The 80th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 30 August to 9 September 2023, at Venice Lido in Italy.
Alberto Barbera, Venice's artistic director, acknowledged that the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike was likely to impact the festival if it was not resolved in time, due to the strike rules that prevent all actors from taking part in any kind of promotional activities for their films. Nevertheless, the festival proceeded though fewer Hollywood celebrities than usual were in attendance, while an increase of European titles in all sections was expected. The world premieres of some upcoming award season hot titles expected to premiere at Venice, such as Ethan Coen's Drive-Away-Dolls, ended up delayed. As the strike was ongoing, some American films announced the absence of the cast in the red carpet of their world premieres, including Bradley Cooper, director/writer/producer and actor of Maestro.
American filmmaker Damien Chazelle served as Jury President for the main competition. Italian actress Caterina Murino hosted the opening and closing nights of the festival. The Golden Lion was awarded to Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos.
Italian director Liliana Cavani and Chinese/Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai were both awarded with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement during the festival.
The festival opened with Comandante by Edoardo De Angelis. Luca Guadagnino's Challengers was originally scheduled to have its world premiere as the festival's opening film, but MGM/Amazon chose to withdraw it and delay its release due to the ongoing 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. J. A. Bayona's Society of the Snow was the closing film.
The following films were selected for the main competition:
The following films were selected to be screened out of competition:
The following films were selected to have a Special Screening:
The following films were selected to the Orizzonti main competition:
The following films were selected to the Orizzonti Extra section:
Venice Classics is the section that since 2012 has presented world premiere screenings at the Venice Film Festival of a selection of the best restorations of film classics carried out over the past year by film archives, cultural institutions and production companies around the world. The section usually also presents a selection of documentaries about cinema. Director and screenwriter Andrea Pallaoro will chair a Jury of Film Students which will award the Venice Classics prizes for the respective competitions for Best Restored Film and for the Best Documentary About Cinema. The Jury chaired will be composed of 24 students, each of them recommended by professors of film studies from various Italian universities. The following films were selected to the Venice Classics section:
The Venice Immersive is entirely devoted to immersive media and includes all XR means of creative expression, from 360ð videos to XR works of any length, including installations and virtual worlds. The following projects were selected for the XR - Extended Reality section of La Biennale di Venezia:
Final Cut in Venice is the festival program that has been providing since 2013 support in the completion of films from African and Middle East countries. The following seven work-in-progress films have been selected for the 11th edition of Final Cut in Venice:
The titles in competition will compete for the â¬5,000 Grand Prize and the â¬3,000 Audience Award. The selection committee is led by delegate general Beatrice Fiorentino with members including Enrico Azzano, Chiara Borroni, Ilaria Feole, and Federico Pedroni. The following films were selected to the International Criticsâ Week sections:
The line-up spans 10 films in competition, seven special events, eight titles in "Venice Nights" as well as a special day-long event devoted Vallée and the cinema of Québec. The following films were selected to the Giornate degli Autori sections:
The following collateral awards were conferred to films of the autonomous sections:
During the Festival, casting director of Io capitano, Henri-Didier Njikam, was denied an entry visa by the Italian Embassy in Rabat, Morocco, because there were no guarantees that he would leave Italian territory once he entered. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter Roma, Njikam said the fact was perceived as "an act of racism" as "the embassy justified the refusal by claiming that there were no guarantees that I would leave Italian territory once I entered, in Venice. They basically treated me as a migrant, as if I wanted to take advantage of the situation to escape. But I have a job, a professional card from the Moroccan Film Center. And, frankly, if I wanted to work in Europe, I would have already done so," and that the entity "did not look at my resume or my documents, only the color of my skin. [...] This problem exists only with the Italian embassy in Morocco, because my colleagues from Ghana and the Ivory Coast were able to leave. If I had been white, I don't think I would have been treated this way."