The Venice Film Festival's Critics' Week has confirmed its 2026 lineup, showcasing first-time filmmakers from around the world, with the United States notably absent from the selections while Italy and Colombia feature strongly. Curated by general delegate Beatrice Fiorentino, the programme opens with Shalini Adnani's debut "Our Share of Sand", a family drama following a 12-year-old girl who returns to rural India to reconnect with her estranged father, and closes with the Italian rap musical "Rider", co-directed by Roan Johnson and producer Dade.

Seven feature films by debut directors, all receiving world premieres, will compete: Tommaso Usberti's "Before the War", set in a racist Northern Italian milieu; two Colombian entries, the AI-assisted fiction-documentary hybrid "The End of Times" and "Meteorite", about a theme park planned on Pablo Escobar's former estate; Tunisian dystopian drama "The H@llow Man"; Chinese mystery "Zoom In, Zoom Out"; and Brazilian drama "London". The section also includes an out-of-competition opener, Marco Santi's existential noir "Giaffa the Great". Fiorentino said the selection proves that "cinema never stopped asserting its own cruciality" despite wider industry struggles, adding that the works were "fierce and independent, daring and vibrant".