‘Wild Horse Nine’ Gets Venice’s First Rapturous Reception of 2026

Martin McDonagh’s latest darkly literate, offbeat comedy drama Wild Horse Nine landed on the Venetian Lido by way of Easter Island Thursday evening, giving the world’s oldest film festival its first raucous standing ovation of 2026.

Set shortly before the 1973 military coup in Chile, the darkly comic and soulful buddy movie features a cast deep with prickly and poised character actors, including John Malkovich, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, Parker Posey and McDonagh regular, Sam Rockwell.

During the lengthy standing ovation that clocked in at 14 minutes — the longest thus far at the 2026 edition — Malkovich looked visibly moved and emotional as he and Rockwell leaned in for several long embraces as the Sala Grande audience roared in applause. It was a night for couples as Rockwell arrived with longtime partner Leslie Bibb (who hugged him during the ovation), while McDonagh had support on the red carpet and inside from standout multihyphenate and longtime girlfriend Phoebe Waller-Bride, who looked on adoringly while clapping.

Wild Horse Nine stars Malkovich and Rockwell as Chris and Lee, longtime CIA partners stationed in Santiago who are dispatched to Easter Island by their bureau chief (Buscemi). Against the surreal backdrop of the island’s monumental Moai statues, the pair begin reckoning with their murky shared past. At the same time, Chris forms an unexpected bond with two rebellious Chilean students, played by Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas — an encounter that threatens to unravel the agents’ friendship and the conspiracy in which they have become entangled.

McDonagh has said he conceived of the project after a trip he made to Easter Island over 10 years ago. Fascinated by the Moai, the island’s peculiar isolation and the wild horses roaming its landscape, he became determined to build a movie around the location, but it took him years to find a story.

Backed by Searchlight Pictures, the film is McDonagh’s latest since The Banshees of Inisherin, which won Venice’s best screenplay and best actor prizes in 2022 on the way to nabbing nine Oscar nominations.

Speaking at the film’s Venice press conference earlier Thursday, McDonagh said he hadn’t intended Wild Horse Nine as a commentary on contemporary geopolitics, but acknowledged that its portrait of covert American intervention has taken on an unexpected present-day resonance. “One of the frightening things is that they don’t seem to be making it covert anymore, which is very strange,” he said. “Like in the 70s, at least these horrible people had the intelligence to keep their acts secret, but it just feels like things are getting stupider and stupider and stupider.”

As with all his work, McDonagh wrote as well as directed Wild Horse Nine. He produced alongside longtime collaborators Graham Broadbent and Pete Czernin, along with Anita Overland for Blueprint Pictures. His regular cinematographer Ben Davis shot the film.

Wild Horse Nine is one of 21 titles vying for the Golden Lion in Venice’s main competition. Searchlight Pictures will release the film in U.S. theaters on Nov. 6, following additional festival stops in Telluride and Toronto. The Venice competition jury, led by Maggie Gyllenhaal, will reveal the festival’s winners at an awards ceremony on Sept. 12.