20th Queer Lion Award Winners

The Queer Lion award has been announced this afternoon and there is a tie with documentary Queer Edward II by Theo Rollason and feature film London by Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli winning both the 2026 Queer Lion.

According to the jury the following is their motivation.

Bridging past and present, the 20th Queer Lion Award has chosen to honor two deeply different works united by courage and a queer aesthetic that celebrates the body, desire, and a sexuality that is free, sincere, and unabashedly non-conformist.

Derek Jarman, a Master and a pioneer, boldly and avant-gardistically defined the narrative traits of New Queer Cinema, a language that, over the ensuing decades, has lent identity, visibility, and space to a type of filmmaking otherwise relegated to niche circuits. Theo Rollason, a young director, helped by an extraordinary editing work, brought a contemporary feel to previously unseen archival footage that had remained trapped in a cupboard for 35 years.

That legacy has now been embraced by Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli, two filmmakers able to elevate the queer body to a realm of self-determination, desire, and power, rescuing it from any attempt at lessening it. The young protagonists -in a setting that is only seemingly confined – embody an explicit, proud sexuality where fetish is play, dominance is freedom rather than violence, and identity is forged through pleasure, friendship, and resistance.

With charm and courtesy, Maestro Jarman faced down hostile criticism, production hurdles, and attacks from the press and political establishment; he wielded his homosexuality, activism, art, and HIV-positive status as a gentle weapon against a conservative world—one far from grasping a style that, for its time, was pure, courageous, personal avant-garde.

Today, Di Marco and Picoli symbolically carry forward that boldness, courage, and audacious kindness by bringing to the screen queer life and identity in all its multifaceted forms – including aspects rarely explored in contemporary cinema – proving that New Queer Cinema keeps evolving, growing, and engaging with the changes of a society it wants to depict.

For these reasons, the jury of the 20th Queer Lion Award presents the award to QUEER EDWARD II by Theo Rollason and LONDON by Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli – two extraordinary debut works celebrating the past, chronicling the present, and pointing the way to the future.

Winners are below in DARK BLUE.

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Today, August 19, organizers announced the feature films in Competition for the Queer Award. Still pending are Short Films in Competition as well as Out of Competition features and shorts. As soon as announces are made post will be updated with available info.

As we all know, the lineup of titles competing for the 2025 Queer Lion Award is compiled with the collaboration of Alberto Barbera, Angela Savoldi, and Paolo Bertolin for all the sections of the official selection, and in particular Venezia 83 Competition, Out of Competition, and Orizzonti); Michel Reilhac for Venice Immersive and Biennale College Cinema; Federico Gironi for Venice Classics; Gaia Furrer and Francesco Bonerba for Giornate degli Autori; and, Beatrice Fiorentino from Venice International Film Critics’vWeek.

They, along with award organizers, chose among the films with LGBT stories and characters dealing with civil rights issues related to different sexual orientations, equal opportunities, and fight against homotransphobia.

As always let's start taking a look at the official graphic image of the award and the reasons why this year the image is as seen here.

Official Image

The 2026 official image by Joey Guidone renderes the theme of discovery and visibility of queer identities through the eye of cinematic language. The Rialto Bridge crosses the scene, its lower arch transfigured into a vivid rainbow that emerges from the muted tonal ground and reflects upon the waters of the Grand Canal.

From a gondola, a human figure records the scene, evoking the role of cinema as an instrument of observation and revelation. The composition is structured around the three fundamental elements of Venice, sky, bridge and water, which become a visual metaphor for the balance between environment, memory and identity.

2026 Lineup

There are 12 titles in Competition for the 20th Queer Award

Venice Open
Queer Edward II, Theo Rollason, UK (documentary)  QUEER LION WINNER
The Basics of Philosophy, Paul Schrader, USA (G)

Orizzonti
La città dei vivi (The City of the Living), Edoardo Gabbriellini, Italy (G)
谎言生活 Huǎngyán Shēnghuó (Big Little Things), Michelle Zhou, Hong Kong and USA (L)
Lovers in the Blue Night, Anuparna Roy, India and USA (G)
太陽ぬ色 The Color of the Sun, Xavier Tera, Canada, Italy and Japan (G)

Biennale College Cinema
Tijuana, Todavía (Still, Tijuana), Gabriel Gutierrez Morales, Mexico (G)

Giornate degli Autori
Camouflage, Mykyta Gibalenko, Germany and Lithuania (G)
دستهایم را در باغچه می‌کارم Dasthayam ra dar baghche mikaram (I Plant My Hand in the Garden), Boris Hadžija and Hoda Taheri, Germany, USA and Serbia (G)
Peau d'homme (Man's Skin), Léa Domenach, France
Salón de Belleza, Nathalia Acevedo, Mexico and France (G)

Settimana Internazionale della Critica
London, Victor Di Marco and Márcio Picoli, Brazil (G)  QUEER LION WINNER

The Jury
Daniel N. Casagrande, film critic, journalist and creator/founder of the award, Italy
Marco Busato, actor, Italy
Jani Kuštrin, cultural operator, jury member of the Ljubljana LGBT Film Festival, the oldest queer-themed film festival in Europe, Slovenia
Adriano Virone, cultural promotor, Italy

To check announcement of films in Competition at official site go here.

Out of Competition
Feature films with LGBTQ characters or situations that are particularly secondary and/or marginal to the main plot and story; all the works with a running time under 30′; the restored versions of films that made the history of queer cinema and culture; episodic series made for tv or streaming platforms.

Feature Films

Venezia83
L'estranea (The Spiral), Paolo Strippoli, Belgium, France and Italy

Venice Open
中场休息 Intermission, Yonfan, Hong Kong (documentary)
Joie de vivre, Luca Guadagnino, Italy (documentary)
My Undesirable Friends: Part II - Exile, Julia Loktev, USA (documentary)

Orizzonti
Eklipse, Manuel Wetscher, Austria and Italy

Giornate degli Autori
Domenica Capitale - Genere Domenicale (Capital Sunday, Sunday Gen), Giovanna Giuliani, Italy (documentary)

Short Films

Orizzonti
Angelo Azzurro, Tommaso Acquarone, Italy 20'
Τροπικός του θρηνούτος γκέκο Tropikos tou thrinountos gkeko (Tropic of the Mourning Gecko), Stavros Markoulakis, Greece, France, and Netherlands 19'

Settimana Internazionale della Critica
Revolver, Paoli De Luca, Italy 20'
Un Breve Incontro (A Brief Encounter), Liryc Dela Cruz, Italy 20'

Restored Films
Valerie a týden divů (Valerie and Her Week of Wonders), Jaromil Jireš, Czechoslovakia, 1970

They would also like to highlight the following films for their inclusion of LGBT characters — extremely marginal, but daring for their time — as well as queer elements and dynamics of particular interest: Woo Yuet dik goo si (The Story of Woo Viet) directed by Ann Hui (Hong Kong, 1981), Brutti, sporchi e cattivi by Ettore Scola (Italy, 1976), and Cul-de-sac by Roman Polański (UK, 1966).

One final mention to the LGBTQ character in Il fuoco che ti porti dentro by Edoardo De Angelis (Italy), presented in the Venezia 83 section.

To check announcement of films out of competition at official site go here.