Venice 2026 recap

As usual with my rambling festival recaps it's a bit about great films, a bit about work, a little venting. maybe some fun and a rather wacky story about a lingerie mishap! Enjoy.

The films

Here are my top 6

Woman Unknown, dir May el-Toukhy. Such powerful filmmaking, and a side of history only a strong modern woman, working with remarkable skill, could show us.

Possible Love, dir Lee Chang-dong. Earns every second of its 164 minutes. A Korean master also considering the nature of filmmaking.

Wild Horse Nine, dir Martin McDonagh. Shall we just give John Malkovich his Oscar now?

A Place to Heal, dir Cedric Kahn. such a fresh look at young people and mental health.

Our Share of Sand, dir Shalini Adnani. A stunning debut feature showing me a world I’ve never seen before, with a great central performance by a newcomer. No wonder it won Venice Critics’ Week's audience award.

Primetime, dir Lance Oppenheim. Robert Pattinson is having A YEAR. And Skyler Gisondo blew me away.

Loads more films that I appreciated that I’m sure I’ll be talking about in coming months.

And a special shout out to Oasis: Don’t Look Back in Anger  - don’t roll your eyes, roll with it :) I had a blast watching this film. Many tears in the audience. I’d love to see it again with a drunk audience of fans singing along.

The work

We hosted 6 episodes of The Screen podcast:

Ep 1 hot acquisition titles

Ep 2 some reasons studios might not be in Venice (hint: $$$$$$$)

Ep 3 awards contenders

Ep 4 Clooney, a Cardinal and CAA, oh my! plus, Immersive Island.

Ep 5 Oasis doc & Italian films

Ep 6 - some Golden Lion frontrunners.

I also hosted a panel at Venice Production Bridge for their new Locations Market

Photo at top of that, if only to prove I didn't just drink Campari all day.

The moan

Clarification to an earlier Facebook rant: I was not trying to moan about the fact that I was in Venice (the city). It’s a wonderful place full of history, art, spritz, pizza and gelato - all of my favourite things. I was trying to complain that Venice (the film festival) is not very communicative when things fall apart. Things fall apart at EVERY festival, that’s the nature of live events. Especially ones with boats for transportation. But if there were no shuttle buses running in Park City, Sundance would let us know. When there are train strikes in France, Cannes warns us. If Toronto's Wifi went down, I'd bet TIFF staff wouldn't just shrug their shoulders. For the festival to just not care or not help when WiFi went down, that was the part that pushed me over the edge. See also: 60 people in a queue at the Palazzo for a coffee or a bottle of water in the morning. I know plenty of people who cancelled their trips when they saw this year’s Venice lineup, so festival organisers need to appreciate those of us who are showing up at their festival (especially those of us not on expense accounts!)

The city

It’s a miracle that Venice was ever bult and still exists. There is nothing quite so special as wandering those tiny alleys and canals and getting lost and just FEELING centuries of history and thinking of the people who lived there before and also being in wonder of how modern residents live here now (message hammered home seeing an ambulance boat). So much history, so much art and architecture. Honestly I’ve love to spend a month here just exploring off the beaten paths.

There is so much to see that I extended my stay thanks to a friend leaving their Airbnb early, and it meant I could do an afternoon at the beach (and a swim in the Adriatic) and then spend half a day seeing the Art Biennale. Note to self: half day not enough for Art Biennale, I did about 2% of it. But I saw some great pavilions (some favourites were the Belgian, Spanish, Hungarian, Nordics and USA -- I missed the most popular ones Austria (piss pool) and Japan (babies). I saw some art so good it made me stop and cry. And I paid it forward after my recent Royal Albert Hall freebie by giving away my Arsenale ticket to an art student from Hong Kong.

I did an amazing soundscape tour -- The Ear is the Eye of the Soul -- in a convent garden with vocals by Patti Smith and contributions from FKA Twigs, Brian Eno and more.

Still, a few things I don’t love about Venice: rats (I only saw two but they were BIG LADS who could have benchpressed me), Italian “queueing” approach (there are some things the Brits do best); and hordes of waddling tourists with no sense of spatial awareness (I don’t know how the locals cope).

Here I am making new friends at the Nordic pavilion at the Art Biennale:

I had some great food and strong drinks with wonderful friends. Not to mention the films that are the reason I went in the first place!

The funny story to end on

I’d like to wrap up on moment of humour. Not quite as memorable as my naked men in German spa moment at Berlinale, but I can exclusively reveal that one of my favourite bras now lives on the canals of Venice. If I was in my dive bar era of my late 20s, this would be the result of a wild story I’m sure. Sadly, a bit more boring: the sweltering weather meant doing laundry every day. And I hung a an unmentionable out to dry on a clothesline outside my flat’s window in San Marco. Evidently I didn't clip it on it very well because the next morning it had fallen down five flights straight in a canal. I hope it gave a gondolier a laugh. 

Obligatory photo on a boat (the dinghy that went to the Immersive Island) and wearing the rather LARGE necklace my mom convinced me to buy in NC.