Maggie Gyllenhaal, president of the jury of the 2026 Venice Film Festival

The American actress and director says she is “honored to help keep this bold and essential tradition alive. I will not be there to judge, but with curiosity, admiration and enthusiasm.”

A few weeks after the failure of The Bride! in cinemas, Maggie Gyllenhaal has just been appointed President of the jury for the next edition of the Venice Film Festival.

Oscar-nominated actress, director, producer and screenwriter, she was already present in Venice in 2021 with her first film as director, The Lost Daughterwith Jessie Buckley, Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson and Peter Sarsgaard. The film won the award for best screenplay.

If she succeeds her compatriot, director Alexander Payne, actresses are often nominated for this position at the Venice Film Festival, such as Cate Blanchett in 2020, Julianne Moore in 2022 or Isabelle Huppert in 2024.

Jake Gyllenhaal’s big sister already says (in a press release) “delighted to accept the invitation to chair the jury of the Venice Film Festival this year. Venise has always supported singular and sincere voices, and I am honored to help keep this bold and essential tradition alive. I will not be there to judge, but with curiosity, admiration and enthusiasm.”

For his part, the director of the Venice Film Festival, Alberto Barbera, explains this choice: “Maggie Gyllenhaal embodies an artistic journey of rare coherence, built over time with intelligence and courage. An actress capable of interpreting disturbing and complex characters, she also reinvented herself as an author with The Lost Daughter, which won the prize for best screenplay here in Venice in 2021. Her vision of cinema, both intellectual and visceral, found an additional dimension in her recent film The Bride! (2026), which consolidates her status as a seeing her chair our jury is to be able to count on an authoritative and independent voice, driven by this authentic passion for auteur cinema which has always represented the heart of the Festival..”

The next Venice Film Festival will be held from September 2 to 12, 2026.