80th Venice International Film Festival

The 80th annual Venice International Film Festival was held from 30 August to 9 September 2023, at Venice Lido in Italy.

Alberto Barbera, Venice's artistic director, acknowledged that the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike was likely to impact the festival if it was not resolved in time, due to the strike rules that prevent all actors from taking part in any kind of promotional activities for their films. Nevertheless, the festival proceeded though fewer Hollywood celebrities than usual were in attendance, while an increase of European titles in all sections was expected. The world premieres of some upcoming award season hot titles expected to premiere at Venice, such as Ethan Coen's Drive-Away-Dolls, ended up delayed. As the strike was ongoing, some American films announced the absence of the cast in the red carpet of their world premieres, including Bradley Cooper, director/writer/producer and actor of Maestro.

American filmmaker Damien Chazelle served as Jury President for the main competition. Italian actress Caterina Murino hosted the opening and closing nights of the festival. The Golden Lion was awarded to Poor Things by Yorgos Lanthimos.

Italian director Liliana Cavani and Chinese/Hong Kong actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai were both awarded with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement during the festival.

The festival opened with Comandante by Edoardo De Angelis. Luca Guadagnino's Challengers was originally scheduled to have its world premiere as the festival's opening film, but MGM/Amazon chose to withdraw it and delay its release due to the ongoing 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. J. A. Bayona's Society of the Snow was the closing film.