John Malkovich Shrugs Off Oscar Talk at Venice, Says Retirement Isn't on the Table
John Malkovich has spent decades on screen without an Academy Award, and at 72 he is not counting on one now. Speaking at a press conference for Wild Horse Nine at the 2026 Venice Film Festival, the actor downplayed early Oscar buzz surrounding the film, saying he has had a long career and never feels in competition with other writers, directors and actors Variety.
Malkovich has been nominated for two Oscars — for In the Line of Fire and Places in the Heart — but has never won. His credits span Dangerous Liaisons, Being John Malkovich, Empire of the Sun and dozens more across four decades. Asked whether he plans to retire, he was blunt: "They'll retire me when it's time." He said he has no desire to stop acting Variety.
Wild Horse Nine is a darkly comedic drama directed and written by Martin McDonagh, the film-maker behind Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) and The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), both of which premiered at Venice. Three Billboards went on to win two Academy Awards, for Sam Rockwell and Frances McDormand Variety.
Malkovich and Rockwell reunite here, playing two CIA agents dispatched to Easter Island shortly before the 1973 Chilean military coup that overthrew president Salvador Allende. The cast also includes Steve Buscemi, Mariana di Girolami, Ailín Salas, Tom Waits and Parker Posey Variety. The film runs 118 minutes and is a co-production of the United Kingdom, the USA and Chile La Biennale di Venezia.
McDonagh told the press conference that he uses film to question authority and said he is interested in the truth of what the CIA has been doing over the past 50 years, citing events in Guatemala, the Congo and the Bay of Pigs Variety.
The film screened at Venice on September 3, 2026, as part of the official competition for the Golden Lion — the festival's top prize La Biennale di Venezia. It is scheduled to screen next at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 19, 2026 TIFF, ahead of a theatrical release on November 6, 2026 through Searchlight Pictures Vanity Fair.
The 2027 Academy Awards ceremony is scheduled for March 2027 Variety. Whether Wild Horse Nine enters that conversation is, as Malkovich himself might say, somebody else's concern.
For McDonagh, Venice has become a reliable launchpad. Both of his previous two films premiered on the Lido and carried their awards momentum all the way through the season. For Malkovich, the film adds another collaboration with a distinctive writer-director — the kind of pairing that has defined a career built on character work rather than statuettes.
