The Production Story Behind Italy’s Venice 83 Films
This year’s edition of the Venice Film Festival presents a rich selection of Italian films. Among fully domestic productions and international co-productions selected across the various sections, five directors-familiar faces at the most prestigious festivals-are competing for the Golden Lion with their films. Most were shot entirely, or in part, on Italian soil and financed by the Ministry of Culture.
Nanni Moretti returns to adapt a work by Eshkol Nevo five years after Three Floors (2021). The film, It Will Happen Tonight (Succederà questa notte), is a co-production between Italy, France and Spain featuring an international cast that includes, among others, Louis Garrel, Jasmine Trinca, Angela Finocchiaro and Elena Lietti, alongside Moretti himself. Shot between the Italian cities of Turin and Rome, and Spain, the film is a Fandango and Sacher Film production in collaboration with Rai Cinema and co-produced with Pan Cinema (France) and BTeamProds, Irusoin, and IWHT Film AIE (Spain), with support from the Turin Piedmont Film Commission.
Turin also co-stars in Back to Buenos Aires (Ritorno a Buenos Aires), a film by Marco Bechis starring Adriano Giannini, Ana Celentano, Verónica Gerez, Olivia Nuss, Adrián Fondari, Paula Cohen, Marcelo Chaparro and Marcela Serli-an Italy-Brazil co-production produced by Fandango, 39Films, Karta Film, and 34 Filmes, with Rai Cinema and support from the Turin Piedmont Film Commission. It tells the story of Mariano Guerra, called back to Argentina to testify in the trial against the military officers who kidnapped and tortured him during the military dictatorship-the same regime that organized the 1978 World Cup while the country was gripped by clandestine repression. The production filmed partly in Brazil, as well as in Turin, Italy.
Rome is the backdrop for the latest film credited to Bernardo Bertolucci, The Echo Chamber by Andrea Pallaoro, starring Luca Marinelli, Alicia Vikander, and Susan Sarandon. It tells a love story in which the boundaries between presence and absence, care and dependency, desire and control blur until they dissolve. Leo and Anne chase each other, brush past one another, lose and search for each other. They can neither leave nor free themselves from one another. Through the rooms echoes Ava’s voice, moving through time and letting surface what endures-or what can no longer be contained.
Moving a bit further south, to Naples, is Il fuoco che ti porti dentro by Edoardo De Angelis, in his second competition appearance at Venice. A Picomedia production starring Vanessa Scalera, Lino Musella, Elena Radonicich, Ivana Lotito and Tommaso Ragno, the film revolves around an obsessive relationship-a love that burns like an inner fire never fully consumed-between a mother and her son, and a reckoning that unfolds during a Christmas Eve dinner.
Continuing the journey from north to south along the Italian peninsula, we arrive in Bari and its province (Monopoli and Gioia del Colle), where Paolo Strippoli sets The Spiral (L’Estranea), the story of the downfall of a local entrepreneurial family. The film will also have its North American premiere in Toronto, to fly down south to Austin for the Fantastic Fest. Jasmine Trinca, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Adriano Giannini and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi bring to the screen the story of a woman who suddenly shows up at her daughter’s home to reveal the truth about their family, marked by a pact made many years earlier with a stranger. A secret kept for too long, now returning to claim its price. The film is produced by Propaganda Italia with Rai Cinema, in association with Dinamo Film, in an Italy-France-Belgium co-production with Kazak Productions and Tarantula.
A piece of Italy is also in competition with Kami Nour (A Bit of Light) by Ali Asgari. Set in Iran, it tells the story of a local doctor who, after his arrest and the closure of his practice, contemplates suicide but reconsiders after a day spent with his family. An Iran-Switzerland-Italy-Canada-Turkey co-production, the film is produced by Seven Springs Pictures, Sunny Independent Pictures, Zoe Films, Good Measure Productions, and Haurvatat Film.
Out of Competition
Peccato is the only TV series featured at the Venice Biennale Cinema, screening in the Venice Open – Out of Competition section. The work, described as a “mockumentary,” consists of six episodes and is directed by Valerio Vestoso, who co-wrote it together with its star, Emanuela Fanelli, host of last year’s edition of the Festival. It takes the form of a rather surreal documentary, set in Rome in the near future, imagining the professional and personal arc of the actress. Peccato is produced by Be Water Film, in collaboration with HBO Max and Rai Cinema.
A very different genre, in the same section and also set in Rome, is No Pain (Nessun Dolore)by Gianni Amelio, starring Alessandro Borghi, Valeria Golino and Valerio Mastandrea. Borghi plays Davide, whose life is upended by a tragic accident he unintentionally causes. His guilt sets off a series of seemingly irrational actions that lead to serious consequences. The film was shot between Rome, Ostia, and Orvieto, with the latter standing in for the protagonist’s hometown.
Mario Martone returns to Venice in the “Venice Open” section with Trick (Scherzetto), produced by Mad Entertainment and Rai Cinema and based on the novel of the same name by Domenico Starnone. Toni Servillo, in his seventh film with Martone, plays Daniele Mallarico, an illustrator who has lived and worked alone for years and finds himself having to cope with his rambunctious young nephew Mario, played by Lorenzo Perrotta. The film is set in Naples and was shot in the very building where Starnone himself lived as a boy.
The closing film of Venice 83 is Dio Ride, by Giovanni Veronesi, produced by Indiana Production. Set in the 17th century and loosely inspired by real events, it explores themes of freedom, the power of truth, and the relationship between man and power. Starring Pierfrancesco Favino and Silvio Orlando, the film was shot between September and October 2025 in various locations across the provinces of Siena, Pisa, and Arezzo, and in the city of Pistoia, in collaboration with the Tuscany Film Commission. The costumes, too, are “made in Tuscany,” designed by costume designer Carlo Poggioli and crafted by Manifatture Digitali Cinema in Prato.
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