Venice International Film Critics Week #SettimanaDellaCriticaVenezia
41. Settimana Internazionale della Critica
September 2–12 Venice, Italy
Imagining the future. Resisting the present.
From Colombia to Brazil, from India to China, via Italy and Tunisia, the new selection of Settimana Internazionale della Critica explores the present through filmmakers set to shape the cinema of tomorrow with new forms of storytelling
Seven debuts from four continents portray a world in transformation, exploring bodies, memory, technology and new forms of freedom that challenge the conventions of contemporary cinema
The programme is completed by the Special Events out of competion – Il grande Giaffa by Marco Santi and Rider by Roan Johnson and Davide Pavanello – together with the 11th edition of SIC@SIC – Short Italian Cinema @ Settimana Internazionale della Critica
General Delegate Beatrice Fiorentino announces the line-up of the 41st edition: HERE
#SIC41
#VeniceInternationalFilmCriticsWeek
#SettimanaDellaCriticaVenezia www.sicvenezia.it
The Settimana Internazionale della Critica celebrates its 41st edition, reaffirming its original mission: to discover new filmmakers, identify evolving cinematic languages and offer a space of creative freedom for the cinema of today and tomorrow. Organised by the Union of Italian Film Critics (SNCCI) as part of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia, SIC will present seven debut features in competition and two Special Events, all world premieres, from 2nd to 12th September. The selection for the 41st edition, curated by General Delegate Beatrice Fiorentino together with committee members Matteo Berardini, Marianna Cappi, Francesco Grieco and Marco Romagna, spans four continents and confirms a strong focus on contemporary languages, the blending of genres and formal experimentation.
There is an invisible thread running through the selection of the 41st Settimana Internazionale della Critica: cinema as an act of resistance. Resistance not simply as denunciation, but as the possibility of imagining other forms of existence and survival, new ways of inhabiting the present. The protagonists of the selected works oppose the forces that govern our time – capitalism's colonisation of images and memory, the technological control of emotions, the violence of social conventions, precarious work, the code of silence and imposed identities – stubbornly seeking a space of freedom. At the heart of this journey are bodies that refuse to be defined or reduced to a category: colonised, queer, disabled, vulnerable and desiring, shaped by history and politics but never fully tamed. These are radical and deeply emotional works that make the body the first site of resistance and cinema a space in which to imagine the future rather than merely recount the present. At a time when everything seems already seen and cinema appears divided between increasingly spectacular and sophisticated productions, looking at the world with fresh eyes becomes a duty. And this is precisely the task of debut cinema: to reinvent language even before the story, experiment with new forms of storytelling and open unexpected perspectives on the present. For over forty years, the Settimana Internazionale della Critica has chosen this space of freedom, where cinema sheds its skin and the future begins to take shape.
The seven films in competition map the present through profoundly different perspectives, united by a desire to question our time. From Colombia come The End of Times by Bibiana Rojas Gómez and Juan David Cárdenas, a radical essay film that uses archive footage and artificial intelligence to reflect on memory and colonialism, and Meteorite by Sebastián Múnera, an intense female-centred story set in a land still haunted by the ghosts of violence. Tunisia is represented by The H@llow Man by Kamel Laaridhi, a visionary dystopia imagining a future in which emotions and memory are controlled by technology. From Brazil comes London, the debut feature by Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli, a queer story that places physicality, desire and the freedom of self-determination at its centre. India is represented by Our Share of Sand by Shalini Adnani (a co-production with the United Kingdom and Greece), a family drama that becomes a reflection on inequality and environmental crisis. Italy enters the competition with Prima della guerra by Tommaso Usberti (a French-Italian co-production), an intense coming-of-age story set in the Po Valley that addresses contemporary masculinity with extraordinary maturity. Completing the lineup is Zoom In, Zoom Out by Chinese filmmaker Dong Jie, a work that weaves together mystery, online gaming and urban alienation to capture the anxieties of Generation Z.
Two Special Events will open and close SIC: the Opening Film will be Il grande Giaffa, Marco Santi's debut feature, an existential noir starring Edoardo Pesce that reflects on identity and social invisibility. The Closing Film will be Rider, the directorial debut of the duo Roan Johnson – who has already directed several successful films – and Davide Pavanello, aka Dade: an urban musical that uses the language of rap to explore precarious work, the desire for emancipation and the conflicts shaping a new Italy.
Once again this year, SIC confirms its awards programme: the IWONDERFULL Grand Prize, awarded by an international jury; the Audience Award; the Luciano Sovena Award for Best Independent Production; the Premio Mario Serandrei – Hotel Saturnia for Best Technical Contribution; and the Verona Film Club Award for Most Innovative Feature. All films in competition, subject to eligibility under the regulations, will also compete for the Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a Debut Film of the Venice International Film Festival.
The journey of SIC@SIC – Short Italian Cinema @ International Film Critics' Week also continues. Now in its eleventh edition and organised in collaboration with Cinecittà, the project remains one of the leading showcases dedicated to emerging Italian short-film directors. The 2026 edition also stands out for its significant presence of women filmmakers, reflecting the increasingly central role of the female gaze in contemporary Italian short cinema.
The Special Events programme will open with Les Métamorphoses, au féminin by Maria Giménez Cavallo, an editor with extensive experience working alongside Abdellatif Kechiche, who presents an openly feminist work that rereads Ovid's verses through contemporary eyes, bringing centuries of violence against women back to light. Closing the programme will be Un breve incontro by Liryc Dela Cruz, one of the most compelling voices in new Italian cinema, who films in Genoa an intimate and poetic work about the precariousness of the world we live in.
The Casa della Critica will also return, in a new location: an international space for meeting and exchange dedicated to film critics and industry professionals, and an increasingly important hub for dialogue among press, filmmakers and the industry.
IWONDERFULL is the main partner of the Settimana Internazionale della Critica. Cinecittà is the cultural partner, with which SIC@SIC is organised. The event is also supported by numerous institutional and private partners, including Associazione Amici di Luciano Sovena, Hotel Saturnia & International, Circolo del Cinema di Verona, NUOVOIMAIE, Frame by Frame, Stadion Video, Advista, Centro Nazionale del Cortometraggio, Agnus Dei – Tiziana Rocca Production and Milano Film Network, as well as media partners MyMovies, FRED FILM RADIO, The Hot Corn and Advista.
The 41st International Film Critics' Week will take place at the Venice Lido from 2nd to 12th September 2026 as part of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia.
Founded in 1984 by Lino Micciché, SIC has built a history of insight and bold choices over the years, presenting the debuts of filmmakers who later became leading figures in international cinema, from Kevin Reynolds to Mike Leigh, Olivier Assayas to Harmony Korine, Pedro Costa to Pablo Trapero, as well as major names in Italian cinema including Carlo Mazzacurati, Sergio Rubini, Antonio Capuano, Roberta Torre and Gianni Di Gregorio.
#SIC41 #VeniceInternationalFilmCriticsWeek #SettimanaDellaCriticaVenezia
September 2–12 Venice, Italy
Imagining the future. Resisting the present.
From Colombia to Brazil, from India to China, via Italy and Tunisia, the new selection of Settimana Internazionale della Critica explores the present through filmmakers set to shape the cinema of tomorrow with new forms of storytelling
Seven debuts from four continents portray a world in transformation, exploring bodies, memory, technology and new forms of freedom that challenge the conventions of contemporary cinema
The programme is completed by the Special Events out of competion – Il grande Giaffa by Marco Santi and Rider by Roan Johnson and Davide Pavanello – together with the 11th edition of SIC@SIC – Short Italian Cinema @ Settimana Internazionale della Critica
General Delegate Beatrice Fiorentino announces the line-up of the 41st edition: HERE
#SettimanaDellaCriticaVenezia www.sicvenezia.it
The Settimana Internazionale della Critica celebrates its 41st edition, reaffirming its original mission: to discover new filmmakers, identify evolving cinematic languages and offer a space of creative freedom for the cinema of today and tomorrow. Organised by the Union of Italian Film Critics (SNCCI) as part of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia, SIC will present seven debut features in competition and two Special Events, all world premieres, from 2nd to 12th September. The selection for the 41st edition, curated by General Delegate Beatrice Fiorentino together with committee members Matteo Berardini, Marianna Cappi, Francesco Grieco and Marco Romagna, spans four continents and confirms a strong focus on contemporary languages, the blending of genres and formal experimentation.
There is an invisible thread running through the selection of the 41st Settimana Internazionale della Critica: cinema as an act of resistance. Resistance not simply as denunciation, but as the possibility of imagining other forms of existence and survival, new ways of inhabiting the present. The protagonists of the selected works oppose the forces that govern our time – capitalism's colonisation of images and memory, the technological control of emotions, the violence of social conventions, precarious work, the code of silence and imposed identities – stubbornly seeking a space of freedom. At the heart of this journey are bodies that refuse to be defined or reduced to a category: colonised, queer, disabled, vulnerable and desiring, shaped by history and politics but never fully tamed. These are radical and deeply emotional works that make the body the first site of resistance and cinema a space in which to imagine the future rather than merely recount the present. At a time when everything seems already seen and cinema appears divided between increasingly spectacular and sophisticated productions, looking at the world with fresh eyes becomes a duty. And this is precisely the task of debut cinema: to reinvent language even before the story, experiment with new forms of storytelling and open unexpected perspectives on the present. For over forty years, the Settimana Internazionale della Critica has chosen this space of freedom, where cinema sheds its skin and the future begins to take shape.
The seven films in competition map the present through profoundly different perspectives, united by a desire to question our time. From Colombia come The End of Times by Bibiana Rojas Gómez and Juan David Cárdenas, a radical essay film that uses archive footage and artificial intelligence to reflect on memory and colonialism, and Meteorite by Sebastián Múnera, an intense female-centred story set in a land still haunted by the ghosts of violence. Tunisia is represented by The H@llow Man by Kamel Laaridhi, a visionary dystopia imagining a future in which emotions and memory are controlled by technology. From Brazil comes London, the debut feature by Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli, a queer story that places physicality, desire and the freedom of self-determination at its centre. India is represented by Our Share of Sand by Shalini Adnani (a co-production with the United Kingdom and Greece), a family drama that becomes a reflection on inequality and environmental crisis. Italy enters the competition with Prima della guerra by Tommaso Usberti (a French-Italian co-production), an intense coming-of-age story set in the Po Valley that addresses contemporary masculinity with extraordinary maturity. Completing the lineup is Zoom In, Zoom Out by Chinese filmmaker Dong Jie, a work that weaves together mystery, online gaming and urban alienation to capture the anxieties of Generation Z.
Two Special Events will open and close SIC: the Opening Film will be Il grande Giaffa, Marco Santi's debut feature, an existential noir starring Edoardo Pesce that reflects on identity and social invisibility. The Closing Film will be Rider, the directorial debut of the duo Roan Johnson – who has already directed several successful films – and Davide Pavanello, aka Dade: an urban musical that uses the language of rap to explore precarious work, the desire for emancipation and the conflicts shaping a new Italy.
Once again this year, SIC confirms its awards programme: the IWONDERFULL Grand Prize, awarded by an international jury; the Audience Award; the Luciano Sovena Award for Best Independent Production; the Premio Mario Serandrei – Hotel Saturnia for Best Technical Contribution; and the Verona Film Club Award for Most Innovative Feature. All films in competition, subject to eligibility under the regulations, will also compete for the Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Award for a Debut Film of the Venice International Film Festival.
The journey of SIC@SIC – Short Italian Cinema @ International Film Critics' Week also continues. Now in its eleventh edition and organised in collaboration with Cinecittà, the project remains one of the leading showcases dedicated to emerging Italian short-film directors. The 2026 edition also stands out for its significant presence of women filmmakers, reflecting the increasingly central role of the female gaze in contemporary Italian short cinema.
The Special Events programme will open with Les Métamorphoses, au féminin by Maria Giménez Cavallo, an editor with extensive experience working alongside Abdellatif Kechiche, who presents an openly feminist work that rereads Ovid's verses through contemporary eyes, bringing centuries of violence against women back to light. Closing the programme will be Un breve incontro by Liryc Dela Cruz, one of the most compelling voices in new Italian cinema, who films in Genoa an intimate and poetic work about the precariousness of the world we live in.
The Casa della Critica will also return, in a new location: an international space for meeting and exchange dedicated to film critics and industry professionals, and an increasingly important hub for dialogue among press, filmmakers and the industry.
IWONDERFULL is the main partner of the Settimana Internazionale della Critica. Cinecittà is the cultural partner, with which SIC@SIC is organised. The event is also supported by numerous institutional and private partners, including Associazione Amici di Luciano Sovena, Hotel Saturnia & International, Circolo del Cinema di Verona, NUOVOIMAIE, Frame by Frame, Stadion Video, Advista, Centro Nazionale del Cortometraggio, Agnus Dei – Tiziana Rocca Production and Milano Film Network, as well as media partners MyMovies, FRED FILM RADIO, The Hot Corn and Advista.
The 41st International Film Critics' Week will take place at the Venice Lido from 2nd to 12th September 2026 as part of the 83rd Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia.
Founded in 1984 by Lino Micciché, SIC has built a history of insight and bold choices over the years, presenting the debuts of filmmakers who later became leading figures in international cinema, from Kevin Reynolds to Mike Leigh, Olivier Assayas to Harmony Korine, Pedro Costa to Pablo Trapero, as well as major names in Italian cinema including Carlo Mazzacurati, Sergio Rubini, Antonio Capuano, Roberta Torre and Gianni Di Gregorio.
#SIC41 #VeniceInternationalFilmCriticsWeek #SettimanaDellaCriticaVenezia
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