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Every autumn a trio of high-profile film festivals launches the race for the Academy Awards. Stars descend on scenic international locations—Venice, Telluride, and Toronto—in the hopes that they, too, might one day saunter across the Dolby Theatre stage. The 2026 Venice Film Festival is the starting point, bringing glamorous celebrity arrivals (on boats!) to the turquoise canals of northeastern Italy. On September 2, the quiet island of Lido transformed into a lively cinematic hub, welcoming stars like Kate and Rooney Mara, Robert Pattinson, George Clooney, Susan Sarandon, and more to sip Aperol spritzes and stare longingly at the Golden Lion.
Days later, on September 4, casts and crews swarmed the Rocky Mountains of Colorado for the Telluride Film Festival. This annual four-day fest celebrates the art of film, rather than forcing competition, and special guests will be revealed day-of. Other actors and directors flew to the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario for TIFF, the Toronto International Film Festival, which launched September 10. Check out the highlight reel of hotshots like Cate Blanchett, Channing Tatum, Michelle Yeoh, Helen Mirren, and Seth Rogen.
Vanity Fair was on the ground at all three film festivals, bringing you the inside gossip from the biggest screenings, the best red-carpet looks, and running commentary on who might actually make it all the way to March. Thanks for trusting us with the VIP access.
Is That All There Is
They say awards season is a marathon, not a sprint. If so, we just hit our first water stop, however brief. Tomorrow is the first day since the Venice Film Festival launched on September 2 that the team at Vanity Fair will be free of fall festival screenings.
It was a wild ride from the glamour of Venice to the rustic vibes at Telluride (can you believe we so recently lived in a world without those wide-eyed and instantly memeable images of Elizabeth Holmes from You Can See Everything?) to the Lake Ontario realness of the Toronto Film Festival. That latter showcase continues its run for another week, but we’re calling our correspondents home, for the 78th Primetime Emmy Awards, which will will be held on Monday night.
So while our time at these far-flung fests is over (for now), our blogging is not. We’ll see you here tomorrow, for all the best moments from the pre-parties, red carpet, and ceremony.
The Road to the Golden Globes
Per an event rep, the Road to the Golden Globes party at TIFF last night was so well-attended that “many had to be turned away due to capacity.” Of course, VF‘s John Ross made it behind the velvet rope, and penned a scene report that you can read just a short scroll below. On your way, check out these photos from the event.
Inde Navarrette and Coleman Domingo
Dick Clark Productions
Gemma Chan and Andrew Scott
Dick Clark Productions
Rebel Wilson and Anna Kendrick
Dick Clark Productions
Cody Fern, Naomi Watts, Dianne Wiest, and Patricia Arquette
Dick Clark Productions
Report from the Golden Globes x Four Seasons Party
This is a more subdued Toronto and the only real game in town in terms of party was the annual Golden Globes Party held at the Four Seasons.
Less crowded than last year, guests were able to chat and mingle with casts from other films. Anthony Ippolito entered the room in a daze after the premiere of his film, I Play Rocky (he plays…Rocky). Chase Infiniti and Christopher Briney, both starring in The Julia Set, were tucked away in a corner with their guests chatting it up. They are very sweet together and have great chemistry in the film. Andrew Scott did a drive-by and shook hands while speaking with guests. His film, Elsinore, doesn’t premiere until tomorrow. The Javis and La Bola Negra star Guitarricadelafuente are defending their titles as this season’s social butterflies. They seem to have endless energy and can chat with anyone.
So we’ve reached the intermission of Musk, and I don’t want to say my main takeaway so far is that Justine Musk, Elon’s first wife, has incredible hair—but Justine Musk has incredible hair.
Greetings once again from the Scotiabank, where I’m in line to get in line to see a press screening of Musk, Alex Gibney’s four-hour documentary about the Tesla founder and Internet main character. The screening’s more than an hour away, but I wasn’t the first person to get in this scrum. (I am, however, the first woman; make of that what you will.)
We’ve got 45 minutes to go, but I already feel like I’m getting the Musk experience (overhearing a young person in line tell an old person in line that while she used to work for him at his documentary filmmaking company, she has now “pivoted to vertical.” The old person did not have any idea what she was talking about).
What inspired Chris Rock to make Misty Green, the story of a talented but self-sabotaging actress (played, in a star turn, by Rosalind Eleazar, who’s otherwise best know for Slow Horses)? “Man, I love a mess,” Rock said during a post-premiere Q&A tonight. “I love a messy woman.” He added that he also gravitates toward movies about women because stories about women are inherently more dangerous. Not because the industry isn’t as willing to tell them but because “guys are not quite in as much physical danger. Guys have guns in movies and shit.”
He added that the movie was inspired partially by people he met as a young comedian in Vegas. “You do your shows, and then at night, you’re just hanging out with strippers and hookers. And magicians… Occasionally, I would bump into a woman I knew from ‘90 whatever, and she was the mistress of some real famous guy or some rich guy. Those are the ones that did well.” Much to unpack here!
Director Peter Farrelly made another Lake Ontario quip during the opening remarks of the premiere of I Play Rocky.
“I’m so happy to be on the shores of Lake Ontario,” he said.
Big applause. May I suggest everyone incorporate this into their opening remarks.
Jinx, John! I thought I was going to play Rocky.
For those keeping track of Canadian anti-Trump sentiment: at the premiere of his new movie I Play Rocky, Peter Farrelly just got big applause for shouting out Lake Ontario.
A Chat With Sean Penn and Marcus Haney
The day after Black Sunflowers premiered at TIFF, John Ross interviewed director Marcus Haney and the doc’s executive producer, a little-known actor named Sean Penn. Of course, I’m goofing around—even John was surprised that the notoriously attention-shy Penn was willing to speak with press.
But not only is the topic of Black Sunflowers—the war in Ukraine, and the young people fighting it—so important to Penn, not only did he open up in a wide-ranging conversation, but he said he’s consider attending the Oscars if that meant he’d have a platform to renew the world’s attention toward the ongoing conflict.
Evil Genius, directed by Courteney Cox (yes, that Courteney Cox!), casts Patricia Arquette and David Harbour as Marjorie Diehl-Armstrong and Bill Rothstein, a pair of clumsy criminals who masterminded one of American history’s strangest bank robberies: the Pizza Bomber heist. If you’re interested in learning more, there’s a Netflix docuseries about the same case from 2018, also titled Evil Genius—as well as a great Wired story about it from 2010.
“Unknown” No More
And the winner of the Golden Lion for Best Film at the 2026 Venice Film Festival is May El-Toukhy, whose Woman Unknown stars Mathilde Arcel as Marie, a nanny with a critical secret as Nazi forces take over Denmark. Arcel also won this year’s Volpi Cup for best actress in the role.
For every single winner of this year’s fest, click below.
Venice Film Festival 2026
The Game’s Afoot
John Malkovitch just scored the Best Actor award at the Venice Film Festival for his role in Wild Horse Nine, a win that solidifies the growing buzz that this year, an Oscar nomination (if not more) might be in the cards for the veteran actor. Malkovitch had already left town by today’s closing event and awards ceremony, so he accepted via video messsage.
John Malkovich accepts the Coppa Volpi for Best Actor in Wild Horse Nine via video message at the 63rd Venice Film Festival on September 12, 2026.
STEFANO RELLANDINI/Getty Images
Normally, the Venice acting awards don’t always translate to big Oscar momentum, but in this case, it does.
The latest from the Toronto Film Festival red carpet: Sarah Paulson and Naomi Watts at the world premiere of Closing Night. The duo star in the filmmaking debut of Cody Fern, who co-starred with Paulson as the Anti-Christ in American Horror Story: Apocalypse.
Mike Leigh opened this morning’s Canadian premiere of his new film, Tender Loving Care, by opining that directors who take too long to introduce their films should be “taken out back and shot.” In his case, that’s understandable—this beautiful, intimate family story does speak for itself. It also has a knockout performance from Widow’s Bay star Kate O’Flynn, who’s likely going to win her first Emmy on Monday night.
Fans, team members, Sony Music staffers, and plenty of enthusiastic TIFF-goers packed Roy Thomson Hall for Always Lalisa, which may have been one of the festival’s biggest crowds off sheer fan power alone. The documentary traces LISA through the year she stepped away from BLACKPINK, as she found her voice and confidence on her own, while somehow operating on what appears to be 27 hours in a day. There’s Coachella prep, an Oscars performance, the work and promotion cycle around her debut solo album, and five months in Thailand filming The White Lotus.
And then there’s Mike White, who is very clearly enamored with her. His talking-head interview about casting LISA in The White Lotus is basically five minutes of him explaining why she is Thailand’s Princess Diana. Honestly, I get it.
LISA and director Sue Kim
Last night, LISA graced the carpet at Roy Thomson Hall for the world premiere of Always Lalisa. Not pictured: the sea of fans outside, many waving their lightsticks as the BLACKPINK superstar arrived for her TIFF debut. LISA posed with director Sue Kim and her team before heading inside for the documentary’s Gala premiere.
Does everybody want to sleep with Taron Egerton? Tonight, at the world premiere of his evocatively named new movie (Everybody Wants to Fuck Me), I’m going to find out.
Update: they absolutely do. But not for the reason you’d think!
The Julia Set, starring Chase Infiniti as a young math whiz grappling with both self doubt and the world’s worst boyfriend (played by Christopher Briney, who is also, I’m told, one of the cutest boys on The Summer I Turned Pretty), feels like a classic, old-school TIFF crowd-pleaser. At least from where I was sitting, the crowd was very pleased, breaking into spontaneous applause at the movie’s climactic moments. Could this be an early People’s Choice favorite?
Sat for TIFF’s victory lap screening of Obsession, to be followed by a conversation with director Curry Barker and actress Inde Navarrette. Fun fact: Hudson Williams is in attendance!
TIFF is running like 5 behind…maybe 10…they’re on their way…
There’s the rigor of Cannes, which starts its screenings on time no matter what. Then there’s the mellow pace of Toronto, which has consistently started its screenings fifteen to forty minutes behind.
At the Scotiabank theater, where many of the smaller films and docs screen, the premiere of Black Sunflowers started thirty minutes late after making guests wait in the lobby of the theater.
That doesn’t include the ten minutes of sponsor pre-roll playing at the start of every film.
If you’re still in line, stay in line! The movie might not have even begun.
