Venice Film Festival 2026 Lineup: Musk, Ink, and the Golden Lion Contenders

Alex Gibney's Musk: The 4-Hour Documentary on Elon Musk

The most talked-about film of the festival isn't even in competition. Alex Gibney's documentary Musk premieres in the Venice Open (Out of Competition) section with a runtime of 232 minutes — nearly four hours. The film, described as a "years-in-the-making" portrait of Elon Musk, screens at the Lido before its U.S. theatrical release on October 16, 2026, via Bleecker Street.

Production and distribution partners include HBO Documentary Films and Universal Pictures Content Group, who teamed with Bleecker Street for the release. The October date positions Musk firmly in awards season; Bleecker Street has called it the headliner of its "biggest awards slate ever," alongside Mike Leigh's Tender Loving Care and Anton Corbijn's A Talent for Murder. Page Six noted the Oscar-season timing is by design.

How it fits the slate: Musk is part of an unusually robust out-of-competition documentary lineup. The festival's broader theme takes aim at media moguls: Boyle's Ink targets Rupert Murdoch's print empire, while Gibney's doc scrutinizes the digital-era tech billionaire.

Main Competition (Venezia 83) Highlights

The main competition features at least 21 world premieres. Key titles confirmed by multiple sources:

Documentaries and Noteworthy Out-of-Competition Films

An unusually strong documentary slate screens out of competition. The festival debuted a new category, Venice Open Non Fiction, to highlight these titles.

Out of Competition — Documentaries:

• Alex Gibney — Musk (Venice Open)
• Michael Dweck & Gregory Kershaw — Burgundy (from the directors of The Truffle Hunters)
• Barbara Kopple — Union Town
• Wim Wenders — From Inside Out – The Architecture of ... (documentary project)
• Russell Crowe — What Love Builds (music documentary; confirmed by Anewz.tv, not yet by major trades)
• Robert Greene — Too Much Sugar
• Luca Guadagnino — Joie De Vivre (Bernardo Bertolucci tribute)
• Victor Kossakovsky — Holy Wood Dump
• Julia Loktev — My Undesirable Friends: Part II — Exile (355-minute documentary on Russian independent journalists)

Out of Competition — Fiction:

• Paul Schrader — The Basics of Philosophy (starring Jack Huston and Sofia Boutella)
• Shinya Tsukamoto — new film (title TBD)
• Lav Diaz — Makikiraan Po (Let Us Through, Dear Ancestors)
• Father Joe — crime thriller starring Kiefer Sutherland and Al Pacino

Key Caveats and Unconfirmed Reports

• The official lineup PDF from labiennale.org was still loading subpages at time of this check. Section-by-section lists (Venezia 83, Open, Orizzonti, Spotlight) were published July 23 and may be updated.
• Russell Crowe's What Love Builds is referenced by Anewz.tv but has not been confirmed by major trade outlets (THR, Variety, Deadline) or the official Biennale page.
• Wim Wenders' project appears on an Instagram summary of the lineup but has not been independently confirmed by major trade coverage.
• Five Italian films are confirmed in competition per Euronews, but specific titles were not all named in press coverage.