A Danish film won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday, ending a 71-year wait for Denmark’s return to the festival’s top prize. May el-Toukhy’s Kvinde ukendt (Woman Unknown) received the Golden Lion for best film, while its lead actor Mathilde Arcel won the Coppa Volpi for best actress, giving Danish cinema two of the main awards at the 83rd edition of the festival. The results were confirmed by the Venice Biennale’s official awards announcement.
The victory makes el-Toukhy the first Danish female director to win the Golden Lion. She is also only the second Danish director to receive the prize, after Carl Theodor Dreyer won with Ordet in 1955. The Biennale’s historical records confirm that Ordet was awarded the Golden Lion that year.
Denmark returns to the Golden Lion after 71 years
Kvinde ukendt was one of 21 films competing for the main award in Venice. The 124-minute Danish-language production was directed by el-Toukhy and written by May el-Toukhy and Maren Louise Käehne. It is a Denmark-Sweden-Latvia co-production led by Nordisk Film Production.
According to DR’s report on the award, el-Toukhy described herself as “deeply overwhelmed” after receiving the Golden Lion.
“Kvinde ukendt is about women who have been made invisible and deprived of the right to tell their story. That is why it feels particularly powerful that the film is now being seen and recognised in this way,” she said in a statement quoted by DR.
The award closes a gap stretching back to 1955, when Dreyer’s Ordet became the first Danish film to win Venice’s top prize. The Golden Lion, introduced under that name in the post-war period, is the festival’s principal award and one of the most prominent prizes in international cinema.
Mathilde Arcel makes Danish acting history
Denmark’s success extended beyond the Golden Lion. Mathilde Arcel, who plays the film’s protagonist Marie, received the Coppa Volpi for best actress, becoming the first Danish actor to win Venice’s official acting prize, according to DR.
The two awards on the same evening made the result particularly significant for Danish cinema. International coverage described the film as one of the major winners of this year’s festival, with el-Toukhy and Arcel both collecting their prizes during the closing ceremony on 12 September.
Arcel had previously appeared in the Danish films Rejseholdet and Det andet offer, both released in 2025. In Kvinde ukendt, she stars alongside Carsten Bjørnlund, Thorbjørn Hedegaard, Marina Bouras and other Danish and Nordic actors.
A story set in Denmark after the German occupation
Kvinde ukendt is set in May 1945, immediately after Denmark’s liberation from German occupation. Marie, a young housemaid and nanny, is preparing to marry Christian, the wealthy widower for whom she works. The marriage could transform her social position, but a secret from her past threatens her future as Danish society confronts the consequences of the occupation.
The film focuses in particular on women whose experiences during and after the occupation were shaped by public judgement, punishment and social exclusion. Danish film journalist Mathilde Johanne Kristiansen told DR that the two Venice awards represented an “international milestone” for Danish cinema.
El-Toukhy previously directed Dronningen (Queen of Hearts) in 2019, also co-written with Käehne, as well as Lang historie kort and episodes of Netflix’s The Crown.
What the Danish film’s Golden Lion means next
The Venice result gives Kvinde ukendt significant international visibility before the next stage of its festival and theatrical run. The film is expected to continue to the Toronto International Film Festival before its Danish theatrical release on 4 February 2027, according to DR.
The Golden Lion also places the film alongside Ordet in a very short chapter of Danish cinema history. For Denmark, the 2026 Venice Film Festival produced not only its first Golden Lion in more than seven decades, but also its first official acting award through Arcel.
The film’s success comes as Nordic cinema continues to rely on international co-productions to bring locally rooted stories to global audiences. In this case, a story closely connected to Denmark’s post-war history has become the country’s most successful film at Venice since Carl Theodor Dreyer’s victory in 1955.
