Double Danish Venice win: Woman Unknown gets Golden Lion and Best Actress of 2026

“I haven't won any awards, but I’ve gotten some nominations!”

The quote dates exactly one week ago, as Mathilde Arcel recounted her acting achievements thus far, starting out in television as a teenager, taking to the stage in her twenties and, since two years back, committing her first big-screen roles, earning her nominations for both the Bodil and the Robert, her native Denmark's finest film prizes. Certainly a good track record for a budding career.

Since then, some recent events have occurred. On Saturday evening, Mathilde Arcel did win an award. Not a Robert or even a Bodil, but the Coppa Volpi for best feminine interpretation at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. Previous recipients in a Nordic film include Harriet Andersson, awarded in 1964, and... no one else, actually (Ingrid Bergman’s award was for an Italian film). A budding has turned full bloom – all because of Woman Unknown (Kvinde ukendt).

Her acceptance speech began with a CV update. “This is my first lead role in a film, my first time at a film festival, and my first time to win a film award.”

“I feel very lucky to get to do that here in Venice with you… People who I think are the most amazing filmmakers and actresses and actors in the world.”

Arcel also addressed the theme of “this beautiful, important and dark project” – dealing with the World War II revenge actions towards Danish women who had fraternised with German soldiers – thanking director May el-Toukhy for making her feel like a co-creator and for “refusing to compromise and for being bold enough to keep the complexity of the story, the situation and the character”.

Arcel’s male counterpart in the winning acting category then followed, namely John Malkovich, implying the level of recognised talent; “most amazing in the world” should be spot-on.

And there was more. After assorted French, Russian-born, Israeli and South Korean winners took turns in the winner spotlight, the grandest award was finally presented by jury head Maggie Gyllenhaal. Yet again, Denmark and May el-Toukhy was up for triumph, as Woman Unknown received the Golden Lion of 2026. The film is supported by Nordisk Film & TV Fond.

“This is intense,” el-Toukhy very appropriately started out, and a little later stated that: “This film has been incredibly challenging to make, financially, logistically, emotionally. What kept me going was the urgent need to illuminate the unknown women of our common history – to make them known. Especially tonight, I feel I succeeded.”

The first Danish film awarded the Golden Lion was the still legendary Ordet by Carl Th. Dreyer, premiering and winning as The Word at Venice in 1955 (but retaining its original title through the years, also internationally). Dreyer’s spirit may be sensed also in this second win. During her interviews in connection with her visually stringent film experience where many shots resemble paintings, el-Toukhy referred to her elder states- countryman as influencing her own aesthetical choices. “Dreyer is a very good reference, via the minimalist universe in which he worked. I’ve been very attracted to something similar, trying to create almost a Greek style theatre-like atmosphere and a mythological quality to the characters, so that the story could just as well have taken place 2000 years ago.”

Denmark’s majestic double win notwithstanding, a muscular Norwegian out of competition entry was also noted. No Paradise If You Are Killed by a Woman, directed by the Kurdish-Norwegian Halkawt Mustafa, is the hard-hitting action story of a Peshmerga fighter and expert markswoman in search of her ISIS-kidnapped little sister. The film got uniformly good reactions and reviews for its skilled execution and humanitarian aspects, as well as the charged performance of yet another acting find of Venice 2026, Avan Jamal. The director, with hands-on experience of war correspondence work in the very region he explores in the film, set out to create a testimony to the Kurdish woman.

“I’ve met some very strong women of all generations, from my mother to those of only 18 or 20, quite literally standing up against and fighting the darkness.”

Nine years in the making, the shooting process ran into some obstacles, not least concerning the authentic settings, including the ISIS-captured city of Mosul in 2014, where a major part of the story plays out.

“It’s something I fought for. I didn't want to shoot in Morocco or Jordan, but in the real Mosul, which got me into trouble with the Nordic production companies, which demanded insurance before giving the green light. There isn't really an insurance company who will cover something in the middle of Iraq, you know. But I fought, and today I think our originality very much lies in the fact that it was shot were it was shot.”

Iraq is along as a co-producing country, together with the UAE, Sweden and Norway, with Mustafa, John M. Jacobsen and Janne Hjeltnes acting as main producers for Hene Films. Hjeltnes and Mustafa’s collaboration goes back a little over ten years, and for a good reason, she feels.

“He can be just brilliant. He has the experience from his years as a correspondent, and he knows the region, the people, the women, and turns it all into a piece of fiction aimed at a wide audience, yet maintaining an important and dignified message at the heart of things. He’s also very generous when It comes to inviting team members to bring in ideas. Take the title, which our producer colleague John M. Jacobsen came up with. At the time it acted as a kind of subheading and then John just said ‘Let’s use that!’ And we just fell for it. We’ve gotten lots of compliments for it at Venice, very pleasing!”

No Paradise If You’re Killed by a Woman just became the 2027 Oscar submission of Iraq.

“Fantastic, isn’t it? We heard it was the first time the full committee voted for the same film. So now we have some extra work to do,” says Hjeltnes, already in preparation with Mustafa on their next joint project.

As 2026 increasingly marks a most exceptional year in Nordic cinema, with a Berlin Golden Bear to Norway, a Norwegian Oscar, a Cannes Golden Palm to Norway in major co-production with Romania, and a Venice Golden Lion to Denmark, a Swedish delegate checked in at Venice with some possibly breaking news for Cannes 2027. Erik Hemmendorff of Plattform Produktion, in town as co-producer of Dau, which won its Russian-born dissident director and second-to-none visionary Ilya Khrzhanovsky the Silver Lion, is currently hard at work with The Entertainment System Is Down, coincidentally by another second-to-none visionary, Ruben Östlund. The film’s delayed release, widely reported this spring, has only made it better, Hemmendorff promises.

“It was a hard decision until we asked ourselves ‘Can we make the best film now?’ The answer was: ‘No, we can’t.’ Since then, we’ve come up with some ideas for what can only be called a real killer film. So if you ask me if Sweden has anything up its sleeve, I’ll reply: ‘Next year’s Golden Palm’ – nothing less.’”

In the meantime, here are all the 2026 Venice winners: CLICK HERE.