On The Road to Venice
Updated: 2 days ago
By Julie Sisk | August 27, 2026
I’m making my way to Venice now, with a few festival-related diversions along the way.
Yesterday, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I met with Mark Pruett at The Music Hall, a spectacular historic theater with one of the most eclectic programming schedules imaginable—from the New Hampshire Film Festival to Jordan Klepper to a live Golden Girls reboot.
It was fascinating to hear how the Music Hall balances live programming with film and to learn about the theater’s renovation plans.
And I would be remiss not to mention one of The Music Hall’s more unusual features: its ladies’ room has apparently been voted the #2 bathroom in the United States. Naturally, I had to inspect it. It is a well-deserved distinction!
Next stop is the Southampton Playhouse, where I’m looking forward to seeing what Eric Kohn and Maria Botsacos are creating in the Hamptons.
Then it’s on to Venice.
The ticketing window for Venice opened at 8:00 a.m. today for those of us on the East Coast of the United States.
And so began the annual ritual: studying the extraordinary array of films, strategizing, gaming the schedule, and trying to figure out just how many screenings one can realistically fit into a day.
Once the ticketing opens you’re competing with thousands of other passholders for those coveted premiere screenings. Of course, we all want to see Ink, Primetime, Bucking Fastard and Wild Horse Nine. Getting some of those tickets is part of the game.
But here’s the funny thing: those are often the films we’ll have another opportunity to see.
It’s the films we’re only somewhat curious about—the second, third or even fourth choices—that can become the most memorable.
These are films that have earned their place at Venice largely on the strength of the work itself, often without recognizable casts or famous directors attached. Somewhere in that enormous program may be the next Danny Boyle or Werner Herzog. Or perhaps a one-shot wonder: a filmmaker who creates one extraordinary film and is never heard from again.
That possibility is one of the things I love most about film festivals.
It’s also one of the reasons I especially enjoy going to festivals with my kids. They invariably choose completely different films from the ones I gravitate toward. I’ll sometimes go along simply because one of them wants to see something—and discover a movie I never would have chosen based on the description alone.
The same thing happens when you travel with a group.
For the sake of conviviality, convenience, curiosity or simply staying together, we tag along to a film someone else has chosen. Or we persuade others to come to something they never would have picked themselves.
And every now and then, that is the film everyone is still talking about at dinner.
That potpourri of choices—planned and accidental—is part of what makes a festival so exciting. You arrive with your carefully constructed schedule, and then the festival has other ideas.
For a little Venice FOMO and an excellent look at what lies ahead, Screen International has put together its guide to this year’s competition films: Screen’s Venice 2026 Guide.
Be sure follow us on social for boots-on-ground stories of what Venice presents.
A lot of movies lie ahead.
And I’m already wondering which one I don’t know I want to see yet.
– Julie
