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3. Venice Film Festival: Italy Kicks Off with Sorrentino’s 'La Grazia'

Paolo Sorrentino’s new film La Grazia will open the 82nd Venice International Film Festival. An elegant fresco of love and power, starring Toni Servillo, that marks the grand return of the Neapolitan maestro to the Lido.

The acclaimed director will launch the festival on August 27, 2025, with this highly anticipated work, fifteen years after leaving a mark with Il Divo or La Grande Bellezza. Early commentators have described La Grazia as a “love letter to Italy, to cinema and to powerful women.” The world premiere will take place at the historic Palazzo del Cinema, setting the tone for a festival steeped in Italian grace and political elegance.

Few details have emerged about the plot, except that Sorrentino himself called it a “Truffaut-style love story.” This unexpected romantic turn suggests a softer inflection in his body of work, though some already detect echoes of Il Divo and Youth.

At the heart of the film is Sorrentino’s longtime muse Toni Servillo, portraying a weary man at the twilight of his career, tired but still performing for the world. He is joined by Anna Ferzetti as an elusive political adviser and Massimo Venturiello as a mysterious mentor. Filming took place between Naples, Rome and Turin, most notably in the city’s Egyptian Museum, in a setting true to the director’s signature and baroque style.

A Symbolic Opening

This is the first Italian film to open the festival since Daniele Luchetti’s Lacci in 2020. Artistic director Alberto Barbera called it “a perfect synthesis of visual elegance, political satire and intimacy,” emphasizing its importance as both accessible and auteur-driven.

The strategic choice places the Mostra firmly in the international awards race, following the global success of Sorrentino’s The Hand of God (Silver Lion, 2021) and La Grande Bellezza (Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, 2014).

This year, the festival is betting on a filmmaker who is familiar yet never repetitive, someone who can draw international media attention while captivating Italian audiences.

The film is produced by The Apartment (Fremantle), Numero 10 and PiperFilm. MUBI has already acquired international distribution rights, hinting at a worldwide release soon after Venice. Italian theaters are set to screen the film in early October, with streaming expected by the year’s end.

On the artistic side, cinematography will most likely, as often, be entrusted to Luca Bigazzi, Sorrentino’s longtime director of photography, although no official confirmation has been given. No details have yet been released about the score, though some observers are betting on music that will be both understated and deeply moving.

The festival’s opening will be presided over by American filmmaker Alexander Payne, known for his tender yet acidic humor; a fitting parallel to Sorrentino’s bittersweet tone. The Mostra will also honor Kim Novak and Werner Herzog with Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement, highlighting the desire to bridge cinema’s legacy with a modern perspective.

Sorrentino has remained characteristically enigmatic, offering only a few words in the festival’s press release, citing Truffaut as his inspiration.

As Venice prepares to roll out the red carpet, La Grazia already stands as one of the year’s major cinematic events; a twilight tale of beauty and melancholy, crafted in the unmistakable Sorrentino way. Grace, in the end, may be just that: the whisper that lingers when everything crumbles.