Paolo Sorrentino’s ‘La Grazia’ Set as Venice Film Festival Opener

Paolo Sorrentino’s “La Grazia,” a love story that re-teams the Oscar-winning director with “The Great Beauty” actor Toni Servillo, has been set as opening film of the upcoming Venice Film Festival.

“La Grazia” – the title can be translated in English as “Grace” – will be launching from the Lido in competition.

Servillo stars in “La Grazia” opposite Italian actor Anna Ferzetti, who recently appeared in Ferzan Ozpetek’s smash hit “Diamonds.” Plot details of Sorrentino’s new film are being kept under wraps besides the fact that it is a love story set somewhere in Italy. 

“La Grazia” will mark Servillo’s seventh collaboration with Sorrentino who has shot 10 feature films to date. They first teamed up in Sorrentino’s dazzling 2001 debut, “One Man Up” in which Servillo played an ageing cocaine-addicted crooner. Servillo is best known to international audiences for his memorable turn as Roman writer and socialite Jep Gambardella who embarks on a Dantesque descent amid the Eternal City’s grotesque glitterati in “The Great Beauty,” which won the 2014 best international film Oscar. He also played a heroin-addicted accountant for the mob in Sorrentino’s sophomore film “The Consequences of Love;” controversial Italian politician Giulio Andreotti in “Il Divo;” and media-mogul-turned-politician Silvio Berlusconi in Sorrentino’s “Loro.”

“I am very happy that the 82nd Venice International Film Festival will open with the new and highly anticipated film by Paolo Sorrentino,” Venice artistic director Alberto Barbera said in a statement. He went on to underline that Sorrentino made his festival debut at Venice in 2001 with “One Man Up” during Barbera’s early years as Venice chief.

Though Sorrentino launched several subsequent works – including “The Consequences of Love,” “Il Divo,” and “The Great Beauty” – from Cannes, his rapport with Venice consolidated over the years with the launch from the Lido of the first episodes in his groundbreaking series “The Young Pope” (seasons one and two) and, with his 2021 film “The Hand of God” that won the Silver Lion-Grand Jury Prize.

“Paolo Sorrentino’s return [to Venice] in competition comes with a film destined to leave its mark for its great originality and powerful relevance to the present time, which the audiences of the Venice Film Festival will have the pleasure of discovering on opening night,” Barbera concluded.

“La Grazia,” which is written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, is a Fremantle film produced by The Apartment, a Fremantle Company, by Sorrentino’s own Numero 10 shingle, and by PiperFilm that will distribute it in Italy.

Mubi owns worldwide rights excluding Italy. The Match Factory is handling international sales.

As previously revealed by Mubi boss Efe Cakarel, Jim Jarmusch’s triptych picture “Father Mother Sister Brother,” starring Cate Blanchett and Adam Driver, is believed to be up for a Lido competition slot.

The upcoming edition of Venice is shaping up to be a star-studded affair with Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine,” featuring Dwayne Johnson as two-time UFC heavyweight champ Mark Kerr and Emily Blunt as his wife Dawn; Luca Guadagnino’s #MeToo-themed thriller “After the Hunt” starring Julia Roberts, Andrew Garfield and Ayo Edebiri; and “Bugonia,” the latest collaboration between Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone — who were last at the fest in 2023 with the Oscar-winning “Poor Things” — all likely to be set for a Venice sendoff, as Variety has reported.

As previously announced, two-time Oscar winner Alexander Payne will preside over the main jury.

The 82nd edition of Venice will run Aug. 27-Sept. 6. The lineup will be announced on July 22.