Venice parallel section Giornate degli Autori (GdA) has unveiled a female focused lineup for its 2026 edition.

Drawn from 1,036 submissions from 114 countries, the lineup features 25 world premieres, of which 13 are Italian and 14 directed by women; with 10 films in competition, one closing film out of competition, five special events, and a showcase of nine titles in Venetian Nights (scroll down for the full section).

Hungarian director Lili Horvát’s first English-language film My Notes on Mars will open the edition. The sci-fi romance stars Mackenzie Davis as a scientist who vanishes during a hiking trip to reappear on the day of her own memorial service with no memory of the life she has lived in between. Rupert Friend co-stars.

Horvát previously made waves with Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, about a talented surgeon who ditches her career for a man who then claims to have never met her before. That film debuted in the GdA’s 2020 edition and then went on to win numerous awards including a Golden Hugo in Chicago’s New Directors Competition.

LĂ©a Domenach’s A Man’s Skin, described as a queer and feminist musical comedy set in the Italian Renaissance, and featuring Pomme, Karin Viard, and Catherine Deneuve in the cast, will close the section.

Horvát’s My Notes on Mars is among 10 films being showcased in competition.

Further contenders include Polish-born Australia-based filmmaker Kuba Dorabialski’s Agata the Writer, starring Mia Wasikowska as an Australian writer who travels to Sarajevo to work on a novel about the Bosnian war and is forced to acknowledge the limits of her own artistic vision.

In other competition highlights include Post Tenebras Lux actress Nathalia Acevedo directorial debut Salón de Belleza. Adapted from the radical novel by Mario Bellatin, it unfolds in a beauty salon in a city ravaged by a mysterious disease which becomes a refuge for the afflicted as they linger between life and death. Belgian multi-disciplinary artist Sam Louwyck, and Erwan Kepoa Falé co-star.

Established directors in the mix include Robert GuĂ©diguian with A Woman Today. Newcomer Marilou Aussilloux stars as a young woman grappling with the distance between her own idea of freedom and the contradictions of a present day still ridden with violence and inequality, alongside the director’s longtime collaborators Ariane Ascaride, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, and GĂ©rard Meylan.

The 23rd edition, running alongside the Venice Film Festival in September, is dedicated to the sidebar’s founder and longtime champion, film critic and festival exec Giorgio Gosetti who died suddenly and unexpectedly in March.

“This edition carries with it a deep void and a deep gratitude,” declares Artistic Director Gaia Furrer. “We owe to Giorgio the very idea for this free arena we inhabit, along with his faith in the new directions of cinema and his stubborn, loving determination to build and consolidate, year after year, a community of men and women filmmakers and audiences. This year, Giornate springs from the desire to honor this legacy by continuing to do what Giorgio taught us: seek out, discover, go wrong, become passionate about, and believe in cinema and in those who make it happen.”

SADNESS SOMETIMES, OTHER TIMES REVOLT by María AparicioArgentina, Spain, 2026

BALCANICA – debut featureby Nicola SorcinelliItaly, Serbia, Croatia, 2026

CAMOUFLAGE – debut featureby Mykyta GibalenkoGermany, 2026

DEAR AJAYIby Damilola OrimogunjeNigeria, Germany, 2026, 120’

I PLANT MY HAND IN THE GARDEN – debut featureby Boris HadĆŸija & Hoda TaheriGermany, Serbia, U.S.

The Indies – debut featureby Pauline Julier, Nicolas ChapoulierSwitzerland, Spain, 2026

MY NOTES ON MARS – opening filmby Lili HorvátHungary, Austria

SALÓN DE BELLEZA – debut featureby Nathalia AcevedoMexico, France, 2026

A WOMAN TODAYby Robert GuédiguianFrance, Italy, 2026

MAN’S SKIN – closing filmby LĂ©a DomenachFrance, 2026

AL BARANEYAby Ashgan El-HamusNetherlands, Egypt, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, 2026

CARLA LONZI, A FEMINIST STORYby Francesca ArchibugiItaly, 2026

THE PHANTOMby Ignacio Masllorens, David LamelasArgentina, 2026

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