The last red carpet on the Lido rolled out on Saturday, September 12, and the jury’s top honor went to a period drama from Denmark. The 83rd Venice International Film Festival awarded its Golden Lion for Best Film to May el-Toukhy’s Kvinde Ukendt (Woman Unknown), a Danish, Swedish and Latvian production, and gave the Coppa Volpi for Best Actress to its lead, Mathilde Arcel. The jury was presided over by Maggie Gyllenhaal and included Kaouther Ben Hania, Daniel Blumberg, Francesco Casetti, Xavier Giannoli, Shahrbanoo Sadat and Johnnie To.
The film that won
According to Cineuropa’s review, Woman Unknown unfolds over five days in Denmark as the country celebrates its liberation in May 1945. Its heroine, Marie, a maid about to marry a wealthy widower, faces exposure at a moment when vigilante groups were publicly shaming women accused of relationships with occupying soldiers. Arcel stars opposite Carsten Bjørnlund and Thorbjørn Hedegaard, and the film was produced by Nordisk Film Production with Latvian and Swedish partners. Reviewer Jan Lumholdt called it “powerful cinema, powerfully written, acted and visualised. And it’s powerfully nasty, too.”
El-Toukhy told Cineuropa that she drew on historian Annette Warring’s research and interviews with surviving women, and that casting a newcomer rather than a known actress “adds an extra layer to the film, in getting to know Marie.” She said the film “fittingly talks about the invisibility of women,” Cineuropa reported.
The full palmarès
- Silver Lion, Grand Jury Prize: Possible Love by Lee Chang-dong (South Korea)
- Silver Lion, Best Director: Ilya Khrzhanovsky for DAU
- Coppa Volpi, Best Actor: John Malkovich in Wild Horse Nine by Martin McDonagh
- Best Screenplay: Stéphane Brizé, Coralie Amédéo and Olivier Gorce for A Good Little Soldier
- Special Jury Prize: NAZA by Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
- Marcello Mastroianni Award: Malou Khebizi in A Place to Heal
In the Orizzonti section, the top prize went to Diane in the Loop by Ann Sirot and Raphaël Balboni, according to La Biennale, while Riccardo Scamarcio took the section’s Best Actor award for The Children of the Monkey.
A record-breaking Lido
The festival’s commercial health matched its glamour. La Biennale reported on September 13 that 117,656 tickets were sold, up 14 percent on 2025, which the organizers note was “already a record year,” with about 14,000 accreditations issued. The 2026 edition, which ran from September 2 to 12, also presented Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement to George Clooney and Ellen Burstyn, and closed with the world premiere of Giovanni Veronesi’s Dio ride.
Where the winners go next
Several of the winners now move onto the autumn festival circuit. Woman Unknown is listed by Cineuropa as a Centrepiece selection at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, and Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love is slated for the New York Film Festival, where the director is also scheduled for a Deep Focus talk on September 28. For audiences outside Italy, the Lido’s verdict will soon be tested on new red carpets.
See all sources
- Official Awards of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, La Biennale di Venezia, 2026-09-12
- Woman Unknown scoops Venice’s Golden Lion, Cineuropa, 2026-09-12
- Review: Woman Unknown, Cineuropa, 2026-09-07
- May el-Toukhy, director of Woman Unknown (interview), Cineuropa, 2026-09-08
- Figures for the 83rd Venice International Film Festival, La Biennale di Venezia, 2026-09-13
- Biennale Cinema 2026, La Biennale di Venezia, 2026-09-15
- NYFF64 Talks Lineup Features Hamaguchi, Almodóvar, Coppola, DuVernay, Scorsese, James Gray, Mike Leigh, Lee Chang-dong, and More, Film at Lincoln Center, 2026-08-26
Lead image: illustrative photo by Declan Sun on Unsplash.
