Venice parallel section Giornate degli Autori (GdA) has unveiled a female focused lineup for its 2026 edition.
Drawn from 1,036 submissions from 114 countries, the lineup features 25 world premieres, of which 13 are Italian and 14 directed by women; with 10 films in competition, one closing film out of competition, five special events, and a showcase of nine titles in Venetian Nights (scroll down for the full section).
Hungarian director Lili Horvát’s first English-language film My Notes on Mars will open the edition. The sci-fi romance stars Mackenzie Davis as a scientist who vanishes during a hiking trip to reappear on the day of her own memorial service with no memory of the life she has lived in between. Rupert Friend co-stars.
Horvát previously made waves with Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, about a talented surgeon who ditches her career for a man who then claims to have never met her before. That film debuted in the GdA’s 2020 edition and then went on to win numerous awards including a Golden Hugo in Chicago’s New Directors Competition.
Léa Domenach’s A Man’s Skin, described as a queer and feminist musical comedy set in the Italian Renaissance, and featuring Pomme, Karin Viard, and Catherine Deneuve in the cast, will close the section.
Horvát’s My Notes on Mars is among 10 films being showcased in competition.
Further contenders include Polish-born Australia-based filmmaker Kuba Dorabialski’s Agata the Writer, starring Mia Wasikowska as an Australian writer who travels to Sarajevo to work on a novel about the Bosnian war and is forced to acknowledge the limits of her own artistic vision.
In other competition highlights include Post Tenebras Lux actress Nathalia Acevedo directorial debut Salón de Belleza. Adapted from the radical novel by Mario Bellatin, it unfolds in a beauty salon in a city ravaged by a mysterious disease which becomes a refuge for the afflicted as they linger between life and death. Belgian multi-disciplinary artist Sam Louwyck, and Erwan Kepoa Falé co-star.
Established directors in the mix include Robert Guédiguian with A Woman Today. Newcomer Marilou Aussilloux stars as a young woman grappling with the distance between her own idea of freedom and the contradictions of a present day still ridden with violence and inequality, alongside the director’s longtime collaborators Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, and Gérard Meylan.
The 23rd edition, running alongside the Venice Film Festival in September, is dedicated to the sidebar’s founder and longtime champion, film critic and festival exec Giorgio Gosetti who died suddenly and unexpectedly in March.
“This edition carries with it a deep void and a deep gratitude,” declares Artistic Director Gaia Furrer. “We owe to Giorgio the very idea for this free arena we inhabit, along with his faith in the new directions of cinema and his stubborn, loving determination to build and consolidate, year after year, a community of men and women filmmakers and audiences. This year, Giornate springs from the desire to honor this legacy by continuing to do what Giorgio taught us: seek out, discover, go wrong, become passionate about, and believe in cinema and in those who make it happen.”
OFFICIAL SELECTION
IN COMPETITION
SADNESS SOMETIMES, OTHER TIMES REVOLT
by María Aparicio
Argentina, Spain, 2026
AGATA THE WRITER
by Kuba Dorabialski
Australia, 2026
BALCANICA – debut feature
by Nicola Sorcinelli
Italy, Serbia, Croatia, 2026
CAMOUFLAGE – debut feature
by Mykyta Gibalenko
Germany, 2026
DEAR AJAYI
by Damilola Orimogunje
Nigeria, Germany, 2026, 120’
I PLANT MY HAND IN THE GARDEN – debut feature
by Boris Hadžija & Hoda Taheri
Germany, Serbia, U.S.
The Indies – debut feature
by Pauline Julier, Nicolas Chapoulier
Switzerland, Spain, 2026
MY NOTES ON MARS – opening film
by Lili Horvát
Hungary, Austria
SALÓN DE BELLEZA – debut feature
by Nathalia Acevedo
Mexico, France, 2026
A WOMAN TODAY
by Robert Guédiguian
France, Italy, 2026
OUT OF COMPETITION
MAN’S SKIN – closing film
by Léa Domenach
France, 2026
SPECIAL EVENTS
AL BARANEYA
by Ashgan El-Hamus
Netherlands, Egypt, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, 2026
CARLA LONZI, A FEMINIST STORY
by Francesca Archibugi
Italy, 2026
THE PHANTOM
by Ignacio Masllorens, David Lamelas
Argentina, 2026
THE MASSACRE
by Cosimo Messeri
Italy, 2026
EVEN IF HELL CAME
by Samuele Rossi
Italy, 2026
