at the ceremony since he was filming another project in Montreal, Malkovich beamed in via video to thank the jury for his prize.
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“I am humbled to be chosen for this award, which has been given to so many wonderful actors over the past 83 iterations of the Venice Film Festival,” Malkovich said. “Thank you to the jury for bestowing this honor upon me, and thank you, Martin McDonagh, for writing this lovely screenplay and for your superb direction of it, and for gifting me with this fantastic role. And thank you to all my wonderful colleagues, most especially my sidekick, the great Sam Rockwell.”
The grand jury prize — the festival’s second biggest honor — went to Lee Chang-dong’s drama “Possible Love,” which will compete for South Korea in the Oscars international feature race. “Without the patience and the faith of so many people, this film could not have come into this world,” director Lee said through a translator. “To my producer, who had to put up with drinking every single day, thank you so much and my apologies to you.”
“Possible Love” follows two married couples from different South Korean social classes, and Lee ended his speech by reflecting on that topic. “We are living in an era where the meaning of labor is fading, and human connections are increasingly becoming severed,” he said. “I made this film to ask what cinema can and should do in times like these, and take this award as a sign that you want me to keep asking these questions.”
The Silver Lion for best director was given to Russian dissident Ilya Khrzhanovsky for his three-hour-and-15-minute film “DAU,” which he has been working on for two decades. He dedicated his award to the “Ukrainians who are fighting in this terrible war for freedom and peace and victory and belief in them,” and also to his mother, sitting in the audience, who was “born in Ukraine just before the Nazis arrived,” he said.
“It is also a story of migration and it’s a story of our family, and my mother was always in the shadow in the story of our family,” Khrzhanovsky continued. “And of course, thank you to everyone who participated in this movie and invested so much energy and love for me to make it.”
“NAZA,” a powerful documentary about the conflict in Gaza from “No Other Land’s” Israeli co-directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, was awarded the special jury prize. “It’s honestly not very easy to stand here, thinking of all the Israeli politicians and journalists who are now attacking this film and denying it without even seeing it,” Abraham said. “So much is being done not to look at reality.”
He added, “We believe that the denial of a crime is what helps it persist, and that’s why it’s especially important for us that Israelis watch this film — it’s our country that is doing these crimes — that Europeans watch it, and especially here in Italy because your government and the German government are blocking pressure on Israel that can end this, that Americans watch it because that country is funding much of the killing.”
Throughout the ceremony, several took a moment to remember Oscar-winning British producer Jeremy Thomas, who died on Friday at the age of 77.
Gianluca Farinelli, head of Italy’s Bologna Film Archives and artistic director of Italy’s David di Donatello Awards, said: “He loved cinema; cinema made by humans and not by AI. He deeply loved our country. He produced masterpieces, also by great Italian directors.”
Thomas won a best picture Oscar for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” in 1988, one of nine Academy Awards for the film. He would make five features across 17 years with the Italian director.
Added Italian actor and producer Riccardo Scamarcio, who won the Horizons best actor prize for “The Children of the Monkey”: “Jeremy, a great man of cinema. I salute you, my friend!”
Alongside president Gyllenhaal, the competition jury included “The Voice of Hind Rajab” director Kaouther Ben Hania, Hong Kong filmmaking giant Johnnie To, Afghan filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat, French director and screenwriter Xavier Giannoli, “The Brutalist” composer Daniel Blumberg and U.S.-based Italian film academic Francesco Casetti.
See the full list of Venice award winners below.
COMPETITION
Golden Lion for Best Film: “Woman Unknown,” May El-Toukhy
Grand Jury Prize: “Possible Love,” Lee Chang-dong
Silver Lion for Best Director: Ilya Khrzhanovsky, “DAU”
Special Jury Prize: “NAZA,” Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
Best Screenplay: “Un Bon Petit Soldat” (“A Good Little Soldier”) — Stéphane Brizé, Coralie Amédéo, Olivier Gorce
Volpi Cup for Best Actress: Mathilde Arcel, “Woman Unknown”
Volpi Cup for Best Actor: John Malkovich, “Wild Horse Nine”
Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor: Malou Khebizi, “15/18 (A Place to Heal)”
Armani Beauty Audience Award: “Eu contez” (“I Matter”), Alina Șerban
Luigi De Laurentiis Award for Debut Film: “La maison du vent” (“House of the Wind”), Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
HORIZONS
Best Film: “Un détour par Diane” (“Diane in the Loop”), Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni
Best Director: Jaqueline Lentzou, “Mia Mera Sti Zoi Tis Tzo: Kefalaio Faidra” (“A Day in the Life of Jo: Chapter Phaedra”)
Special Jury Prize: “La maison du vent” (“House of the Wind”), Auguste Bernard Kouemo Yanghu
Best Actress: Laleh Marzban, “Moragheb” (“Falling House”)
Best Actor: Riccardo Scamarcio, “I figli della scimmia” (“The Children of the Monkey”)
Best Screenplay: Tommaso Landucci and Damiano Femfert, “I figli della scimmia” (“The Children of the Monkey”)
Best Short Film: “Quelques instants de bonheur” (“A Few Moments of Happiness”), Shaden Safieddine Tazi
VENICE CLASSICS
Best Restored Film: “La lunga notte del ’43” (“Long Night of 1943”), Florestano Vancini
VENICE IMMERSIVE
Grand Prize: “The Pigeon Ring,” Shixin Tao and Yuqi Zhang
Special Jury Prize: “Out of the Ashes,” Rory Mitchell and Nonny de la Peña
Achievement Prize: “Empire at Sea,” Peter Flaherty
Nick Vivarelli contributed to this report.
From Variety US