The juries of Orizzonti and the Venice Award for a Debut Film

The International Juries have been selected for Orizzonti and for the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film, of the 83^rd Venice International Film Festival (September 2 - 12, 2026) of La Biennale di Venezia, directed by Alberto Barbera.

Chaired by French director, actress and screenwriter Valérie Donzelli, the international jury of Orizzonti will also include American film distributor Peter Becker; the Hong Kong-American director Elizabeth Lo; Mexican director and screenwriter David Pablos; Italian actress Barbara Ronchi.

Chaired by Italian screenwriter and director Carolina Cavalli, the international jury of the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film will also include British-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr.; American producer Ted Hope.

All the official awards will be announced during the closing ceremony of the 83^rd Venice International Film Festival on Saturday, September 12 on the stage of the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema at the Venice Lido.

The members of the international Jury for the Orizzonti section are:

Valérie Donzelli – president, director, actress and screenwriter. After studying architecture, Valérie Donzelli began an acting career working with Sandrine Veysset, Thomas Bardinet, Guillaume Nicloux, Alain Guiraudie, Bertrand Bonello, Cédric Kahn, among others. Her first short film as a director, Il fait beau dans la plus belle ville du monde, was selected for Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2008. She then directed The Queen of Hearts, her first feature film (Locarno, 2009). In 2011, she directed Declaration of War, which opened the 50th Critics’ Week at Cannes and enjoyed international success. Her third feature film, Hand in Hand, was released in France in December 2012. In 2013, her TV movie Just Love!, produced in collaboration with the Comédie Française and Arte, was screened at Locarno. Her fifth feature film, Marguerite & Julien, had its world premiere at Cannes in 2015. She then directed the comedy Notre Dame. In 2021, she premiered her first series, Nona and Her Daughters, co-written with Madeleine Clémence Perdrillat, which aired on Arte and for which she received the Critics’ Award for Best Series. In 2024, she won the César Award for Best Adaptation jointly with Audrey Diwan for the film Just the Two of Us, directed by Donzelli and based on the novel by Éric Reinhardt. In 2023, she directed her first documentary, Rue du Conservatoire. In 2025, she directed At Work, an adaptation of Franck Courtès’s autobiography of the same name, released in early 2026. The film won the Best Screenplay Award at Venice.

Peter Becker, American film distributor. Peter Becker is the president of the Criterion Collection and Janus Films. Founded in 1956, Janus Films is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. At its founding, Janus was the first theatrical distribution company dedicated to bringing international art-house films to U.S. audiences. Today, Janus is best known for its extensive library of classics and contemporary masterworks. Beginning with its Academy Award®-winning run of Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty, Janus Films has established a track record of releasing such celebrated new theatrical films as Drive My Car, Flow, All We Imagine As Light, The Shrouds, Caught By The Tides, among others. Peter Becker has been working for Criterion Collection since the early 1990s, focusing on the publishing of important classic and contemporary films, in editions that offer the highest technical quality, with award-winning, original supplemental features. As president of Criterion Collection, in 2019 he launched a thematically curated, independent movie-streaming service, the Criterion Channel, which is unique in the world not only for featuring new curated collections every month but for including all the archival treasures, commentaries, behind the scenes documentaries, and other special features that have made the Criterion Collection famous. More recently Criterion has also gained wide attention for its Criterion Closet Picks video series on Youtube and Instagram.

Elizabeth Lo, Hong Kong-American director. Her films have screened at Venice, TIFF, Sundance, IDFA, Tribeca, MoMA, and AFI Fest. Named one of Filmmaker Magazine’s “25 New Faces of Independent Film” and DOC NYC’s “40 Under 40,” she’s received fellowships from Locarno, NYFF, Yaddo, MacDowell, Concordia Studio, and the Gotham/HBO Documentary Initiative. Her debut documentary, Stray – following stray dogs on the streets of Istanbul – premiered at Tribeca, won Best International Feature at Hot Docs, earned Independent Spirit Award and Cinema Eye nominations, and was released by Magnolia Pictures and Hulu. Her Oscar-shortlisted second feature, Mistress Dispeller, premiered at Venice in 2024, has won over 20 awards across 80 festivals, was nominated for a DGA award, and was released in theaters in 2025 and now streams on the Criterion Channel. Her award-winning short films are held in academic collections worldwide. Elizabeth holds a BFA from NYU Tisch and an MFA from Stanford University, and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

David Pablos, Mexican writer and director. He graduated from the Centro de Capacitación Cinematográfica (CCC) where he completed his thesis film The Song of the Dead Children, which earned the Mexican Academy Award for Best Live Action Short in 2010 and was screened at Cannes, San Sebastián and Morelia festivals, among others. He attended Columbia University, where he earned a master’s degree in film directing and screenwriting. His documentary One Frontier, All Frontiers (2010) was part of the official selection at IDFA. In 2013 his first feature film The Life After premiered at Venice. His second feature, The Chosen Ones, competed at Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2015. The film received 13 nominations for the Mexican Academy Awards and won 5 of them, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. In 2021 his film The dance of the 41, premiered on Netflix worldwide, landing on the top 10 of more than 30 countries. It is the first gay period film ever made in Mexico and it won 4 Mexican Academy Awards. His most recent film, On the Road, premiered in Venice, where it won the Orizzonti Award for Best Film and the Queer Lion Award. Pablos is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).

Barbara Ronchi, Italian actress. Born in Rome, after earning a degree in classical archaeology, she graduated in 2009 from the Silvio d’Amico National Academy of Dramatic Arts and began working in theater with Carlo Cecchi, Valerio Binasco, and Fausto Paravidino. In 2013, she made her film debut in Valeria Golino’s Honey, and in 2016 she was cast by Marco Bellocchio in Sweet Dreams. She starred in Gli sdraiati by Francesca Archibugi and Sole by Carlo Sironi, which premiered in Orizzonti at Venice. In 2020, she played the female lead in Padrenostro by Claudio Noce, which was in competition at Venice, and in Cosa sarà by Francesco Bruni. In 2022, she starred in Settembre by Giulia Steigerwalt, for which she won her first David di Donatello Award. In 2023, she starred in Bellocchio’s Rapito, in competition at Cannes. For this role, she received the Nastro d’Argento and a David di Donatello nomination. In 2024, she was directed by Maria Sole Tognazzi in Dieci minuti, by Steigerwalt in Diva Futura—which was presented in competition at Venice—and by Francesco Costabile in Familia, which premiered in Venice's Orizzonti and won the Pasinetti Special Prize. She returned to Venice in 2025 with Elisa by Leonardo Di Costanzo, a performance that earned her a nomination for the David di Donatello Award, the Premio Flaiano, and the Globo d’Oro.

The Orizzonti Jury will award the following prizes, with no joint awards allowed: Orizzonti Award for Best Film, Orizzonti Award for Best Director, Special Orizzonti Jury Prize, Orizzonti Award for Best Actress, Orizzonti Award for Best Actor, Orizzonti Award for Best Screenplay, Orizzonti Award for Best Short Film.

The members of the international Jury for the “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film – Lion of the Future are:

Carolina Cavalli - president, Italian screenwriter and director. She was born in Milan. Her first feature film, Amanda, was selected for the Venice Film Festival and later for the Toronto Film Festival. She received an SFFILM Rainin Fellowship for the feature film Fremont, which she co-wrote with director Babak Jalali. The film premiered in 2023 at Sundance and was subsequently screened at Karlovy Vary. As co-screenwriter of Fremont, Cavalli won the John Cassavetes Award at the 2024 Independent Spirit Awards. The film was also nominated for a BIFA. Her second feature film as a director, The Kidnapping of Arabella, premiered in Venice in the Orizzonti section, where Benedetta Porcaroli won the Best Actress Award. It was subsequently selected for its international premiere at the BFI London Film Festival. 

Akinola Davies Jr., British-Nigerian filmmaker. His work spans multi-mediums, exploring themes of identity, community, race, and the diasporic experience. His storytelling often blends documentary and fiction, creating intimate and captivating visuals. His debut feature, My Father’s Shadow (co-written with Wale Davies), premiered at Cannes in 2025, earning a Special Mention for the Caméra d’Or and later winning the 2026 BAFTA for Outstanding Debut. He first gained international acclaim with his Sundance Grand Jury Prize–winning short Lizard, and has since been named one of Variety’s “10 Directors to Watch” for 2026. With a background in anthropology, his work spans film, art, music, and fashion, collaborating with major artists and brands while exhibiting globally at institutions such as Tate Modern and MoMA.

Ted Hope, American producer. Cinema-worker -- that’s how Ted describes himself. He is the producer of over 70 films, and has been a studio executive on over 60. He was a CEO of a start-up streamer, co-head of 3 production companies, executive director of a film society & festival, a Professor of Practice at 2 universities, and founder of a post-production facility, 2 websites, 2 think tanks, & an app. He launched Amazon’s foray into feature film production, leading them to 19 Oscar nominations and 5 wins. As a producer, his films have received 25 Oscar nominations, with 6 wins. Ted’s memoir Hope For Film is must read, and his Substack newsletter of the same name has helped initiate both “FilmStack” and the growing “NonDē” movement. Ted helped drive the feature film careers of Ang Lee, Nicole Holofcener, Hal Hartley, Michel Gondry and many others. His most recent films include Lone Wolf, directed by Mark Pellington (in post-production), and the documentary Invisible Nation, directed and produced by Vanessa Hope, which together they led the distribution on, demonstrating the power of slow distribution, and recently enjoyed becoming the 3rd highest grossing doc of all time in Taiwan (its subject of focus).

The Jury of the Venice Award for a Debut Film will award to one of the debut feature-length films selected from the various competitive sections of the Venice Film Festival (Official Selection and Independent and Parallel Sidebars), with no joint awards allowed, the Lion of the Future – “Luigi De Laurentiis” Venice Award for a Debut Film, with the cash prize of 100,000 USD donated by Filmauro, will be divided equally between the director and the producer.