Venice Film Festival 2025 - Films shot in Italy

This year's 82nd Venice Film Festival presents a wide range of films shot in Italy, in the Official Selection, Out of Competition, and Sidebars.

In Competition

In addition to the previously announced La grazia from Paolo Sorrentino, a further five Italian films are included in the 21 titles of the Official Competition. The Oscar-winning director explores a love story shot in Turin and Rome, produced by The Apartment and Numero 1, and starring Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti.

Elisa by Leonardo di Costanzo, starring Barbara Ronchi, Roschdy Zem, Diego Ribon, Valeria Golino, is an Italian-Swiss production, produced by Tempesta, Amka Films Productions, and Rai Cinema. The film, based on the book Io volevo ucciderla by Adolfo Ceretti and Lorenzo Natali, is about a young woman from a bourgeois family who has been in prison for 10 years, sentenced for the brutal murder of her sister. Her confused memories clear when she meets criminologist Alaoui, who is conducting a study on family crimes. The truth that emerges is shocking for Elisa: a pain that perhaps is the beginning of redemption. In addition to Switzerland, filming locations included South Tyrol.

Duse by Pietro Marcello is about the final years of Eleonora Duse, one of the greatest stage actresses of the 19th and 20th centuries, played by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi. Co-produced by Italy and France, the film is a Palomar, Avventurosa, Ad Vitam, and Berta film production, with the support of the Veneto Film Commission. Filming took place in Venice and Rome.

Franco Maresco's documentary, "Un film fatto per Bene" produced by Lucky Red and Dugong Films, features Maresco himself, with Umberto Cantone, Marco Alessi, Francesco Conticelli, Bernardo Greco, Francesco Puma, Giuseppe Lo Piccolo, Gino Carista, Melino Imparato, and Antonio Rezza. The shooting of a film about Carmelo Bene is abruptly halted after yet another on-set accident; producer Andrea Occhipinti pulls the plug, exasperated by endless takes and repeated delays. Meanwhile, the director ("Belluscone" and "The Mafia Is No Longer What It Was") accused the production of "filmicide," then disappeared. Filming took place in Palermo.

Sotto le nuvole by Gianfranco Rosi was produced by 21uno Film, Stemal Entertainment, and Rai Cinema. He outlines history and underground memories of a lesser-known Naples, filled with stories, in black and white: the area between the Gulf and Mount Vesuvius, where the earth sometimes trembles and the fumaroles of the Phlegraean Fields fill the air.

The films In Competition shot in Italy also include the international production Jay Kelly by Noah Baumbach, a comedy starring George Clooney and Adam Sandler, produced in Italy by Film Production Consultants for Netflix. Locations included Bassa Piacenza, Milan, and the Tuscan towns of Arezzo, Montecatini, Montalcino, Pienza, and Pitigliano.

Out of Competition

The Italian "Out of Competition" selection is also extensive, including fiction, TV series, and non-fiction.

Antonio Capuano's "L'isola di Andrea," starring Teresa Saponangelo, Vinicio Marchioni, and Andrea Migliucci, is a Mosaicon Film, Eskimo, Indigo Film, Filmo 2, Europictures, and Rai Cinema production, with the support of the Film Commission Regione Campania. A legal drama that recounts the legal battle between Marta and Guido for custody of their only son, 8-year-old Andrea (Andrea Migliucci). The film was shot in Naples in May 2024.

Il maestro by Andrea Di Stefano, starring Pierfrancesco Favino, Tiziano Menichelli, Giovanni Ludeno, Dora Romano, Paolo Briguglia, Valentina Bellè, and Edwige Fenech, is an Indiana Production, Indigo Film, and Vision Distribution production. One summer in the late 1980s, after years of hard training and strict rules, 13-year-old Felice, bearing the weight of all his father's expectations, finally gets to compete in the national tennis tournament. To prepare him, his father enlists the help of self-styled former champion Raul Gatti. The film was shot in Formia, Gaeta, Rome, and Grottammare, in the Marche region.

La valle dei sorrisi by Paolo Strippoli, starring Michele Riondino, Romana Maggiora Vergano, Giulio Feltri, and Paolo Pierobon, is an Italian-Slovenian co-production produced by Fandango, Nightswim, and Spok Films, with the support of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Film Commission. Tarvisio and Sappada served as the location for Remis, a small mountain village hidden in an isolated valley where the inhabitants are all unusually happy. It seems like the perfect destination for the new PE teacher, but he makes a macabre discovery: one night a week, the inhabitants gather to embrace Matteo Corbin, a teenager capable of absorbing the pain of others.

Orfeo Orpheus is Virgilio Villoresi's debut film, starring Luca Vergoni, Giulia Maenza, Aomi Muyock, and Vinicio Marchioni, and produced by Fantasmagoria. The film retells the legend of Orpheus and Eurydice with a modern twist.

The international co-production In the Hand of Dante by Julian Schnabel, was also shot largely in Italy, starring Oscar Isaac, Gal Gadot, Gerard Butler, Al Pacino, John Malkovich, Martin Scorsese, Jason Momoa, Louis Cancelmi, Franco Nero, Sabrina Impacciatore, and Benjamin Clementine. Locations included Venice Lido, Palermo, Tarquinia, Verona, Padua, and Bracciano, which disguises itself as Florence, plus the medieval quarter of San Pellegrino in Viterbo.

The first two episodes of Marco Bellocchio's Portobello (still in production) will be shown Out of Competition at the Venice Film Festival, with Fabrizio Gifuni as Enzo Tortora.

The series recounts one of Italy's most sensational miscarriages of justice: the tragic story of the downfall of an innocent man, television presenter Enzo Tortora. It is a production by Our Films, a Mediawan group company, and Kavac Film, in co-production with Arte France and in collaboration with Rai Fiction and The Apartment Pictures, a Fremantle group company. Filming took place in Rome and Cinecittà, Campania, Lombardy, and Sardinia.

All four episodes of Stefano Sollima's Il mostro di Firenze, starring Marco Bullitta, Valentino Mannias, Francesco Olia, Liliana Bottone, Giacomo Fadda, Antonio Tintis, and Giordano Mannus, will be available. The series was filmed primarily in Rome and Florence and is a The Apartment - a Fremantle company - and AlterEgo production.