2026 Venice Film Festival Winners: ‘Woman Unknown’ Takes Golden Lion, John Malkovich Wins Best Actor

The 2026 Venice Film Festival winners are official, with May el-Toukhy’s Woman Unknown taking the Golden Lion for best film and John Malkovich winning the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine. The awards were announced Saturday, September 12, as the 83rd Venice International Film Festival concluded its 11-day run on the Lido.

Woman Unknown also produced one of the night’s other major winners. Mathilde Arcel received the Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her performance in the Danish postwar drama, giving the film victories in both the festival’s top overall category and one of its two principal acting races. Reuters reported from the closing ceremony that el-Toukhy’s film prevailed over a 21-title competition field.

2026 Venice Film Festival winners put Woman Unknown at the top

Woman Unknown, also titled Kvinde Ukendt, is set in Denmark after the end of the Nazi occupation and follows a woman carrying the consequences of a relationship with a German soldier during the war. El-Toukhy directed and co-wrote the film with Maren Louise Käehne.

The official Venice program for Woman Unknown lists Arcel alongside Carsten Bjørnlund, Thorbjørn Hedegaard, Marina Bouras, Mia Plantin and Sofia Nolsøe. The Denmark-Sweden-Latvia production was produced through Nordisk Film Production and partners and ran 124 minutes in competition.

The Golden Lion victory was particularly notable because el-Toukhy was the only woman directing a film in the main 2026 competition. Jury president Maggie Gyllenhaal emphasized after the ceremony that the decision was based on the film itself rather than the gender imbalance surrounding this year’s selection.

The Golden Lion awarded on closing night is the competitive prize for the festival’s best film. It is separate from the career Golden Lions presented earlier in the festival, including George Clooney’s Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement during the September 2 opening ceremony.

John Malkovich wins Best Actor for Wild Horse Nine

Malkovich received the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for his performance in Wild Horse Nine, McDonagh’s dark comedy featuring a large ensemble that also includes Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Mariana Di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, Tom Waits and Parker Posey.

According to La Biennale’s official listing for Wild Horse Nine, McDonagh wrote and directed the 118-minute UK-U.S.-Chile production, with Carter Burwell composing the music and Ben Davis serving as cinematographer.

Malkovich did not attend the closing ceremony because he was working in Montreal, but he delivered his acceptance remarks by video. The Associated Press reported that the actor described himself as humbled by an honor previously given to many performers he admires.

The award gives Wild Horse Nine one of the festival’s highest-profile acting prizes after several star-driven competition entries finished without major jury awards.

Lee Chang-dong and Ilya Khrzhanovsky take Silver Lions

The jury awarded the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize to South Korean filmmaker Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love. The film was one of the most closely watched international competition titles of this year’s festival and marked another Venice appearance for the acclaimed filmmaker.

Ilya Khrzhanovsky received the Silver Lion for Best Director for DAU, his long-developed project about Soviet physicist Lev Landau. The filmmaker used his acceptance remarks to dedicate the award to Ukrainians, including his Ukrainian-born mother.

The jury also awarded the Best Screenplay prize to Stéphane Brizé, Coralie Amedeo and Olivier Gorce for the French drama A Good Little Soldier. Malou Khebizi received the Marcello Mastroianni Award for emerging actor for A Place to Heal.

The Special Jury Prize went to Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor’s documentary NAZA. The film, which examines Israeli military operations in Gaza using testimony from military insiders, became one of the festival’s most politically discussed entries.

A Reuters compilation of the principal Venice winners confirms the Golden Lion, acting, directing, screenplay, Grand Jury and Special Jury results announced at the September 12 ceremony.

The awards close a Venice festival filled with major premieres

The closing ceremony completed a festival that began September 2 with Danny Boyle’s Ink opening the 2026 Venice Film Festival. The competition also included titles from filmmakers including McDonagh, Werner Herzog and Hirokazu Koreeda, alongside international work spanning Europe, Asia and the Americas.

La Biennale scheduled a screening of the newly crowned Golden Lion film after the ceremony, an established festival tradition that gives audiences another opportunity to see the winning title once the jury’s decision is public. The official September 12 Golden Lion screening was set for the Sala Darsena following the awards.

Venice often acts as an early marker for the international awards season, although a festival prize does not guarantee later Academy Award recognition. Malkovich’s win is nevertheless likely to increase attention around his performance in Wild Horse Nine, while the Golden Lion gives Woman Unknown a significant international platform as its distribution and awards path develops.

For the 2026 Venice Film Festival winners, closing night ultimately belonged to a mixture of established names and less internationally familiar talent. Malkovich added a major acting honor to a career spanning more than four decades, while el-Toukhy and Arcel left Venice with the festival’s top film prize and Best Actress award for the same production.