The 2026 Venice Film Festival is set to showcase three highly anticipated feature films on its opening Tuesday, bringing together a provocative documentary on one of the world’s most famous billionaires, a star-studded psychological thriller from an Oscar-winning director, and a meditative drama from actor-filmmaker Casey Affleck.
Leading the day’s premieres is Oscar-winning documentarian Alex Gibney’s nearly four-hour investigative portrait *Musk*, a deep dive into the unprecedented power and influence of Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest individual. Gibney, a veteran of exposing unvarnished truths about iconic figures and powerful institutions — from fallen healthcare entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes to disgraced energy giant Enron to the Church of Scientology — originally approached the project as an admirer of Musk’s work, and held out hope that the tech executive would agree to an on-camera interview.
Those hopes never came to fruition, however. “Ultimately he didn’t want to talk to me,” Gibney told the Associated Press in an interview. “Then you start digging into the facts and you follow them where they lead. And where they led for me was to a place that upended the myth, I would say, of Elon Musk as a kind of modern Leonardo da Vinci.” The documentary is scheduled to hit North American theater screens this coming October.
Also making its world premiere on the day is *Bunker*, a tense psychological thriller that pairs real-life Hollywood power couple Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, marking their on-screen reunion decades after their breakout together in 1992’s *Jamón Jamón*. Written specifically for the two leads by director Florian Zeller — who previously took home an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for *The Father*, which also earned Anthony Hopkins a Best Actor win — the film centers on an architect who accepts a commission to build a doomsday survival bunker for a wealthy client, a choice that sends unresolvable ripples through his marriage. The cast also includes acclaimed character actors Stephen Graham and Paul Dano, plus Patrick Schwarzenegger.
In his director’s statement, Zeller explained the layered themes at the heart of the story. “‘Bunker’ touches on several contemporary themes – fear of the future, ecological threats, rising social inequality, and rampant individualism–but it does so through a deeply personal lens: a couple struggling with each other,” he wrote. “I wanted to explore love, fidelity and forgiveness while placing the audience in a position of deliberate ambiguity.” *Bunker*, which is distributed by Searchlight Pictures, is slated for a wide theatrical release in early 2027, and is currently competing for the festival’s top honor, the Golden Lion, alongside other high-profile contenders including *Wild Horse Nine* and *Ink*. It will also complete a qualifying run for 2026 Academy Award consideration.
Completing the trio of premieres is *Company*, a thoughtful exploration of grief and compassion directed and co-written by Casey Affleck, which is also in the running for the Golden Lion. Set during a 1975 winter holiday gathering, the story follows the unexpected arrival of a mysterious stranger who upends the celebration, opening the door to a layered narrative centered on challenging moral questions. The film is still actively seeking distribution deals following its premiere, and features a cast that includes veteran actor Nick Nolte, Ben Mendelsohn, and Affleck’s own children, Atticus Affleck and Indiana Affleck.
In his director’s note, Affleck opened up about the core message that drives the story. “I spent a lot of my life looking over the ledger, keeping score, frustrated by the debt of kindness. Somewhere along the way I began to realize that the ledger is never balanced by the world. It’s balanced by what you contribute,” he wrote. “That’s what this film is reaching for.”
Festival-goers and industry audiences will wait just a few days for the announcement of this year’s award winners, which will be unveiled Saturday by a jury headed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker and actor Maggie Gyllenhaal.