Danish double-win at Venice Film Festival

By Anders Lorenzen

A Danish film has taken the top honour at one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals. Danish-Egyptian filmmaker May el-Toukhy has won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Woman Unknown (Kvinde ukendt), placing the film among an elite group of international winners and marking a major moment for Danish cinema.

By picking up the award, el-Toukhy also writes a bit of Danish and international history, as she becomes the first Danish female director and only the second director from Denmark to take home the prestigious award, after Carl Th. Dreyer won in 1955. She also becomes only the eighth female director to win the award in the festival’s 83-year history.

As if that wasn’t enough already, the film also scooped up the Volpi Cup for best actress, awarded to Mathilde Arcel. The second award was perhaps more eye-opening, as the Venice Film Festival only rarely gives more than one award to the same film.

The jury president, US actor Maggie Gyllenhaal, clarified the decision as she addressed the press after the ceremony, explaining that they were able to make an exception because the jury’s vote for the Danish actor was unanimous, before adding: “She is going to blow our socks off.”

In our 2026 preview, we had indeed tipped Woman Unknown for 2026 success, but guessed it would be Cannes rather than Venice.

Woman Unknown is set in the immediate aftermath of Denmark’s liberation from Nazi occupation, and we follow Marie, played by Arcel, a young nanny and housemaid who is about to marry the wealthy older widower Christian, for whom she is working. But Marie guards a shameful secret. During the Second World War, she was in an intimate relationship with a German soldier. Now Marie’s past threatens to catch up with her, and she is forced to fight to preserve her new status as lady of the house amid post-war anarchy.

In an emotional acceptance speech, el-Toukhy thanked Gyllenhaal for addressing the underrepresentation of female filmmakers at the start of the festival. Woman Unknown was the only film in competition to be solely directed by a woman.

For el-Toukhy and Woman Unknown, next on the agenda is Toronto Film Festival, which runs from 14 to 20 September and takes place after Scan Magazine goes to press.

The film is scheduled to be released in Denmark on 4 February 2027. No other release dates, apart from festival screenings, have been announced.