Maggie Gyllenhaal President of the Venezia 83 international jury

American director, actress, screenwriter and producer Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Lost Daughter, The Bride!, Crazy Heart) will be the president of the International Jury of the Competition at the 83^rd Venice International Film Festival (September 2-12, 2026), which will assign the Golden Lion for Best Film, as well as other official awards.

The decision was made by the Board of Directors of La Biennale di Venezia, who confirmed the recommendation of the Director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera.

In accepting the proposal, Maggie Gyllenhaal said: “I am thrilled to accept the invitation to lead this year’s Venice Film Festival jury. Venice has always supported truthful, singular voices and I am honored to play a part in continuing that brave and necessary tradition.  I will not be standing in judgement, but in curiosity, admiration and excitement”.

Alberto Barbera commented: “Maggie Gyllenhaal embodies an artistic path of uncommon consistency, constructed over time with intelligence and courage. An actress who is able to portray disturbing and multifaceted characters, she also reinvented herself as an author with The Lost Daughter, which won the Best Screenplay award here in Venice in 2021. Her perspective on cinema – both intellectual and visceral – has found further confirmation in the recent film The Bride! (2026), which consolidates her stature as an original filmmaker. Having her as the president of our jury means being able to rely on an authoritative and independent voice, animated by that authentic passion for arthouse cinema which has always represented the heart of the Festival”.

On the closing night (September 12, 2026) of the upcoming 83^rd Venice Film Festival, the International Jury of Venezia 83, chaired by Maggie Gyllenhaal and composed of no more than seven international celebrities in the spheres of film and culture from different countries, will assign the following official prizes among the feature-length films in the Competition:

· Golden Lion for Best Film
· Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize
· Silver Lion – Award for Best Director
· Coppa Volpi for Best Actress
· Coppa Volpi for Best Actor
· Special Jury Prize
· Award for Best Screenplay
· Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best New Young Actor or Actress

Maggie Gyllenhaal is an Academy Award-nominated actress, director, producer, and screenwriter whose career is full of thought-provoking and groundbreaking work. 

This year Gyllenhaal released her film THE BRIDE! which she wrote, produced, and directed. The film is an imaginative continuation of the classic Frankenstein story, influenced by both the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein and Mary Shelley’s original masterpiece. With Warner Brothers at the helm, the film starred Jessie Buckley, Christian Bale, Annette Bening, Penélope Cruz, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jake Gyllenhaal and was released on March 6, 2026.

Previously, Gyllenhaal made her feature directorial debut with her adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel THE LOST DAUGHTER, starring Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, and Jessie Buckley, for which she also wrote the screenplay. The film went on to be nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Actress (Colman), Best Supporting Actress (Buckley), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Gyllenhaal). The film also won Gyllenhaal three Independent Spirit Awards (Best Feature, Best Director and Best Screenplay); four Gotham Awards (Best Feature, Bingham Ray Breakthrough Director Award, Best Screenplay, and Outstanding Lead Performance for Colman); the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Screenplay; a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in First-Time Feature Film; and a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best First Film, among many other wins and nominations. She was also named one of 2022’s Directors to Watch by both VARIETY and the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

Gyllenhaal won acclaim in 2002 for SECRETARY, starring opposite James Spader, for which she won a National Board of Review award and both Golden Globe and Independent Spirit Award nominations. She followed with Laurie Collyer’s SHERRYBABY (2006), a painful look at a young woman getting out of prison and hoping to reclaim her child, which earned her a second Golden Globe nomination. In 2009, she starred opposite Jeff Bridges in CRAZY HEART, earning her an Oscar nomination. Other notable film performances include DONNIE DARKO (2001), MONA LISA SMILE (2003), STRANGER THAN FICTION (2006), THE DARK KNIGHT (2008), NANNY MCPHEE RETURNS (2010), FRANK (2014) and THE KINDERGARTEN TEACHER (2018) among many others.

Gyllenhaal moved into television with BBC/Sundance’s THE HONOURABLE WOMAN (2014), for which she won a Golden Globe Award and received SAG and Emmy nominations.  And in 2019, Gyllenhaal concluded her three-season run as the sex worker Candy who becomes a film director in the HBO drama THE DEUCE, which she also produced. Her performance earned her rave reviews, and both Golden Globe and Critics Choice Award nominations.

She’s equally at home on stage. She played Priscilla in Tony Kushner’s HOMEBODY/KABUL (2004) in both Los Angeles and at BAM (Brooklyn Academy of Music). She also starred as Yelena in UNCLE VANYA (2009) and Masha in THE THREE SISTERS (2011), both alongside her husband Peter Sarsgaard at the Classic Stage Company in New York City. She debuted on Broadway in Sam Gold’s revival of Tom Stoppard’s THE REAL THING opposite Ewan McGregor in 2014.

She also collaborated with artist Matthew Barney on the experimental film RIVER OF FUNDAMENT in 2014, and her readings of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar can be heard on Audible.