Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia to open Venice Film Festival 2025
Paolo Sorrentino’s new film La Grazia will open the 82nd Venice International Film Festival on Wednesday, 27th August 2025, with its world premiere screening at the Sala Grande of the Palazzo del Cinema on the Lido. The film, starring Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti, will be presented in competition as part of the festival, which runs from 27th August to 6th September 2025 and is directed by Alberto Barbera.
La Grazia is written and directed by Sorrentino, an Academy Award-winning filmmaker known for The Great Beauty and The Hand of God. The film is produced by The Apartment, a Fremantle company, alongside Numero 10 and PiperFilm. MUBI holds the global distribution rights, excluding Italy, where PiperFilm will handle distribution. International sales are managed by The Match Factory.
Festival director Alberto Barbera commented on the selection, stating: “I am very happy that the 82nd Venice International Film Festival will open with Paolo Sorrentino’s new and highly anticipated film. I like to recall that one of the most important and internationally acclaimed Italian filmmakers made his debut at the Venice Biennale back in 2001 with his first film, One Man Up, during my early years as Artistic Director. Over the years, his bond with the Festival has only grown stronger – with the out-of-competition premieres of the first episodes of The Young Pope (seasons one and two), and above all, with The Hand of God, which in 2021 was awarded the Silver Lion – Grand Jury Prize. Sorrentino returns to the competition with a film marked by great originality and a strong resonance with the present – a film that the Festival audience will be able to see on opening night.”
Sorrentino, born in Naples in 1970, made his debut at the Venice Film Festival in 2001 with One Man Up. His subsequent works have included Cannes selections such as The Consequences of Love (2004), Il Divo (2008) and Youth (2015), the latter earning multiple European Film Awards and Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. The Great Beauty (2013) won the Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film. He is also known for the television series The Young Pope and The New Pope.
La Grazia marks Sorrentino’s return to the Venice competition following his 2021 film The Hand of God, which received the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize and was nominated for an Academy Award. His most recent work, Parthenope, was screened in competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival.
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