La Biennale di Venezia is pleased to announce that La Grazia, written and directed by the Oscar®-winning filmmaker Paolo Sorrentino (The Hand of God, The Great Beauty, Il divo), and starring Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti, is the opening film, in a world premiere in competition, of the 82nd Venice International Film Festival directed by Alberto Barbera (27 August – 6 September 2025).

Photo: La Grazia Toni Servillo by Andrea Pirrello

La Grazia will have its world premiere screening on Wednesday 27 August 2025 in Sala Grande at the Palazzo del Cinema (Lido di Venezia) on the opening night of the 82nd Biennale Cinema.

«I am very happy that the 82nd Venice International Film Festival will open with the new and highly anticipated film by Paolo Sorrentino – stated Alberto Barbera  – I like to recall that one of the most important and internationally acclaimed Italian auteurs made his debut right here at the Biennale di Venezia in 2001 with his first film, One Man Up, in my early years as the Artistic Director. The relationship with the Venice Film Festival became consolidated over the years with the presentation out of competition of the first episodes in the series The Young Pope (seasons one and two) and, above all, with The Hand of God which, in 2021, won the Silver Lion-Grand Jury Prize. Paolo Sorrentino’s return 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.»

La Grazia, written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, is a  Fremantle film produced by The Apartment, a Fremantle Company, by Numero 10, and by PiperFilm that will distribute it in Italy.

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

Paolo Sorrentino – Biographical notes

Paolo Sorrentino by Avedon

Paolo Sorrentino, film director and screenwriter, was born in Naples in 1970. His first full-length feature film, One ManUp, dates back to 2001 and was selected for the Venice Film Festival. In 2004 he directed The Consequences of Love and in 2006 The Family Friend, both in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2008, with Il Divo, he returned to Cannes winning the Jury Prize. He returned in competition at the Cannes Festival in 2011 with This Must be the Place and two years later with The Great Beauty, which won the Academy Award®, the Golden Globe and the BAFTA Award for best Foreign Language Film, as well as three EFA Awards. He was selected once again in competition at Cannes in 2016 with Youth, garnering three EFA Awards, an Academy Award® nomination and two Golden Globe nominations. In 2016 he created and directed the TV series The Young Pope, nominated at the Golden Globes for Best Actor and at the Emmy Awards for Outstanding Production Design and Outstanding Cinematography. In 2018 he directed the movie Loro starring Toni Servillo and in 2019 Sorrentino directed the second series set in the world of modern papacy,

The legendary American actress Kim Novak (Vertigo, Picnic, Bell, Book and Candle) has been awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia (August 27 – September 6, 2025).

The decision was made by the Board of Directors of La Biennale, upon recommendation of the Artistic Director of the Festival, Alberto Barbera.

Kim Novak in accepting the offer, declared: “I am deeply, deeply touched to receive the prestigious Golden Lion Award from such an enormously respected film festival. To be recognized for my body of work at this time in my life is a dream come true. I will treasure every moment I spend in Venice. It will fill my heart with joy.”

With regard to the award to Kim Novak, Festival’s Artistic Director Alberto Barbera declared: “Inadvertently becoming a screen legend, Kim Novak was one of the most beloved icons of an entire era of Hollywood films, from her auspicious debut during the mid-1950s until her premature and voluntary exile from the gilded cage of Los Angeles a short while later. She never refrained from criticizing the studio system, choosing her roles, who she let into her private life and even her name. Forced to renounce her given name, Marilyn Pauline, because it was associated with Monroe, she fought to conserve her last name, agreeing, in exchange, to dye her hair that shade of platinum blonde which set her apart. Independent and nonconformist, she created her own production company and went on strike to renegotiate a salary that was much lower than that of her male co-stars.  Thanks to her exuberant beauty; her ability to bring to life characters who were naïve and discreet, as well as sensuous and tormented; and her seductive and sometimes sorrowful gaze, she was appreciated by some of the major American directors of the period, from  Billy Wilder (Kiss me, Stupid), to Otto Preminger (The Man With the Golden Arm), Robert Aldrich (The Legend of Lylah Clare), George Sidney (The Eddy Duchin Story, Jeanne Eagels, Pal Joey), and Richard Quine, with whom she made unforgettable romantic comedies (Pushover, Bell Book and Candle, Strangers When We Meet, The Notorious Landlady). But her image will remain forever linked to the dual characters she played in Hitchcock’s Vertigo, which became the role of her life. This Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement celebrates a star who was emancipated, a rebel at the heart of Hollywood who illuminated the dreams of movie lovers before retiring to her ranch in Oregon to dedicate herself to painting and to her horses.”

On this occasion, the documentary Kim Novak’s Vertigo by Alexandre Philippe, made in exclusive collaboration with the actress, will be presented in its world premiere screening.

Kim Novak ­– Biographical notes

Kim Novak, the last of the great glamorous movie stars of the golden era, who was the No. 1 box office star in the world in ’58, ‘59’ and ’60, lives on today as a happy legend, poet, and artist. Despite her glamourous looks, few people realize that Novak was the first woman to start her own production company in 1958. She knew that’s where the control was, and she wasn’t interested in being a “puppet” for Columbia’s Harry Cohn. Cohn said he “manufactured Novak in order to make Rita Hayworth nervous.” No star can be m

A total of 37 emerging producers from 14 countries have been selected for Locarno Pro’s international networking initiative Match Me!, which celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2025. From August 8 to 10, Match Me! will curate a series of individual meetings and tailor-made networking activities, connecting participants with potential business partners, co-producers, and key industry players. The initiative serves as a vital platform for emerging producers looking to enhance their international visibility and solidify meaningful collaborations. 

© Locarno Film Festival / Ti-Press

Among this year’s participants are Rodrigo Díaz from Fiebre (Chile), producer of Las Criaturas Que Se Derriten Bajo El Sol (2022), which premiered in the Short Film section of La Semaine de la Critique in Cannes; Sarah Radu from Germany’s Matadoras, producer of The Kidnapping of the Bride (2023), winner of the Compass-Perspektive-Award at Berlinale 2023 and the Short Film Jury Award at Sundance’s International Fiction Competition the same year; Darta Vijgrieze from Mitrus Media (Latvia), whose co-productions include Maria’s Silence (Berlinale 2024), January (Tribeca 2022 winner), Natural Light (Silver Bear, Berlinale 2021), and In the Dusk (Cannes 2020); Ruta Kiaupaite of Afterschool (Lithuania), producer of Pilgrims (Best Film, Venice Orizzonti 2021) and Drowning Dry, which won Best Director and Best Ensemble Cast at Locarno 2024; and Andrés Sanjurio García from Acariño Films (Spain), whose hybrid western-documentary Los saldos was selected for Visions du Réel in 2022.

The full list of participants can be found HERE.  

Ayumi Filippone, Match Maker at Match Me!: “Match Me! 2025 mirrors the new generation of rising international producers. They defy genre restrictions, conventional storytelling, and courageously research new financing strategies amid the uncertain current context. Thanks to the support of our partners, Locarno Pro is once again proud to accompany and support a cohort of 37 producers in a milestone moment of their careers.”

Locarno Pro runs from August 7 – 12, 2025, during the 78th Locarno Film Festival.  

The 10th edition of Match Me! is organized in collaboration with ACAU - Agencia del Cine y del Audiovisual del Uruguay, Cinecittà, Cinema Chile, Cinema do Brasil, Dominican Republic Film Commission (DGCINE), Estonian Film Institute, Finnish Film Foundation, German Films, ICA Portugal, ICAA Spain, Lithuanian Film Centre, National Film Centre of Latvia, Polish Film Institute, and Unifrance. 

Since its rollout in 2015, Match Me! has served as a launchpad for numerous talents, including Thomas Hakim (petit chaos, France), producer of the Payal Kapadia’ Cannes 2024 Grand Prix winner All We Imagine as Light; Latvian producer Matīss Kaža (Trickster Pictures), whose latest project Flow (Gints Zilbalodis, 2024) won the Oscar®, Golden Globe and César Award for best animated feature; Tatiana Leite (Bubbles Proj