Over eleven days, GdA brought to the Lido works coming from very different cultures and film traditions, offering a heady brew of debut filmmakers and established auteurs, men and women; Italian and international films, fiction, documentary, and hybrid forms, all proof of Giornate’s calling for exploration and discovery since its very start
The 23rd edition of Giornate degli Autori comes to a close today. 2026 has been our first year without Giorgio Gosetti, founder and driving force of the section, to whom this edition has been dedicated, and for this very reason one of the editions closest to his conception of Giornate: an independent festival, curious, open to all that goes on outside the screening theaters and ready to bring together different voices, generations, and film styles. Twenty-five world premieres, selected from among 1,036 submitted, from 114 countries. Ten titles in competition, five special events, nine Venetian Nights, and a closing film out of competition; fourteen films directed by women and thirteen Italian productions. Four films screened on the #confronti program, plus two new short films for Miu Miu Women’s Tales. Over 40 events made for a lively run at the Casa degli Autori, with more than 13,000 attending, overall.
The GDA Director’s Award was bestowed on María Aparicio for A veces me entra tristeza, otras veces rebelión, while the Europa Cinemas Label jury gave top honors to Une femme aujourd’hui by Robert Guediguian, and Giornate degli Autori’s People’s Choice Award went to Balcanica by Nicola Sorcinelli, winning 76% of the votes.
“I’m very happy about the awards handed out this year, to three very different films but each, in its own way, able to take its cue from human lives and relations in order to embrace the key issues of our present day: work and inequality, migrations and borders, violence, yet also solidarity and the possibility to imagine a different world. Three free-spirited films, political and profoundly human titles that look at the world without oversimplifying it,” declares Gaia Furrer, Artistic Director of Giornate degli Autori.
The byword of this edition was at once continuity, along with the need to keep on changing. Over eleven days, Giornate brought to the Lido works coming from very different cultures and film traditions, offering a heady brew of debut filmmakers and established auteurs, men and women; Italian and international films, fiction, documentary, and hybrid forms, all proof of Giornate’s calling for exploration and discovery since its very start.
Venice was ‘invaded’ by Francesca Archibugi, Ariane Ascaride, Laura Citarella, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Mackenzie Davis, Matilda De Angelis, Sara Drago, Sara Fgaier, Rupert Friend, Robert Guediguian, Lili Horvát, Babak Karimi, Luigi Lo Cascio, Cosimo Messeri, Hania Mroué, Barbara Ronchi, Eduardo Scarpetta, Carla Simón, Roberta Torre, Mia Wasikowska, and many other actors and players behind the films on our program. Kim Gordon, Suzanne Lindon, Mona Fastvold, and Amanda Seyfried ushered in the newest entries in Miu Miu Women’s Tales, while events and talks at the Casa degli Autori saw the participation of, among others, Alba Rohrwacher, Francesca Comencini, Dave McKean, and Leo Ortolani.
The Casa degli Autori was an ideal venue for screenings, meetings, and conversations about our own times. Venetian Nights, organized in accord with Isola Edipo, explored the most free-wheeling forms of Italian cinema today; while #confronti offered a space for discussion and debate on current issues, and our events program connected the dots between film, music, literature, cartoons, education, and civic commitment.
“It was a complex edition, but immensely rewarding,” declares Francesco Ranieri Martinotti, President of Giornate degli Autori. “The commitment shown by our entire team and the support of the many partners and sponsors who support us and journey with us were abundantly repaid by the warmth of our audiences: thousands of people followed our program passionately and attentively, in Sala Perla, Sala Laguna and the Casa degli Autori, with all the official screenings sold out and high attendance at our events and talks. This affection drives everything we do; it’s an invitation to go from strength to strength and keep that dream born in 2004 – largely out of Giorgio Gosetti’s unflagging creativity – alive, reimaging and amplifying it. To Giorgio we are forever grateful and we promise: we will stay with him!”.
