After more than three decades behind the camera, British filmmaker Danny Boyle is finally heading to the Venice Film Festival. Boyle’s “Ink” will make its world premiere as the opening-night film of the Venice Film Festival, where it will also compete for the Golden Lion. The selection marks the filmmaker’s first appearance at the prestigious festival.
“I’ve been to the Biennale many times, but this is my baptism at the film festival a huge honor to be in a city of such extraordinary art and opening this great festival with my new film INK,” he said in a statement. “1969— the year we first walked on the moon— and the year Rupert Murdoch & Larry Lamb launched a newspaper that was to change the world far more. Long before Fox News, click bait, and Truth Social; decades before Twitter, Facebook, Google & Only Fans, these 2 men created a new tabloid which against all the odds became the biggest selling newspaper in the world. Cheeky, Irreverent, daring: The super soaraway Sun challenged the establishment and remade our world for the modern era. A script by James Graham, I felt compelled and privileged to make.”
Based on James Graham’s acclaimed stage play, “Ink” stars Guy Pearce as media mogul Rupert Murdoch and Jack O’Connell as Larry Lamb, the editor Murdoch recruited to transform the struggling British newspaper The Sun. Claire Foy co-stars as Jules Davies, the wife of Larry Lamb.
Set in 1969, “Ink” chronicles Murdoch’s acquisition of The Sun and his campaign to transform the struggling newspaper into an aggressive, populist tabloid capable of overtaking Britain’s established press. That reinvention helped create the modern British tabloid and arguably became ground zero for the sensationalism, political manipulation, and disregard for factual rigor now broadly associated with “fake news”—a media model Murdoch would later export to the United States through Fox News.
“Ink” premiered onstage in London in 2017 before transferring to Broadway, where it earned multiple Tony Awards. The film arrives as Boyle continues a prolific new period following “28 Years Later” and his work on the forthcoming third installment of the revived horror franchise.
Despite Boyle’s long history at international festivals—including Cannes presentations of “Shallow Grave” and “Trainspotting”—he has never previously brought a film to Venice. “Ink” therefore gives the Oscar-winning filmmaker both his Lido debut and an immediate place in the festival’s main competition.
Studiocanal will release “Ink” in its territories. The film does not yet have an announced U.S. distributor, but its opening-night world premiere in competition should make it one of Venice’s most coveted domestic acquisitions, particularly for a company seeking a major awards-season and Oscar contender.
INK. An explosive cinematic rollercoaster from Academy and BAFTA award winning director Danny Boyle, starring Jack O’Connell, Guy Pearce and Claire Foy.
— StudiocanalUK (@StudiocanalUK) July 16, 2026
World Premiere – Opening Night at the 2026 Venice Film Festival.
#BiennaleCinema2026 #Venezia83 pic.twitter.com/zdhiUMAikd
Rodrigo Perez is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Playlist, which he launched in 2007. He has worked in entertainment journalism since 2000, including at MTV, and has written for SPIN, IndieWire, Pitchfork, Complex, Magnet, and various music, film, and entertainment publications over the past two decades.
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