Leading Made in Italy Films Across 28 Countries in 2025
Data collection by Silvia Mancini.
Across the 28 European and Mediterranean countries where MEDIA Salles monitored the theatrical performance of films involving Italian participation, the undisputed bestseller in 2025 was Smurfs.
For this blend of live action and animation, supported by Film Commission Torino Piemonte and shot in Turin, Lupin Film provided the on-location live action production services in Italy. Smurfs tops the ranking of Italian films in 24 territories stretching from Norway to Turkey and from Portugal to Poland. In Montenegro, this musical attracted enough admissions to rank tenth among the most-watched feature films of 2025. Looking further down the chart to twentieth place, it also appears among the top titles in many other countries, including Luxembourg, Latvia, Slovak Republic, Austria, Bulgaria and Malta, to name but a few.
In the very few markets where Smurfs does not lead the ranking of Italian or Italian-participation films, the top position is held by predominantly local co-productions with an Italian partnership. This is the case in Spain with The Captive (El cautivo): Rai Cinema co-financed Alejandro Amenábar film inspired by the life of Cervantes, which came close to 800,000 admissions and also reached nineteenth place in the overall box-office chart; in Finland, where 100 liters of gold (100 litraa sahtia) – coproduced by All At Once – The Culture Business – is also the second most-watched film of the year; and in Slovenia, where Whites wash at ninety (Belo se pere na devetdeset) takes the lead. This moving story was co-produced by Quasar Film, supported by FVG Film Commission and partly shot in Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Danish audiences, meanwhile, favoured There’s still tomorrow (C’è ancora domani) among Italian films. This entirely Italian production, directed by and starring Paola Cortellesi, thus conquers another European market after topping the Swiss box office for Italian films and reaching the top ten in around twenty other European countries in 2024.
In second place in the “Made in Italy” rankings, Maria shines in almost every territory. Pablo Larraín’s film, co-produced by The Apartment Pictures and retracing the final days of Maria Callas, is runner-up across most markets, while Smurfs occupies second place in nearly all the countries where it did not finish first, namely Spain, Slovenia and Denmark.
Standing apart from the general trend are Malta, with William Tell, and Bulgaria and Croatia. In these two latter markets, locally relevant co-productions have proved particularly successful: Adventures Italian style reloaded (Tornando a Est), much of which is set in Sofia, and Fiume o morte!, the documentary whose very title evokes historical events linked to what is today Croatia’s principal seaport.
The picture is more varied when it comes to third place. Alongside Smurfs in Finland and Maria in Bulgaria, Denmark and Spain, leading contemporary Italian directors also make an appearance. Paolo Sorrentino’s Parthenope features in the Slovak Republic, Latvia and Luxembourg, while Paolo Genovese’s Madly (Follemente) reaches the podium in Croatia, Hungary and Romania. Other major names are also represented: Luca Guadagnino appears with Queer in Austria and Germany, and with After the hunt in Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Malta and Portugal. Silvio Soldini tops the Italian rankings in Estonia with The Tasters (Le assaggiatrici), Ferzan Özpetek in his native Turkey with Diamonds (Diamanti), while Maura Delpero is present in Norway, Sweden and Greece with Vermiglio, winner at the Venice Film Festival in 2024 and shortlisted for the Academy Awards in 2025 (Italian entry). On the comedy front, Checco Zalone features in Switzerland with Buen Camino, the highest-grossing domestic film ever in Italy. Third place also goes to Caravan (Karavan) in the Czech Republic, a co-production between the Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Italy; to the French-Italian co-production Enzo in France; and to Little trouble girls (Kaj ti je deklica) in Slovenia, a production involving Slovenia, Italy, Croatia and Serbia.
Once again, co-production proves to be a key factor not only in enabling films with Italian participation to be made, but also in facilitating their circulation across multiple markets, particularly when they are not backed by an internationally recognised filmmaker or by an award from a world-renowned film festival.
Read more: Cinema & Video International Issue #208
